Caring practices are an area of growing interest in feminist debates on violence and are increasingly recognised as key strategies of everyday peacebuilding. Yet, among different caring strategies, parenting has rarely been analysed as a dimension of reproductive labour that is both shaped by violence while also framing the possibilities of coexisting and coping with armed and criminal actors. Drawing on an ethnographic comparison of parenting in two municipalities (Medell & iacute;n and Taraz & aacute;) under paramilitary and criminal control in Antioquia, Colombia, this article explores the relationship between violence and everyday parenting choices. Although violence similarly affects parenting concerns, contextual differences linked to the nature of violence and available economic opportunities shape distinct risks and coping strategies in each location. This analysis contributes to broadening feminist understandings of care, and particularly parenting, in violent contexts.
Peacebuilding debates have long focused on interventions and what they should achieve, but less on when and how they unfold. This article foregrounds incremental peacebuilding, an approach which treats sequencing and temporality as strategic levers that shape and sustain post-conflict rebuilding. While often implicit in peacebuilding practice, we rethink incrementalism's analytical potential by situating it within an African experience. Drawing on Liberia's post-conflict peacebuilding processes across security, governance, and justice, we show how sequencing, delay, and compromise, often dismissed as signs of lack of political will, may function as strategies for navigating uncertainty, elite resistance, and institutional weakness. We argue that peacebuilding success lies not only in content, but in timing, responsiveness, and strategic attunement to political and societal readiness. The article challenges readings of delay as political unwillingness, suggesting instead that such pauses can sometimes reflect a logic of incrementalism rooted in peace imperatives and calibrated responses to constraints.
This article examines the implementation and evolution of the 2017 peace agreement in Galkaio, a divided town in central Somalia marking the border of clan and state boundaries. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a trans-scalar peacebuilding framework, the study explores how peace has been sustained through adaptive mediation, local political agency, and the revival of customary law (xeer), rather than formal institutions or international oversight. While the agreement has brought a degree of stability and investment, it remains vulnerable to relapse due to a fragmented security landscape, unresolved inter-clan tensions, and weak governance structures. Conceptually, the paper challenges linear models of peace implementation, arguing instead that peace must be understood as a fluid, negotiated process embedded in political 'unsettlement'. By linking political economy analysis with trans-scalar dynamics, the article contributes to debates on local peace processes and offers insights for sustaining peace amid institutional fragility.
