Abstract

This study explores the implications for international development policy and practice - specifically within the sectors of building security and justice after conflict - of the departure of those assuming caring roles, predominantly women who become mothers. More broadly, this paper explores how personal life stories impact the choices we make in our professional lives, including where, when and how we engage, in this instance, in international development, and the subsequent implications for the field. These choices (the personal) have an impact on policy and practice (the professional), and inform how knowledge is created, circulated, legitimised and becomes expert knowledge (the political). This paper thus explores the implications of an epistemic community being predominantly male (in part as a consequence of the lack of support for social reproductive work) on how security and justice in post-conflict environments are conceived and, ultimately, rebuilt. The authors reflect upon their engagement in conflict-affected environments – as scholars and former practitioners – and draw from life stories of international development practitioners to investigate the personal-professional-political nexus and the impact of narrow epistemic communities on how ‘security work’ is done, whose security matters, whose voices count.

Presenters

Eleanor Gordon
Senior Lecturer, Politics and International Relations, Monash University, Australia

Briony Jones

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Organizational Diversity

KEYWORDS

Organisational Diversity, International Organisations, Peacebuilding, Care Responsibilities, Gender

Digital Media

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