Department of peace and conflict research, Uppsala University
My research interests concern ethnic politics and communal conflict, the role of state and non-state actors in addressing communal conflicts, and rural/urban dimensions of organized violence. I currently lead two collaborative research projects with a focus on urban violence. One, The Urban Dilemma, seeks to advance knowledge on why urbanisation brings with it intensified ethnic grievances and increasing levels of inter-group violence in the cities in some cases, but not in others. The other project, The Continuation of Conflict-related Violence in Postwar Cities, seeks to understand the causes and trajectories of postwar urban violence through a combination of new quantitative data and in-depth case study. I employ both qualitative and quantitative methods in my research; field research focuses on cases in Kenya.
Recent publications (selection):
Elfversson, Emma & Anders Sjögren, 2020. “Do local power-sharing deals reduce ethnopolitical hostility? The effects of ‘negotiated democracy’ in Kenya.” Ethnopolitics, Volume 19, Issue 1, pp. 45-63.
Elfversson, Emma, 2019. “The political conditions for local peacemaking: A comparative study of communal conflict resolution in Kenya.” Comparative Political Studies, Volume 52, Issue 13-14, pp. 2061-2096.
Elfversson, Emma, Ivan Gusic & Kristine Höglund, 2019. “The spatiality of violence in postwar cities: Introduction to a special issue.” Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, Volume 4, Issue 2-3, pp. 81-93.
Elfversson, Emma, Sara Lindberg Bromley & Paul D. Williams, 2019. “Urban peacekeeping under siege: Attacks on African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, 2007-2009.” Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, Volume 4, Issue 2-3, pp. 158-178.
Elfversson, Emma & Kristine Höglund, 2019. “Violence in the city that belongs to no-one: Urban distinctiveness and interconnected insecurities in Nairobi (Kenya).” Conflict, Security and Development, Volume 19, Issue 4, pp. 347-370.
Elfversson, Emma, 2019. “Patterns and drivers of communal conflict in Kenya”. In Steven Ratuva (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_50-1.
Elfversson, Emma & Kristine Höglund, 2018. “Home of last resort: Urban land conflict and the Nubians in Kibera, Kenya”. Urban Studies, Volume 55, Issue 8, pp. 1749–1765.