Ward Berenschot

Ward Berenschot studied political science at the University of Amsterdam, where he was a taught conflict studies and where he obtained his PhD (cum laude) with a dissertation on Hindu-Muslim violence in India.  He is the author of Riot Politics: India’s Hindu-Muslim Violence and the Everyday Mediation of the State (Hurst/Columbia University Press 2011) and several other publications on ethnic violence, local governance and access to justice. His research focuses on local democracy, political clientelism and identity politics. He is currently a post-doc at the KITLV in Leiden.

His research activities often involve political ethnography - gossiping on street corners about local politics remains one of his favorite activities. This he did extensively in India as well as in Indonesia, where he did research on ethnic violence (in North Maluku) as well as on legal aid and local conflict resolution. In 2010/2011 he managed a research project on Access to Justice in Indonesia, in collaboration with UNDP and the World Bank. He has done consultancies for Open Society Institute as well as Dutch development agencies on civil society building and legal aid.  Currently he is working on a new research project on political clientelism and citizenship in India and Indonesia.

 

Research interests and publications
While it feels like one big project, my work could be divided into four main topics: Ethnic Violence, Political Clientelism and Citizenship, Access to Justice and Religion and Development. For each of these topics the focus of my research has been on India and Indonesia. For most of the publications mentioned below, click here.
 

Ethnic Violence in India and Indonesia
Why do political leaders succeed in mobilizing people to commit mass-violence? Through ethnographic fieldwork op political networks involved in organizing and instigating violence in Gujarat (India) and Maluku Utara (Indonesia) I studied the circumstances that facilitate and hinder the mobilization for ethnic violence. In a number of publications I proposed an approach to move beyond instrumentalist explanations for violence, by relating outbursts of ethnic violence to the nature of local patronage channels through which (particularly poorer) citizens gain access to state institutions. The difficulties that especially poorer citizens face when dealing with state institutions underlie the capacity and interests of political actors to instigate and organize communal violence. A study of the nature and historical development of the patronage channels through which states are embedded in society, can help explain why some regions become (or remain) violence-prone.


Political Clientelism, Citizenship and Governance
As the interaction between state institutions and (particularly) poorer citizens in many post-colonial states is mediated by political patronage networks, citizenship and political clientelism can hardly be studied separately. But most studies of ‘insurgent citizenship’ pay scant attention to how the functioning of local patronage networks circumscribes the scope for ‘rights-based’ attititudes of citizens vis-a-vis governments. Conversely, studies of political clientelism often paint overly static pictures as they rarely discuss how and under what circumstances the emergence of civic values and attitudes might lead to a curtailment of clientelistic practices. In the project I am currently undertaking with collegues at KITLV, we aim to study comparatively under what circumstances clientelistic practices may be displaced by successful citizenship claims, in order to develop a new understanding of the evolution of clientelistic political systems.


Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment
As the evolution of clientelistic political systems (see above) is closely related to the development of the rule-of-law, I developed an interest in initiatives that aim to strengthen the capacity of poorer citizens in invoke the law to defend their interests. For one year (2010/2011) I worked as a project manager of a collaborative project with VVI, the UNDP and the Worldbank on Access to Justice in Indonesia. With Dutch and Indonesian researchers I edited a book the struggles to make the law work for everyone in Indonesia, and I wrote a report to help strengthen paralegalism and legal aid in Indonesia.


Religion and Development Aid
My experiences with radical and violent religious movements in India and Indonesia motivated me to engage in a modest attempt to criticize (and change) the current neglect of religion by the very secular (Dutch) development organisations. I saw how Hindu-nationalist organisations could impose their version of Hinduism on Gujarati society as a secular civil-society refrained from intervening in discussions on what religion is about. Similarly, while working on an assignment for a Dutch NGO in Indonesia, I saw how the secular approaches adopted by Indonesian and Dutch ngo’s to promote pluralism and tolerance do not connect well with people in the context of a public sphere saturated by Islam. Their refusal to engage with (and support) particular interpretations of what Islam has facilitated the spread of a scripturalist and socially conservative reading of Islam. In a report and an article I argued that (Dutch) development organizations need to engage more explicitly with (and take a stance in) debates within religious traditions about the ‘true interpretation’ of sacred texts.

Project:
From Clients to Citizens? Emerging Citizenship in Democratising Indonesia

Contact:

A full list of KITLV publications and their authors can be obtained from our archive of annual reports.
 

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Selected Publications

'Religie en Politiek in India: Straattheater in een Patronage Democratie', Religie & Samenleving, 6(1), 2011.
PDF-document: R_S__5__jg6-nr1_Ward_Berenschot.pdf

Akses terhadap Keadilan: An Introduction to the Struggle to Indonesia's struggle to make the law work for everyone', in W. Berenschot, A. Bedner, E. R. Laggut-Terre & D. Novrianti (Eds.), Akses Terhadap Keadilan: Perjuangan Masyarakat Miskin dan Kruang Beruntung untuk Menuntut Hak di Indonesia. Jakarta: KITLV Jakarta, 2011. Co-authored with Adriaan Bedner.
PDF-document: AKSES_TERHADAP_KEADILAN_FINAL_1.pdf

Engaging the Faithful: Pluralism, Civil Society and Religious Identity in Indonesia', report for development organization Mensen Met een Missie, 2010.
PDF-document: ENGAGING_THE_FAITHFUL_ABRIDGED_FINAL.pdf

Rioting as Maintaining Relations: Hindu-Muslim Violence and Political Mediation in Gujarat, India', Civil Wars, 11(4), 414-434, 2009.
PDF-document: Berenschot_2009_Rioting_as_Maintaining_Relations.pdf

'Religie als instrument? Over de desecularisering van de ontwikkelingssamenwerking', Religie & Samenleving 4(3), 230-252, 2009. With Henk Tieleman.
PDF-document: Religie_en_samenleving_3_2009_1e_pr_Berenschot_Tieleman.pdf

Etnisch Geweld: Groepsconflict in de Schaduw van de Staat. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009. Co-edited with Bert Schijf.
PDF-document: Berenschot_2009_Ethnisch_geweld_in_Schaduw_Staat.pdf

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• Barendregt Dr. B
   
• Berenschot Dr. W.
   
• Bergen Dr. L. van
   
• Bloembergen Dr. M.
   
• Boomgaard Prof. P.
   
• Hoefte Dr. R.M.A.L.
   
• Jordaan Dr. H.
   
• Klinken Dr. G van
   
• Klinkers Dr. E.
   
• Molen Prof.dr. W. van der
   
• Oostindie Prof. G.J.
   
• Poeze Dr. H.A.
   
• Reinanda MA R.
   
• Roitman Dr. J.
   
• Schulte Nordholt Prof. H.G.C.
   
• Steijlen Dr. G.I.J.
   
• Tol Dr. R.G.
   
• Wellen Dr. K.A.