A Local Turn in Peace and Conflict Studies

Recent peacebuilding scholarship identifies a ‘local turn’ within peace and conflict studies, emphasising local-level initiatives and everyday practices. This concept highlights community-based action and sustainable peacebuilding methods. Everyday peace is a concept used to analyse how conflict is managed or contained in divided societies. It is produced through everyday actions and informal norms like politeness, selective engagement, inclusion, and listening skills. One context in which everyday peace can be studied is the Andes in Peru. In the Andean town of Pomacocha the entire town comes together twice a year where to plant and harvest potatoes. Each family gets a few rows of this large plot, and they are responsible for watching over the plot at certain times of the year. When the harvest period begins, all members of the family work in the fields to dig up the potatoes by hand. Accounts of communal farming in Pomacocha describe instances where families assist others during the harvest. At the end of the harvest, the potatoes are washed collectively and then redistributed to each family based on need.

Ayni as a System of Reciprocal Labour

Some Quechua-speaking Indigenous groups in the Ayacucho Region base community culture on the Incan foundational idea of Ayni. The concept of Ayni can be translated roughly to reciprocity or mutual aid, the Washington, D.C.-based National Museum of the American Indian phrases it as “today for you, tomorrow for me”. Such practices link household livelihoods through shared labour and redistribution mechanisms. Community potato farming represents one context in which everyday peace is expressed through routine practice. Scholars have described Ayni as a framework for understanding how reciprocal labour structures social relations over time.

Peru’s Internal Conflict

From 1980 to 2000, Peru was impacted by a civil war between the government and the guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso. This internal conflict resulted in a total of 69,000 deaths and disappearances. The conflict also left 600,000 internally displaced, separated from their families and communities. Following the armed conflict, Peru established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document the violence, assess its causes, and find a mutual way forward.

Social Fragmentation in the Andean Region

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the southern Andean area of Peru was where most of the deaths and disappearances took place, including in the aforementioned Apurimac region. The Commission documented widespread social fragmentation during the conflict, including the disruption of communal trust and labour practices. In the post-conflict period, some communities, including Pomacocha, have continued or revived reciprocal practices like Ayni. This has included the continuation of traditional celebrations, foods, and agricultural practices. These practices offer insight into how reciprocal norms have persisted within communities affected by prolonged violence.

Reciprocity as a Basis for Trust and Cooperation

Studies associate reciprocal practices such as Ayni with what they describe as a “foundation for building trust and fostering cooperation in daily interactions”. Reciprocity can be seen as an aspect of fairness and justice. Peter Corning characterises reciprocity as one of the three pillars of social justice, along with equality and equity. Corning describes how the “collective survival enterprise has always been based on mutualism and reciprocity”. Communities that support each other naturally represent one pathway through which everyday peace may be sustained. Similarly, professors Maureen Porter and Kathie Monard argue for the relevance of the philosophy of Ayni, stating that “Ayni provides the substance to construct enduring relationships of reciprocity”. Discussions of reciprocity often intersect with broader debates on how communities maintain long-term social cohesion. Professor Dan Kahan suggests that reciprocal obligations may contribute to longer-term social stability by structuring expectations of mutual support.

Economic and Cultural Dimensions of Social Obligation

Cultural interconnectedness is sometimes analysed as intersecting with local economic practices. Relationships that are built upon multi-layered social dimensions enable closer social familiarity and mutual responsibility within communities. When economic and cultural ties overlap, communities may be better positioned to cooperate in response to shared disruptions. Ayni functions as a cultural norm that structures economic exchange and social obligation.

Everyday Peace in Peacebuilding Studies

Roger Mac Ginty describes how existing research in peace studies has focused mostly on top-down initiatives that look to disarm participants in violent conflicts and look at peace through a hard power lens. He argues that greater analytical attention to everyday peace addresses the limits of technocratic approaches. Mac Ginty states, “The focus on everyday peace also counters a fatalism that can attend the recognition of a growing power of technocratic approaches to peace. While peacebuilding has experienced a ‘technocratic turn’, opportunities still remain for hyper-local initiatives, human agency, creativity, alternatives and innovation”.

Local Practices as Analytical Frameworks for Peace

Mac Ginty grounds the concept of everyday peace in documented patterns of social interaction drawn from conflict-affected settings. He explains that local-level practices provide insight into how peacebuilding operates beyond formal, top-down processes. The concept of everyday peace provides an analytical frame for understanding how coexistence is sustained through daily social practices rather than formal political initiatives. Ayni illustrates how reciprocal labour and mutual obligation operate as local mechanisms through which social relations are organised. The study of communal agricultural practices highlights how local actors manage coexistence through repeated interaction.