The Difference Place Makes

How do places shape peacebuilding interventions? Put simply, they are eventful. Geographers have long argued that places are constituted by relations with the wider world, relations that are always in flux. In this theoretically and empirically innovative book Adam Moore argues that the inverse is also true: places are of generative of relations. People and institutions are constituted by their relations with places, relations that extend beyond a particular place in question itself. Drawing on relational and processual perspectives across the social sciences, Moore analyzes the effects that an infamous black market in postwar Bosnia--the Arizona market--had on peacebuilding projects and actors, and sociopolitical relations across the country more generally. Through encounters with, and narratives about, the market, the relations and politics of various actors in Bosnia at the time--from the UN to ordinary citizens--were transformed. Arizona's effects also radiated across time and space, even after it was dismantled, influencing political and social relations in Bosnia and further afield up to the present day. Bringing together scholarship in geography and peace and conflict studies, this book is a must-read for both fields and beyond.

Adam Moore is a Professor in the Department of Geography and the International Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. His previous books include Empire's Labor (2019) and Peacebuilding in Practice (2013).