On ‘travelling traditions’: Emplaced security in Liberia and Vanuatu

Date01 December 2020
DOI10.1177/0010836720954480
AuthorVolker Boege,Charles T Hunt
Published date01 December 2020
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836720954480
Cooperation and Conflict
2020, Vol. 55(4) 497 –517
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0010836720954480
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On ‘travelling traditions’:
Emplaced security in Liberia
and Vanuatu
Volker Boege and Charles T Hunt
Abstract
Important sources of everyday security – variously labelled as customary, informal, traditional or
autochthonous – are commonly associated with rural spaces and attributed to the lack of presence
or traction of state institutions. However, these practices are not limited to peripheries; they
can travel. Their structures, authority and legitimacy can be re-produced in new settings, often
in response to the perturbations caused by conflict, while also changing in the course of travel.
Consequently, in urban spaces – the supposed ‘centre’ of the modern state – people’s sense
of security can be profoundly influenced and shaped by the ordering logics of such ‘travelling
traditions’. This has ramifications for ‘emplaced security’ – both short-term responses to acute
vulnerability of displaced communities and emergent longer-term forms of order. This article
explores the utility of the ‘spatial turn’ in peacebuilding theory for better understanding this
phenomenon. It uses the cases of Vanuatu and Liberia to demonstrate how more nuanced
understandings of the (re)construction of authority between and across places and scales may
help comprehend how people generate everyday emplaced security. A spatial approach provides
analytical leverage that can help to highlight how a phenomenon such as travelling traditions
contributes to the formation and substance of emplaced security.
Keywords
Emplaced security, Liberia, mobility, peacebuilding, space, traditional authorities, Vanuatu
Introduction
Urbanisation is affecting every part of the world. According to the United Nations, while
30 percent of the world’s population was urban in 1950, by 2050, 68 percent of the
world’s population is projected to be urban (United Nations Department of Economic
and Social Affairs (UN DESA), 2018a). While this manifests differently in different
regions, the overall trend is one of people relocating to the cities and towns, and the
fastest-growing urban agglomerations are located in Asia and Africa (e.g. UN DESA,
Corresponding author:
Charles T Hunt, RMIT University, 411 Swanston Street, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
Email: charles.hunt@rmit.edu.au
954480CAC0010.1177/0010836720954480Cooperation and ConflictBoege and Hunt
research-article2020
Article
498 Cooperation and Conflict 55(4)
2018b). Whether fleeing violent conflict, escaping insecurity or seeking economic
opportunities, cities and towns have become a preferred destination for mobile popula-
tions. These urban settings have many ‘pull factors’, with basic goods and services and
various sorts of assistance being more accessible, the possibility of anonymity, and
expanded opportunities for employment. However, notwithstanding the appeal of urban
environments, with mobility and dislocation comes separation and, often, great physical
distance from the places that were hitherto part of people’s everyday support networks
and safety nets.
In the hybrid socio-political orders ubiquitous in the majority world, people’s safety
nets are made up of a range of actors beyond formal machinery of government and the
state.1 The array of entities involved – including those variously labelled as customary,
cultural, autochthonous, informal, indigenous, non-state and so forth – are commonly
associated with rural spaces. In this article we use the term ‘traditional’ to refer to this
diverse set of actors.2 Their existence is attributed to a vacuum or absence – they are sup-
posed to occupy the spaces where the state’s institutions do not reach (physically).
However, as will be shown with reference to the case of Liberia in West Africa and
Vanuatu in the South Pacific, these ‘traditional actors’ – and the authority and legitimacy
they enjoy – can also ‘travel’ or be re-produced in new settings, including the urban cen-
tres, partly as a result of the perturbations associated with displacement and relocation.
As a result, governance and security in urban spaces – the supposed ‘centre’ and heart-
land of the modern state – can be profoundly shaped and influenced by traditional enti-
ties and processes. This manifests as a short-term response to mitigate ontological
uncertainty and vulnerability but also has important ramifications for emergent forms of
protection and order in the longer term. It therefore has implications for how everyday
security3 is constructed and maintained as emplaced security, and how peace formation4
is likely to occur and what forms of peace and order it will generate.
This article explores the utility of the ‘spatial turn’ in peacebuilding theory for better
understanding the ‘travelling traditions’ phenomenon. It draws on extensive fieldwork in
Liberia in West Africa and Vanuatu in the South Pacific to illustrate how more nuanced
understandings of the mobility/(re)construction of authority between and across spaces
may help to understand everyday security in conflict-affected states. It argues that a spa-
tial approach provides analytical leverage that can help to highlight the dynamics and
significance of a phenomenon such as travelling traditions to the formation and sub-
stance of peace and everyday security in conflict-prone societies. The article explores
how security, as fundamentally emplaced, can be maintained under conditions of dis-
placement. The article proceeds in four main parts. In the first part, we examine the
‘spatial turn’ in peace and conflict studies, while the second part unpacks/describes the
phenomenon of ‘travelling traditions’. The third part reflects on the utility of spatial
approaches for explaining the nexus between travelling traditions and everyday security.
The final part turns to two cases, using examples from diverse contexts in Liberia and
Vanuatu to illustrate the importance of travelling traditions to the security of forcibly
displaced and migratory populations. We argue that the significance of phenomena such
as travelling traditions in the formation of peace demands the conceptual and analytical
insights made possible by spatial approaches.

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