Professor Jenny Pearce - Staff Profile

NameProfessor Jenny Pearce
Contact PositionProfessor of Latin American Politics, Director of International Centre for Participation Studies
Email Addressj.v.pearce@bradford.ac.uk

Research Areas

Main Research Interests

  1. Building 'participation' as a field of study within both Political Science and Peace Studies. To what extent can democratization of diverse spheres of cultural and political life, contribute to more peaceful societies?

  2. Exploring the role of violence as an obstacle to democratization processes using interdisciplinary approaches.  Violence inhibits participation but at the same time can generate social action to desanction violence, challenge violent actors and open up spaces for interaction previously closed by violence.  I also explore how we can rethink ‘security’ as an enabler of participation in contexts of chronic violence

  3. Participatory research methodologies, knowledge exchange between academics and non academics and South-North learning.

  4. All the above are empirically rooted in field work in a range of sites and contexts and comparative South-North research with a particular focus on Latin America:

    • Huehuetenango, Guatemala (looking at a post armed conflict context and supporting local education and documentation centre , CEDFOG.

    • Medellin , Colombia (in the midst of mutating armed conflict). Working with the Univeridad of Antioquia and Universidad of Medellin and the Observatorio de Seguridad Humana

    • El Salvador, where my interest in knowledge exchange focusses on  the Historical Memory Museum of Arcatao, Chalatenango.

    • Bradford, in the UK, with its ongoing history of riots, poverty and social tensions arising from deindustrialisation. The latter has led me to comparative research between Latin America and the north of England, in the fields of participation, violence and security

Other Professional Interests

Jenny Pearce has worked for many years with international NGOs working in Latin America, including Christian Aid, Oxfam, CAFOD, Project Counselling Services, Novib, Hivos, Plan Netherelands and others. In 2000, she began to turn her attention to social change in Bradford and the north of England. In 2000, Jenny was invited to participate in the Ouseley Commission , which was set up by Bradford local authority to explore community relations and tensions in the District. Following the submission of the report in 2001, a week in which riots broke out, Jenny set up the Programme for a Peaceful City, a network of academics and practitioners who meet to discuss issues facing the District. Jenny continues to mentor the Programme Officer for the PPC, and works with organizations in Burnley and Oldham to foster debate around community cohesion. Jenny has also played a role in helping the University to think through its Community Engagement strategy within its locality. Between 2005 -2006 she led a team to develop a measurement took for Community Engagement work, and this was launched in 2007 as the REAP Metrix Tool. (J.Pearce and M.Pearson with Sam Cameron, The Ivory Tower and Beyond: Bradford's REAP approach to measuring Community Engagement).


Jenny is on the editorial board of Development in Practice, Security and Development and the Community Development Journal.

Bibliography

  • “Security from Below”: Humanizing Security in Contexts of Chronic Violence in Transforming Security and Development in an Unequal World, IDS Bulletin Volume 40, No 2. Wiley-Blackwell, pp, 11-19. 2009 with Abello Colak.

 

  • Perverse State Formation and Securitised Democracy in Latin America Democratisation Vol 17, No. 2 April  2010 286-306

  • Learning from Latin America: Organising for Social Transformation (special issue of Community Development Journal, edited with R. Mcgee and A.

  • ICPS Working Paper to be published in September: A. Abello and J.Pearce, "Building Security in Contexts of Complex Urban Violence: Lessons from Medellin/Bradford Community Police Exchange." ICPS Working Paper. 2007. (Forthcoming)

  • "Oil and Armed Conflict in Casanare, Colombia: Complex Contexts and Contingent Moments," in Mary Kaldor, Terry Lynne Karl, Yahia Said (eds) Oil Wars, London: Pluto Press, 2007

  • "Policy Failure and Petroleum Predation: The economics of civil war debate viewed from the `warzone'." Government and Opposition, Vol 40, no. 2 pp 152-180, 2007.

  • "`Bringing Violence back home': Gender Socialisation and the Transmission of Violence through Time and Space" LSE's Global Civil Society Yearbook, with a chapter entitled (London:Sage), 2007.

  • "Violence, Power and Participation: Building Citizenship in the Contexts of Chronic Violence" (PDF)IDS Working Paper 274, Brighton: IDS, March 2007.

  • Citizenship in the Contexts of Chronic Violence Pearce,J.& Pearson, M. with Sam Cameron, The Ivory Tower and Beyond: The University of Bradford at the Heart of Its Communities Bradford's REAP approach to measuring Community Engagement, ICPS-University of Bradford, February 2007.

  • "Inequality." In: Politics in the Developing World. Second Edition. Edited by Burnell, Peter and Randall, Vicky. Oxford University Press. 2007

  • Blakey, H., Pearce, J. & Chesters, G. Minorities within Minorities: Beneath the Surface of South Asian Participation (PDF), York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2006.

  • Final Report. Case Study of IDRC-Supported Research on Security Sector Reform in Guatemala. On behalf of the Peace, Conflict and Development Program. Dept of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Bradford: February 2006

  • Mas Allá de la Malla Perimetral, El Petróleo y el Conflicto Armado en Casanare, Colombia, Bogota, CINEP, 2005

  • Blakey, H. & Pearce, J. "Background of Distances" Participation and Community Cohesion in the North: Making the Connections (PDF) ICPS Working Paper 1, Bradford: ICPS, 2005.

  • Pearce, J. ''Hacia una política post-representativa?: la participación en el siglo XXI' (PDF) Bilbao: Hegoa, 2005.

  • Paper on "Civil Society Building and Conflict in Latin America" to the Institute of Social Studies Conference in the Hague, May 2005.

  • 'Collective Action or Public Participation?: Complimentary or Contradictory Democratisation Strategies in Latin America' (PDF) in: M.Glasius, D. Lewis and Hakan Sekinelgin, Exploring Civil Society: Political and Cultural Contexts, Routledge, pp 61- 70, 2004.

  • "Collective Action and Public Participation: Complementary or Contradictory Democratisation strategies in Latin America," Bulletin of Latin American Research. Vol. 23, No.4, 2004, p 483-504.

  • Pearce, Jenny & Howell,Jude. "Civil Society: A critical interrogation", in B.Pratt, (ed), Changing Expectations? The Concept and Practice of Civil Society in International Development, Oxford, INTRAC, 2004, pp 11-30.

  • "Foreword to Grace Livingstone", in Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy and War, London: Latin America Bureau, 2004, pp 7-24.

  • Paper at the Jesuit research centre, CINEP, in Bogotá, on "Goals, Dilemmas and Challenges of the Peace Movement in Colombia," 2004.

  • "Civil Society, the Market and Democracy in Latin America", in: P.Burnell and P.Calvert (eds), Civil Society in Democratization, Frank Cass, London, 2004, pp. 90-116.

  • Article reprinted: "Civil Society, the Market and Democracy in Latin America," P. Burnell and P. Calvert (eds), Civil Society in Democratisation, Frank Cass, 2004, pp 90-116.

  • Article reprinted:"Sustainable Peace building in the South: experiences from Latin America", in H.Afshar and D.Eade (eds), Development, Women and War, 2004, pp238-266.

  • Paper on "Reconstructing Huehuetenango: Peacebuilding on the Periphery," to a Conference on Post War Conflict and Violence: Latin America in Comparative Perspective, University of Liverpool, Institute of Latin American Studies, 9-10 September, 2004.

  • "Beyond the Perimeter Fence: Oil and Armed Conflict in Casanare," Colombia, Discussion Paper 32, The Centre for global Governance, LSE, November 2004.

  • Research paper, "The Resources and Armed Conflict Debate: The Case of Oil in Casanare, Colombia" to a conference on Resource Politics and Security in a Global Age organized by the University of Sheffield Political Economy Research Centre, 2003.

  • Paper to the Institute of Development Studies. Development Seminar on "The Resources and Conflict Debate: A Case Study Approach", December 2002.

  • Civil Society and Development. Pearce, Jenny & Howell, Jude. "Civil Society: Technical Instrument or Social Force for Change?" in: D. Lewis and T. Wallace (eds), New Roles and Relevance: Development NGOs and the Challenge of Change, Bloomfield, Connecticut, Kumarzas Press, 2001.

  • Pearce, Jenny & Howell, Jude. published a co-authored book and several papers on 'Civil Society and Development: a Critical Exploration', Bo. Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 2001, which included case studies from Guatemala and Latin America.

  • Paper on "Complex Violences in Latin America: The Case of Colombia," to the Institute of Latin American Studies, London, February, and to Centre of Latin American Studies, Liverpool, March, 2001.

  • Paper on "Investigando la Violencia en America Latina: Retos Teoricos y Conceptuales" to an Interdisciplinary Conference on Violence, organised by the Universidad de Antioqua, Medellin, Colombia, in November, 2001.