Animating Peace: Animation Production as Methodology for Exploring Necropolitics in Liberal Peace

Abstract

This thesis examines how animation can be used as a method of critical inquiry to expose necropolitical practices within liberal peacebuilding. Drawing inspiration from Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics, referring to the politicisation of death, this thesis explores how liberal peace can hide systems of control, abandonment, and racialised exclusion. Necropolitics as a theoretical framework aids in exploring how liberal regimes govern through the administration of death. These concepts are brought into conversation using animation production, which serves as both a method of inquiry and a space for knowledge production. Through symbolic analysis, the thesis translates abstract ideas, such as race, power, and space, into visual forms of storytelling. Animation production is used both as an analytic process and as a site of knowledge creation, enabling the translation of abstract concepts such as race, power, and spatial segregation into visual and narrative forms. The findings demonstrate that animation offers a unique capacity to critique liberal peacebuilding by visualizing forms of violence that are often hidden or normalised. As a creative and reflexive practice, animation allows for representations that challenge conventional narratives and open space for more inclusive understandings of peace. This thesis contributes to arts-based research by introducing animation production as a rigorous and valid method for analysing complex forms of existence and rethinking peace through artistic and embodied means.