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MICROCON Director Patricia Justino's research has been referenced in The Economist
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The MICROCON programme held a two-day conference between 30 June - 1 July 2011. Participants shared the latest in research, policy and practice concerned with the micro-level analysis of conflict.
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MICROCON researchers blog on current affairs and research related to violent conflict.
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MICROCON researchers made a number of contributions to the preparation of WDR2011, on Conflict, Security and Development.
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MICROCON
MICROCON, or ‘A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict’ is a five-year research programme funded by the European Commission, which takes an innovative micro level, multidisciplinary approach to the study of the conflict cycle.
Almost one third of the world's population lives in conflict-affected low-income countries. At a fundamental level, conflict originates from people’s behaviour and how they interact with society and their environment - from its ‘micro' foundations. Yet most conflict research and policy focuses on ‘macro' perspectives. MICROCON seeks to redress this balance.
Aim
The programme aims to promote understanding of individual and group interactions leading to and resulting from violent mass conflicts, with the purpose of uncovering much-needed fundamentals for better informed domestic, regional and international conflict policy, which places individuals and groups at the centre of their interventions.
It takes an innovative micro level, multidisciplinary approach to conflict, and aims to go beyond merely reactive theorisations of conflict to look at the complete dynamics (across intensities, actors, triggers and effects) of violent mass conflicts.
Outputs
The main outputs of MICROCON will come from 28 different research projects working in over 40 countries, covering eight main themes:
- Group Formation, Identities and Mobilisation;
- Contemporary Conflicts and Ethnic-Religious Tensions;
- Gender Aspects of Violent Conflicts;
- Migration, Displacement and Refugees;
- Risk, Security and Coping Mechanisms;
- Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion;
- Violent Conflict and Health Outcomes;
- Governance and Institutions.
These research themes will be complemented by two policy research projects entitled ‘Conflict in the European Neighbourhood’ and ‘Evaluating Conflict Interventions’. The project will be implemented by a team of 60 researchers in 22 partner institutions in 16 different countries.
MICROCON Fieldworkers in Maharashtra, India. © Jaideep Gupte.
Highlights
Policy Briefing 16: Water and Conflict Prevention
•How are access to and the
distribution of water governed in
a conflict-prone setting?
•How does power enter the
process of negotiating
solutions to conflict over water?
RWP62: What’s civil about intergroup violence? Five inadequacies of communal and ethnic constructs of urban riots
This paper argues that understanding intergroup violence purely within an inter-community or inter-ethnic framework is inadequate, and does not fully capture the processes of perpetration, impacts or mitigation of such violence.
RWP61: The Utility of Mixed Methods in the Study of Violence
This paper examines how qualitative and quantitative research methods may best be integrated in the study of violence
RWP60: Violent Conflicts and Risky Sexual Behavior in Uganda
This paper investigates the relationship between violent conflicts and risky sexual behavior in Uganda.
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Funded by EC under FP6
