S1 EP2: Civilian Agency in Violent Settings

Beyond Compliance: In Conversation

More than half the world’s population are living in settings where they are regularly exposed to violence, whether from armed actors, gangs, community defence forces or criminal groups. What do civilian communities do to protect themselves and others in these settings? And what can we learn from them about civilian protection? To look at these questions, Katharine and Florian are joined by Juan Masullo and Emily Paddon Rhoads, who are two of the editors of the new book ‘Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings: A Comparative Perspective’ (Oxford University Press).

Shedding light on the dynamics in different countries, Emily and Juan also discuss the conceptual foundations of their work, reflect on the methodological and ethical challenges of doing research in this field and share some of their novel theoretical insights.
Cited documents:

Krause, Jana, Masullo, Juan, Paddon Rhoads & Welsh, Jennifer, Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings: A Comparative Perspective, Oxford University Press, 2023

Guest Bios:

Emily Paddon Rhoads is Associate Professor of Political Science at Swathmore College. She is the author of Taking Sides in Peacekeeping: Impartiality and the Future of the United Nations (Oxford University Press, 2016) as well as several articles on civilian protection, peacekeeping and the United Nations.

Juan Masullo is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University. He is also co-editor of Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, the biannual publication of APSA’s Qualitative and Mult-Method Research Section and member of the Editorial Board of the International Studies Review.

The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The first series of this podcast series is also funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.
Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.