Harmless moments in peace-keeping: the politics of telling stories that do not fit into critical security studies narratives. Issue 2 (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Penttinen, Elina
• Is Part Of: Critical studies on security. Volume 5:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 131
• Page End: 144
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: Concepts -- methodology -- feminism -- security studies -- gender -- peace-keeping; Security, International -- Periodicals; International relations -- Periodicals; 355
• DOI: 10.1080/21624887.2017.1312148
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2162-4909

Abstract

ABSTRACT: I offer a fractured narrative of a funny, certainly harmless, but most importantly, non-dramatic moment of interaction with KFOR, EULEX and Serb monks and myself in the midst of doing fieldwork in Kosovo. The open-ended narrative operates as a practice of representing the complexity of how the many stories of the self are enacted, come alive and are transformed in research encounters in line with postmodern qualitative inquiry. The paper proposes openhearted curiosity and moment-to-moment awareness as an antidote to the habitual use of concepts, which can lead to reiterating the line of demarcation between the relevant and irrelevant, the dramatic and non-dramatic, and which recognises this as an active use of power. I ask what is at stake when we exclude non-dramatic and funny moments from the wider empirical material in the hopes of doing serious feminist and critical security studies research and discuss how the habitual use of concepts may contribute to this. The paper argues for broadening the scope of critical security studies to include social interactions in the midst of peace-keeping operations that do not fit easily into the stories we tell about peace-keeping.