Birgit Bräuchler

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I hope you enjoy reading some of my work. I am always happy to get your feedback.

Reviews: The Cultural Dimension of Peace. Decentralization and Reconciliation in Indonesia. 2015. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

“Birgit Bräuchler has written an excellent monograph on the potential of culture for reconciliation … The book covers new ground in the ongoing debate over scope conditions for sustainable peacebuilding. It is a rich source of material for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand how the revival of cultural traditions can foster a normalisation of social relations at an everyday level of interaction in post-conflict settings.” Peacebuilding

“This book provides the reader with straightforward narratives and analyses that will appeal to both specialists and a wider audience who wish to investigate decentralization, democratization, local politics, and peacebuilding in post-New Order Indonesia and will attract both specialists and a broader audience within anthropology, peace and conflict studies, and other social sciences … this book will deservedly pave the way for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of a new anthropology of peace.” ASEASUK News

“The Cultural Dimension of Peace is a compelling read, grounded in the author's extensive multi-sited and multi-temporal ethnographic research … It provides an excellent resource for scholars, practitioners and students alike seeking to understand why normative notions of transitional justice, (liberal) peace, and reconciliation often do not fit easily in local and ethnographic realities.” Journal of Peace Research

“Bräuchler’s nuanced and sophisticated analysis provides new insights into the evolving relations between Islam, Christianity, and adat in contemporary postconflict Moluccan society. She explains the success of the revival of adat in peace and reconciliation processes but clearly identifies the limitations of this approach in a democratised and decentralised Indonesia.” Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

“Bräuchler’s book is a coherent, thoughtful argument that never falls into the trap of romanticizing some fixed idea of tradition. At the same time, she dismisses as inadequate the insistence on formal legal process as the only valid post-conflict resolution mechanism. Instead, she supports a rapprochement between formal state institutions and informal local cultural ones … No other book about Indonesia’s post-conflict resolutions … deals with this fundamental problem of universalist versus local culturalist perspectives as thoroughly as this one. The book is … an important agenda-setting work, which ought to stimulate healthy controversy.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde