Cooperativist Peace: Responsive Communitarianism in Peacebuilding Initiatives in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Supervisor/s: Bernardo Teles Fazendeiro

Doctoral Programme: Democracy in the Twenty-first Century

TThis thesis examines the ontological mechanisms through which cooperativism reconfigures peacebuilding in post-conflict contexts, taking Bosnia-Herzegovina as a paradigmatic case study. Based on an epistemological critique of the hegemonic liberal peace model, centered on top-down reforms and disregarding endogenous community dynamics, the work adopts the local turn as an alternative theoretical framework to understand sustainable peace processes. Through an interdisciplinary approach that articulates political theory, community sociology, and cooperative studies, it is argued that Bosnian cooperatives act as agents in overcoming ethnic divisions, fostering socioeconomic interdependencies, and materializing local peace as proposed by Richmond and Mac Ginty.

Methodologically, the research combines document analysis, a comparative study of three emblematic cooperatives, and sixteen semi-structured interviews, supporting the hypothesis that such organizations function as political microcosms that, according to Etzioni, create community responsiveness and a moral voice, thereby constituting spaces of socio-moral justice and interethnic trust. The results show that cooperativism transcends the liberal peace model by promoting cohesion through material solidarity and democratic management, structuring resilient communities guided by cooperative principles and exercising subsidiary governance in a weakened institutional context.

The paradigmatic contribution of this thesis is threefold, as it seeks to: 1) advance the concept of local peace by incorporating cooperativism as a key analytical variable, proposing the novel notion of cooperative peace; 2) analyse community as a dynamic process of responsive collaboration; and 3) frame local social economies as essential pillars of emancipatory peacebuilding. The concept of cooperative peace thus emerges as a new theoretical-practical archetype, offering a model that prioritises local agency and the collective construction of peace through autonomous, community-based structures.