MICROCON  A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict

MICROCON is a five-year European Commission-funded research project, which takes an innovative micro level, multidisciplinary approach to studying the conflict cycle. It will promote understanding of individual and group interactions leading to and resulting from violent mass conflicts, aiming to better inform conflict policy and place individuals and groups at the centre of interventions.

At a fundamental level, conflict originates from individuals’ behaviour and their interactions with their surroundings - from its ‘micro’ foundations. However, most programmes tackling conflict are driven by regional, national and international perspectives. This makes inadequate concession to the role of individual and group interactions leading to or resulting from violent conflicts, and their links with social norms that encourage some groups to be violent, while discouraging others.

MICROCON will advance the conflict agenda on two levels. At the conceptual level the project will develop a multidisciplinary framework to understand individual and group interactions, and how these interactions are affected by conflict. This framework will draw on anthropology, cultural studies, demography, development studies, economics, epidemiology, ethnography, history, international relations, political science, psychology, sociology and statistics, as well as several sub-disciplines within these. It will go beyond merely reactive theorisations of conflict to look at the complete dynamics (across intensities, actors, triggers and effects) of violent mass conflicts. The project will also examine unexplored datasets, and conduct survey instruments to build new datasets. At the operational level, the project will lay the foundations for the development of a new European multidisciplinary research agenda in conflict analysis and policy.

The project has six specific goals:

1. To create and develop conceptual breakthroughs in the understanding of micro level processes that lead to and result from the full cycle of conflict

2. To compile and collect, and develop methods for the collection of, qualitative and quantitative data on violent conflict at the individual, household and group levels

3. To advance and develop appropriate theoretical and empirical methods for the analysis of violent mass conflict at the micro level

4. To build and disseminate a constructive narrative on micro level conflict processes for the use of European and international policymakers and practitioners, which will influence positively and constructively the design of effective and sustainable policy actions along the full conflict cycle

5. To train and facilitate the mobility of young researchers in Europe, as well as talented researchers in developing countries interested in pursuing advanced studies in Europe in cutting edge theoretical and applied multidisciplinary methods of conflict analysis

6. To manage and support a pan-European team of previously scattered researchers from various social science backgrounds to form a coherent project on a fundamental area of social science research and policy

The project commenced on 1st January 2007, and in the start-up period work will focus on building the conceptual framework and beginning work on data and measurement. From month 8 onwards, 27 different research projects will begin in the project’s eight thematic areas:

• Group Formation, Identities and Mobilisation;
• Contemporary Conflicts and Ethnic-Religious Tensions;
• Gender Aspects of Violent Conflicts;
• Migration, Displacement and Refugees;
• Risk, Security and Coping Mechanisms;
• Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion;
• Violent Conflict and Health Outcomes;
• Governance and Institutions.

These projects will produce scientific working papers, and will be complemented by the outputs of two policy oriented projects starting in the middle of 2008, looking at the potential of the European Neighbourhood Policy to contribute to conflict resolution, and assessing conflict interventions. At the end of the project the research results will be drawn together into two books, an edited volume setting out, applying and testing the conceptual framework, and a policy handbook presenting the tangible policy implications.

Running alongside the research component will be a training and mobility component. This will involve organising summer schools and research ethics training; training new doctoral students and supervising theses; supporting the mobility of young researchers; integration of new researchers with senior researchers at all stages of research; and the use of website, media and accessible policy briefs to educate and raise awareness of conflict issues.

The MICROCON consortium comprises 22 institutions coordinated by the Institute of Development Studies, UK. They are based in 16 countries, mainly in Europe, with several partners based in developing countries. The consortium emerged out of long-standing collaborations around the Households in Conflict Network and related networks and collaborative research projects. It is constituted by a team of internationally recognised researchers in conflict analysis, as well as individuals and institutions with extensive practical experience in the field of research in conflict areas and in policy analysis and advocacy.

Further details on MICROCON will soon be available on the project website www.microconflict.eu. To subscribe to the MICROCON newsletter, keeping you updated on MICROCON's latest research and activities, including the launch of the project website, please email John Spall (j.spall@ids.ac.uk).

MICROCON is funded under the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme.