Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how policies and interventions that seek to enable socio-economic recovery in fragile, post-conflict settings intersect with people's efforts to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, in complex, non-linear recovery trajectories.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses how policies and interventions that seek to enable socio-economic recovery in fragile, post-conflict settings intersect with people's efforts to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, in complex, non-linear recovery trajectories. Recovery settings tend to be characterised by a high density of aid interventions and involve arenas in which multiple actors (local citizens, aid actors, political actors) interact and negotiate the nature and direction of change. Yet, we still struggle to understand interventions in relation to the everyday realities of recovery. This paper aims to contribute to filling that gap. We build on the main lessons of a research programme on socio-economic recovery in fragile settings which brought together academic partners, NGOs and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to propose that:

• People play the key role in reconstructing their lives and finding ways to access markets, authorities and aid

• Recovery involves overt and covert contests over the prospects of development

• The micro-politics of recovery matter

• Institutions in fragile settings tend to acquire properties of rational institutions

• Aid actors are also socially embedded

These points will be illustrated with reference to a range of case studies ranging from Afghanistan to central America and the Great Lakes region. Our analysis brings in theoretical insights on the sociology of economic life, legal anthropology, and actor-oriented approaches to development.