A Micro-Level Perspective on the Dynamics of Conflict, Violence, and Development
ISBN: 9780191749254
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Yale University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Economics and Finance;

This volume presents an innovative new analytical framework for understanding the dynamics of violent conflict and its impact on people and communities living in contexts of violence. Bringing together the findings of MICROCON, an influential five year research programme funded by the European Commission, this book provides readers with the most current and comprehensive evidence available on violent conflict from a micro-level perspective. MICROCON was the largest programme on conflict analysis in Europe from 2007-2011, and its policy outreach has helped to influence EU development policy, and supported policy capacity in many conflict-affected countries.

Whilst traditional studies into conflict have been through an international /regional lens with the state as the primary unit of analysis, the micro-level perspective offered by this volume places the individuals, households, groups and communities affected by conflict at the centre of analysis. Studying how people behave in groups and communities; and how they interact with the formal and informal institutions that manage local tensions, is crucial to understanding the conflict cycle. These micro-foundations therefore provide a more in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of violent conflict. By challenging the ways we think about conflict, this book bridges the gap in evidence, allowing for more specific and accurate policy interventions for conflict resolution and development processes to help reduce poverty in the lives of those affected by conflict.

This volume is divided into four parts. Part I introduces the conceptual framework of MICROCON. Part II focuses on individual and group motivations in conflict processes. Part III highlights the micro-level consequences of violent conflict. The final section of this volume focuses on policy implications and future research agenda.



Patricia Justino, Senior Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton,Tilman Bruck, Director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Stockholm,Philip Verwimp, Associate Professor of Development Economics and holder of Marie and Alain Philippson Chair in Sustainable Human Development, Centre Emile Bernheim at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and ECARES

Patricia Justino is a development economist specialising in applied microeconomics. Her research work focuses on the impact of violence and conflict on household welfare and local institutional structures, the micro-foundations of violent conflict, and the implications of violence for economic development. Dr Justino has led several research projects funded by the British Academy, DFID, the European Commission, the ESRC, FAO, the Leverhulme Trust, UNDP, UNESCO, UN Women, and the World Bank. She is the Director of MICROCON and co-founder and co-director of the Households in Conflict Network. Since June 2010, she has convened the Conflict, Violence and Development cluster, part of the Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction Team, at the Institute of Development Studies.


Tilman Bruck is the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and a Professor at Humboldt-University of Berlin. Previously he was Head of the Department of Development and Security at the German Institute for Economic Research. He studied economics at Glasgow University and Oxford University and obtained his doctorate in economics from Oxford University. His research interests focus on the economics of household behaviour and well-being in conflict and post-conflict economies and the economics of terrorism and insecurity. Professor Bruck is a co-founder and co-director of the Households in Conflict Network, the coordinator of the Economics of Security Initiative, and the coordinator or deputy coordinator of several European research projects in the 6th and 7th framework programmes. He has also worked as a consultant for BMZ, DFID, the European Commission, GIZ, ILO, KfW, OECD, UNDP, USAID, and the World Bank.


Philip Verwimp obtained his PhD in Economics from the Catholic University of Leuven in January 2003 with a dissertation on the political economy of development and genocide in Rwanda. He specialises in the economic causes and consequences of conflict at the micro-level. He has done quantitative work on the death toll of the genocide and on the demography of post-genocide Rwanda. He works on poverty and health in conflict-affected countries. Dr Verwimp was a Fulbright-Hays Fellow at Yale University and worked for the World Bank as a Poverty Economist. He received the Jacques Rozenberg Award from the Auschwitz Foundation for his dissertation. He taught Development Economics at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and at the Universities of Antwerp, Leuven, and Utrecht. He was a research fellow from the Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders, Belgium) and visiting fellow at ECARES (2007-2009).
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