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Youth and Peacebuilding

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

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The practice of building peace is slowly becoming more inclusive. Youth have proven to be integral to this development as their contributions through formal and informal networks have challenged how we understand substantive participation and representation within this space. However, young people’s visibility and inclusion within the peacebuilding discourse has been hard fought and slow to evolve as narrow social constructions of youth continue to determine how they engage with other actors, particularly at the institutional level. Youth often are characterized as potential threats or passive recipients of peacebuilding. However, youth are active peacebuilders who negotiate systems of insecurity and risk to work for peace in their communities and countries and on the international stage. This chapter examines the evolution of youth’s inclusion in peacebuilding discourse and practice. It considers the theories, norms, intersections, and classifications that have informed...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Helen Berents & Caitlin Mollica

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  1. Helen Berents
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  2. Caitlin Mollica
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Correspondence to Helen Berents .

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  1. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Maria-Adriana Deiana

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Berents, H., Mollica, C. (2020). Youth and Peacebuilding. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_95-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_95-1

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