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The ‘Field’ in the Age of Intervention: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority Versus the ‘Local’

Richmond, Oliver; Kappler, Stefanie; Björkdahl, Annika

The ‘Field’ in the Age of Intervention: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority Versus the ‘Local’ Thumbnail


Authors

Oliver Richmond

Annika Björkdahl



Abstract

This article highlights the semantic and socio-political meaning of the ‘field’ as it is used in both academic research and policy practices: as a geographic and material space related to forms of intervention in International Relations (IR), and not as a disciplinary space. We argue that the notion of the ‘field’ carries colonial baggage in terms of denoting ‘backwardness’ and conflictual practices, as well as legitimising the need for intervention by peacebuilding, statebuilding, and development actors located outside the field. We also show how academic practices have tended to create a semiotic frame in which the inhabitants of the research and intervention space are kept at a distance from the researcher, and discursively stripped of their agency. Along similar lines, policy-practice has reinforced the notion of the field as being in need of intervention, making it subject to external control. This article suggests that the agency of the inhabitants of the field has to be re-cognised and de-colonised so that political legitimacy can be recovered from ‘intervention’.

Citation

Richmond, O., Kappler, S., & Björkdahl, A. (2015). The ‘Field’ in the Age of Intervention: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority Versus the ‘Local’. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 44(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829815594871

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 16, 2015
Online Publication Date Jul 31, 2015
Publication Date Sep 1, 2015
Deposit Date Sep 23, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Millennium : journal of international studies
Print ISSN 0305-8298
Electronic ISSN 1477-9021
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 44
Issue 1
Pages 23-44
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829815594871
Keywords Intervention, Research methodology, Semantics, Agency, Power.

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Copyright Statement
Richmond, Oliver and Kappler, Stefanie and Björkdahl, Annika (2015) 'The ‘field’ in the age of intervention : power, legitimacy, and authority versus the ‘local’.', Millennium., 44 (1). pp. 23-44. Copyright © The Author(s) 2015. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.




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