How is it possible to create more just forms of peace in our world? This article responds to calls for a feminist theory/peace studies collaboration by integrating work on feminist care ethics and conflict transformation. We propose that justpeace is possible by strengthening ways of knowing which sustainably weave together understandings of “self” and “other” to support relationships of care over dehumanization and violence. Building on Sara Ruddick’s work, we argue that her “maternal thinking” can be understood as a feminist “weaving” epistemology or flexible way of knowing that promotes meaningful inclusion, symmetrical power relations, and positive peace through three major practices: (1) living with dissonance, (2) creatively overcoming disconnects between the interests of the self and the other, and (3) bridging practical goals for surviving the present with more idealistic goals for best practices in the future. As such, it provides an alternative to “othering” practices at individual, national, and international levels which reinforce asymmetrical power relations, strengthen unjust social, economic and political structures, and support violent conflict. In conclusion, we illustrate how this weaving epistemology supports human rights practices promoting people over profit, equality over discrimination and violence, and restorative rather than retributive forms of conflict transformation.
AckerlyBA (2000) Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2.
AckerlyBA (2008) Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference. New York: Cambridge University Press.
3.
AddamsJ ([1902] 2002) Democracy and Social Ethics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
4.
AddamsJ ([1910] 1990) Twenty Years at Hull House. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
5.
AlcoffLPotterE (eds) (1992) Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge.
6.
AlcoffLM (2003) Rethinking maternal thinking. APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy3(1): 85–89.
7.
AndersonB (2006) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.
8.
An-Na’imAA (ed.) (1995) Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Quest for Consensus. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
9.
AsadT (2007) On Suicide Bombing. New York: Columbia University Press.
10.
AshmoreRDJussimLWilderD (eds) (2001) Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict, and Conflict Reduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
11.
BaileyA (1994) Mothering, diversity and peace politics. Hypatia9(2): 188–198.
12.
BalakrishnanRElsonD (eds) (2011) Economic Policy and Human Rights: Holding Governments to Account. London: Zed Books.
13.
BalakrishnanRElsonDPatelR (2010) Rethinking macro economic strategies from a human rights perspective. Development53(1): 27–36.
14.
BouldingE (1990) Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
15.
BouldingKE (1959) National images and international systems. Journal of Conflict Resolution3(2): 120–131.
16.
BushRABFolgerJP (2004) The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
17.
CabreraNJTamis-LeMondaCS (2000) Fatherhood in the twenty-first century. Child Development71(1): 127–136.
18.
CarterA (1998) Should women be soldiers or pacifists? In: LorentzenLTurpinJ (eds) The Women and War Reader. New York: New York University Press, pp. 33–40.
19.
CohnC (1987) Sex and death in the rational world of defense intellectuals. Signs12(4): 687–718.
20.
CohnCRuddickS (2004) A feminist ethical perspective on weapons of mass destruction. In: HashmiSH (ed.) Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Religious and Secular Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 405–435.
21.
CollinsPH (1993) Shifting the center: Race, class and feminist theorizing about motherhood. In: GlennENChangGForceyLR (eds) Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency. New York: Routledge, pp. 45–66.
22.
CollinsPH (2008) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.
23.
ConfortiniCC (2006) Galtung, violence, and gender: The case for a peace studies/feminism alliance. Peace & Change31(3): 333–367.
24.
ConfortiniCC (2011a) Doing feminist peace. International Feminist Journal of Politics13(3): 349–370.
25.
ConfortiniCC (2011b) Reclaiming agency for social change: Feminism, international relations and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1945–1975. In: TicknerJASjobergL (eds) Feminism and International Relations: Conversations about the Past, Present and Future. New York: Routledge, pp. 22–39.
26.
ConfortiniCC (2014 forthcoming) A feminist humanism? Outlining a future for gender-responsive strategic peacebuilding. In: ApplebyRS (ed) Global governance and the future of strategic peacebuilding, New York: Oxford University Press.
27.
ConfortiniCC (2012) Intelligent Compassion: Feminist Critical Methodology in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.
28.
De BeauvoirS (1989) The Second Sex. New York: Vintage.
29.
De Sousa SantosB (2002) Toward a multicultural conception of human rights. In: Hernández-TruyolBE (ed.) Moral Imperialism: A Critical Anthology. New York: New York University Press, pp. 39–60.
30.
DotyRL (1996) Imperial Encounters: The Politics of Representation in North-South Relations. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
31.
ElshtainJB (1995) Women and War. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
32.
EnloeC (1996) Margins, silences and bottom rungs: How to overcome the underestimation of power in the study of international relations. In: SmithSBoothKZalewskiM (eds) International Theory: Positivism and Beyond. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 186–202.
33.
EnloeC (2004) The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA: University of California Press.
34.
EschleC (2001) Global Democracy, Social Movements, and Feminism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
35.
FanonF (1967) Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Wiedenfeld.
36.
FanonF ([1961] 2005) The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.
37.
FisherRUryWLPattonB (2011) Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In. New York: Penguin.
38.
FolgerJPBushRAB (1996) Transformative mediation and third-party intervention: Ten hallmarks of a transformative approach to practice. Conflict Resolution Quarterly13(4): 263–278.
39.
FreireP (1993) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum Publishing Company.
40.
GaltungJ (1969) Violence, peace and peace research. Journal of Peace Research6(3): 167–191.
41.
GaltungJ (2002) Conflict, war and peace: A bird’s eye view. In: JacobsenCGBrand-JacobsenKFGaltungJ (eds) Searching for Peace: The Road to TRANSCEND. New York: Pluto 3–15.
42.
GraybillLS (2002) Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Miracle or Model?New York: Lynne Rienner.
43.
HirschmannNJ (1989) Freedom, Recognition, and Obligations: A Feminist Approach to Political Theory. The American Political Science Review83(4): 1227–1244.
44.
HirschmannNJ (2002) The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
45.
HutchingsK (2000) Towards a feminist international ethics. Review of International Studies26(5): 111–130.
46.
HutchingsK (2004) From Morality to Politics and Back again: Feminist International Ethics and the Civil-Society ArgumentAlternatives: Global, Local, Political29(3): 239–264.
47.
KaplanLD (1994) Woman as caretaker: An archetype that supports patriarchal militarism. Hypatia9(2): 123–133.
48.
KirbyJ (1997) Would principled negotiation have saved Eve: A feminist analysis of getting to YES. Otago Law Review9: 122–143.
49.
LakoffGJohnsonM (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.
50.
LandryEMDonnellonA (2007) Teaching negotiation with a feminist perspective. Negotiation Journal15(1): 21–29.
51.
LeathermanJL (2011) Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
52.
LederachJP (1999) Justpeace: The challenge of the 21st century. In: People Building Peace. Utrecht: European Centre for Conflict Prevention.
53.
LederachJP (2005) The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. New York: Oxford University Press.
54.
LederachJPApplebyRS (2010) Strategic peacebuilding: An overview. In: PhilpottDPowersG (eds) Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 19–44.
55.
LeebawB (2011) Judging State-Sponsored Violence: Imagining Political Change. New York: Cambridge University Press.
56.
LeitchL (1987) The politics of compromise: A feminist perspective on mediation. Mediation Quarterly (14–15): 163–176.
57.
LingLHM (2002) “The Fish and the Turtle: Multiple Worlds as Method. In BrecherMHarveyFP (eds) Millennial Reflections on International Studies. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 283–288.
58.
LugonesM (1987) Playfulness, “world”-travelling, and loving perception. Hypatia2(2): 3–19.
LynchC (2013a) Interpreting International Politics. New York: Routledge.
61.
LynchC (2013 forthcoming) Religious communities and possibilities for justpeace. In: ApplebyRSOmerA (eds) Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. New York: Oxford University Press.
62.
MaepaT (2005) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a model of restorative justice. In: MaepaT (ed.) Beyond Retribution: Prospects for Restorative Justice in South Africa (Monograph No. 111: 66–75. A Joint Publication with the Restorative Justice Centre). Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies.
63.
MuppidiH (2009) Frantz Fanon. In: EdkinsJVaughan-WilliamsN (eds) Critical Theorists and International Relations. New York: Routledge, pp. 150–160.
64.
MutuaM (2001) Savages, victims, and saviors: The metaphor of human rights. Harvard International Law Journal42(1): 201–245.
65.
NelsonHL (2003) Holding someone in personhood. APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy3(1): 92–94.
66.
NelsonLH (1992) Epistemological communities. In: AlcoffLPotterE (eds) Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge, pp. 121–160.
67.
NeumannD (1992) How mediation can effectively address the male-female power imbalance in divorce. Mediation Quarterly9(3): 227–240.
68.
NussbaumM (2011) Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
69.
PetersonVSRunyanAS (1999) Global Gender Issues. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
70.
PhilpottD (2010) Reconciliation: An ethic for peacebuilding. In: PhilpottDPowersG (eds) Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 91–118.
71.
PhilpottDPowersG (eds) (2010) Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World. New York: Oxford University Press.
72.
PtacekJ (ed.) (2010) Restorative Justice and Violence against Women. New York: Oxford University Press.
73.
RapoportA (1992) Peace: An Idea Whose Time Has Come. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
74.
ReardonB (1985) Sexism and the War System. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
75.
RobinsonF (2006) Methods of feminist normative theory: A political ethic of care for international relations. In: AckerlyBASternMTrueJ (eds) Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 221–240.
76.
RuaneAE (2010) Pursuing inclusive interests, both deep and wide: Women’s human rights and the United Nations. PhD Dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
77.
RuaneAE (2011) Pursuing inclusive interests, both deep and wide. women’s human rights and the United Nations. In: TicknerJASjobergL (eds) Feminism and International Relations: Conversations about the Past, Present and Future. New York: Routledge, pp. 48–67.
78.
RuddickS (1990) The rationality of care. In: ElshtainJBTobiasS (eds) Women, Militarism, and War: Essays in History, Politics, and Social Theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 229–254.
79.
RuddickS (1993) New feminist work on knowledge, reason and objectivity. Hypatia8(4): 140–149.
80.
RuddickS (1995) Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
81.
RuddickS (1998) Reason’s “femininity”: A case for connected knowing. In: BelenkyMFGoldbergerNRTaruleJM. (eds) Knowledge, Difference, and Power: Essays Inspired by Women’s Ways of Knowing. New York: Basic Books, pp. 248–273.
82.
RuddickS (2003) Response from Sara Ruddick. APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy3(1): 97–102.
83.
RuddickS (2001) Making connections between parenting and peace. Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering3(2): 7–20.
84.
SaidEW (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
85.
SharoniS (2010) Feminist perspectives on conflict resolution. In: DenemarkR (ed.) The International Studies Encyclopedia. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
86.
SimmonsBA (2009) Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
87.
SinhaM (1995) Colonial Masculinity: The “Manly Englishman” and the “Effeminate Bengali” in the Late Nineteenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
88.
SjobergLGentryCE (2008) Reduced to Bad Sex: Narratives of Violent Women from the Bible to the War on TerrorInternational Relations22(1): 5–23.
89.
SmithJ (2010) Economic globalization and strategic peacebuilding. In: PhilpottDPowersD (eds) Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 247–270.
90.
StichS (1993) Naturalizing epistemology: Quine, Simon and the prospects for pragmatism. Philosophy and Cognitive Science34: 1–17.
91.
SylvesterC (1994) Empathetic cooperation: A feminist method for IR. Millennium: Journal of International Studies23(2): 315–334.
92.
TicknerJA (1992) Gender in International Relations. New York: Columbia University Press.
93.
TicknerJA (2001) Gendering World Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.
94.
TodorovT (1984) The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. New York: Harper & Row.
95.
TrueJ (2010) The political economy of violence against women: A feminist international relations perspective. Australian Feminist Law Journal32: 39–59.
96.
TrueJ (2012) The Political Economy of Violence against Women. New York: Oxford University Press.
97.
TrujilloMABowlandSYMyersLJ. (eds) (2008) Re-Centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
98.
UryW (1993) Getting Past No. New York: Bantam.
99.
Van WormerK (2004) Confronting Oppression, Restoring Justice: From Policy Analysis to Social Action. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education.
100.
WibbenATR (2011) Feminist Security Studies: A Narrative Approach. New York: Routledge.
101.
YoungIM (2003) The logic of masculinist protection: Reflections on the current security state. Signs29(1): 1–25.
ZehrHJ (1990) Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press.
104.
ZehrHJ (2008) Doing justice, healing trauma: The role of restorative justice in peacebuilding. Peace Prints: South Asian Journal of Peacebuilding1(1): 1–16.
