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Change, Violence and Insecurity in non-conflict Situations

Author: C Moser and D Rodgers
Date: 2005
Size: 52 pages (433 KB)

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Summary

Violence is a core security and development priority. This working paper from the Overseas Development Institute explores the relationship between change and violence in non-conflict situations. It is broadly comparative, using examples from Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union. It argues that change in the current context of globalisation is increasingly a violent phenomenon.

Rural-urban change is an underlying cause, trigger or consequence of increasing violence and insecurity. Change is examined across rural and urban areas because rural-urban links and interactions are central to the processes of change. Violence is defined as the use of force for specific gains. Insecurity refers to threats to well-being and sustainable livelihoods necessary for survival.

There are four critical dimensions of change that crucially affect people's well-being, security and livelihoods across rural and urban areas. They are livelihoods, labour markets and natural resources; social structures and relations; political institutions; and spatial organisation. The main findings are:

Globalisation is a fundamental underlying structural cause of violence Violence is closely associated with unequal access to natural resources, particularly land.
Migration impacts on household structure and levels of violence.
Rapid urbanisation, associated with overcrowding, inadequate housing and basic infrastructure provision, exacerbates violence.
Global change has weakened the state's ability to exercise coherent control over territories and people.
Global change has brought about transformations of state governance.
The emergence of new spatial forms which blur the rural and the urban or intensify rural-urban cleavages generate new forms of violence.
The development of new forms of socio-spatial governance, particularly in urban areas, creates new urban problems.

Priority policy implications for donors include:

Globalisation's opportunities are not always positive. Policies should increase the access of poor countries to the global economy and take into account the costs of doing so.
A security perspective should be introduced into livelihood strategies. The closer monitoring of inequalities of access to resources will assist the design of strategies to prevent conflict. Donors need to strengthen their capacity to deal with counterpart institutions concerned with agriculture, natural resources and environmental issues.
Social protection policy needs to include risk factors associated with migration and develop appropriate risk reduction, mitigation and coping strategies. There needs to be a shift from the political and economic concerns of migration to social protection concerns.
Urban policy needs to incorporate violence reduction. This needs to address violence prevention as well as punishing offenders.
Globalisation and neo-liberalism pose significant challenges to governance. Building and strengthening the capacity of institutions is an important aspect of development as state building.
The institutional capacity of states and the nature of the institutional arrangement of individual states impacts on security oriented policies.
Changing patterns of spatial reorganisation lead to different patterns of violence. This is critical for approaches attempting to understand the distinction and relationship between urban and rural spheres.
The conjunction of social and spatial dimensions of violence can provide the means for more holistic violence reduction initiatives.

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Source: Moser, C. and Rodgers, D., 2005, ‘Change, Violence and Insecurity in Non-conflict Situations’ Working Paper no. 245, Overseas Development Institute, London
Author: Dennis Rodgers , d.w.rodgers@lse.ac.uk