ISSN: 2151-0806
Vol. 6, Issue 3 July, 2013
Feminist Peacebuilding: Merging Theory and Practice in Pisco, Peru Author: Anna Irwin, Ph.D. Candidate Virginia Tech University Department of Urban Affairs and Planning E-mail: erwinae@vt.edu
FEMINIST PEACEBUILDING: MERGING THEORY AND PRACTICE IN PISCO, PERU (Essay) Abstract This article operationalizes Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s theory of the Anticapitalist Transnational Feminist Practice through John Burton’s Human Needs Theory and application of peacebuilding approaches to development. Through the analysis of personal experience in postearthquake Peru, the author describes the complexities of on-the-ground development. The movement from anticapitalist theory to peacebuilding practice, both as a volunteer and as a university study abroad instructor, supports her conclusion that although globalization is a root cause of structural violence, an economic solution is sometimes the option that best meets a woman’s immediate needs. In order to meet immediate needs while implementing long-term structural changes, collaborative, locally-coordinated solutions must be implemented both into development work and the feminist teacher’s classroom.
Feminist Peacebuilding: Merging Theory and Practice in Pisco, Peru When I lived and worked in a post-earthquake environment in Pisco, Peru, I saw firsthand how poor infrastructure, corruption, and violence hinder the reconstruction of a city. I was in the coastal city of Pisco, a four-hour bus ride south of Lima, in the spring of 2011. Four years after Pisco’s earthquake, people still suffered from typhoid and lacked basic necessities such as adequate sanitation infrastructure. The magnitude 8.0 earthquake, of August 15, 2007, destroyed 70% of the homes, and caused approximately 600 deaths with 383 people dying in the city of Peace Studies Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 3, July 2013
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