Conference Poster: ¨Dynamics of Hybridity - the SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre¨at Þjóðarspegillinn 2016
Anne Flaspöler, postdoctoral researcher at the EDDA Centre and UNU-GEST, presented her initial findings of her field research at the Social Sciences’ Conference organised by the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) of the University of Iceland on the 28th October 2016.
Following the conference’s aim to introduce and share the wide spectrum of social science research in Iceland, Anne presented the factors that contribute to the hybrid nature of the Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre of the Southern African Development Community (SADC RPTC) in Harare, Zimbabwe.
African peacekeeping training centres are crucial institutions in preparing African peacekeepers for their deployment to international peace operations. They train peacekeepers in international standards of gender, human rights, code of conduct, protection of civilians and so on. However, as institutions, they are exposed to and mediate between international, continental, regional and national influences. Hence, the research aimed at exploring how these influences shape the training centre. Hybridity as an analytical framework provided the opportunity to look at the dynamics between the actors involved beyond the typical top-down power relations.
Defining the factors that create the dynamics which make up the hybrid character of the SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre as an institution, Anne’s research identified the following:
- The centre’s ability to act autonomously;
- Its ability to attract inter-institutional collaborations;
- Its ability to resist, ignore and subvert donor intentions;
- And its ability to position itself (see figure presented on the poster).
In a next step, the aim is to test these factors with other regional peacekeeping training centres in Africa in order to gain a better picture of how these centres’ hybridity affects their training participants.