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Book Review Symposium: J Brewer, Peace Processes: A Sociological Approach

Peace Processes is in many ways a culmination of John D. Brewer’s life work. Brewer has had an extraordinary career spanning three decades, and those familiar with his research will recognize in this latest offering his concern with conflict and peace in Northern Ireland, the role of religion in conflict, and civil society, among other themes. But most importantly the book is – as he puts it – ‘an unremitting defence of public sociology’. It is both an intellectual and a practical argument for hearing what sociology has to say about the pressing problems associated with post-violence transitions. The importance of sociology may be self-evident for sociologists, but this is not something to be taken for granted in the public realm. Sociologists know that their work has had a great deal to say about civil society, gender, emotions, trauma, memory, and so on. But public sociologists need to demonstrate the relevance of their work to wider audiences. This is exactly what Brewer does: he constructs a far-reaching sociology of peace processes and then supports the theoretical with real-world examples from contexts like Northern Ireland, Sudan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Rwanda. These examples allow the reader to see what works for peace (and what does not). This book deserves to be read widely beyond the bounds of sociology, for it has much to say to other academic disciplines as well as to policy makers and practitioners. What may be especially useful for those audiences is the way Brewer contrasts his sociological approach to what he calls ‘good governance’ approaches to peace processes. Good governance approaches, with their emphasis on reform of political institutions and market economies, have dominated academic literature and popular perceptions about what constitutes ‘peace’. Brewer does not discount good governance, but recognizes its major limitation – it does not stretch far enough into everyday social worlds, where relationships need to be repaired and hurting people need to be healed. Here, Brewer makes a key distinction between the political and social dimensions of peace processes. This provides a gateway for entering into the book’s major task: analysing the micro-level, social dynamics of peace processes and explaining how they too must be considered if sustainable peace is to be achieved. 427934 SOCXXX10.1177/0038038511427934Book Review SymposiumSociology 2012