Violent conflict and its aftermath are pressing problems, particularly for international development initiatives. However, the results of development in conflict contexts have generally been disappointing and their preventative potential thus questionable. Available Open Access, Lives Amid Violence argues that this is because practitioners adhere to a mental model that emphasises linearity, certainty, and causality, assuming that violence is best addressed through work plans that deliver state-building, stabilisation and services. Based on ten years of multi-method research from, in, and on conflict-affected countries, this book challenges this approach.Drawing on a significant collaborative body of scholarship, this work puts forward original and generalizable conclusions about how lives amid violence persist, offering an invitation to abandon restricting mental models and to embrace creative ways of thinking and working. These include paying attention to the long-term effects of conflict on individual behaviour and decision-making, the social realities of economic life, the role service delivery plays in negotiations between citizens and states, and to creating meaningful relationships. Transformation also requires reflection and therefore the book concludes with constructive suggestions on how to practice these insights to better support those whose lives are shaped by violence.More details are available at transformingdevelopment.orgThe eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Offers practicable new paradigms and actionable ways forward for development practitioners

Quanta by Michael Onsando1 Goodbye yellow brick road: Beyond the status quo of development in the wake of conflict2 The problem with bricks: Why building and stabilizing went to the wall3 Money can't move a ton of bricks: The real currency of economic life4 Times are a-changin', but the tide is not turning: Why life after conflict does not automatically get better5 Vertical columns of accelerated air: The mental landscape6 A satellite image of the neighbourhood: How who you are matters7 You can't make bricks without straw: People and states8 Mortar stronger than bricks: Connections and relationshipsStories by Michael OnsandoAfterword: Practicalities by Stephanie Buell and Mareike SchomerusPostface: The roots of this book: Ten years of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) by Marcus Langley and Mareike SchomerusIndex