Constructing Gender, Constraining Change : A Feminist Discourse Analysis of the United Nations’ Policy on DDR

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores the United Nation’s discursive conceptualization of gender in its policy on Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programs. It draws on feminist poststructuralist theory to conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the UN’s Integrated DDR Standards (IDDRS). The first aim of the thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how gender is understood and produced in the IDDRS. The second aim builds on the poststructuralist understanding of discourses as powerful to discern what kind of peacebuilding realities are generated. The results show that the understanding and production of gender is based on a binary construction that stabilizes subjects into two categories and reinforces assumptions, expectations, and ideas about these. This inhibits transformative change of gender relations. It also renders women’s participation and empowerment a tool to achieve the overall success of DDR. The result is a peacebuilding reality that shifts the focus away from the wellbeing of people to that of national security. Based on these findings, this thesis calls for a renegotiation of gender in UN peacebuilding discourse to recenter the well-being of people. These findings contribute to the existing body of gender and DDR by demonstrating how lingering assumptions on the institutional discursive level of the UN inhibit practical application of transformative goals.