Where Participation and Tokenism Meet: An Analysis of “Meaningful Participation” in Peace and Security

Abstract

This dissertation examines the gap between the policy commitment to participation in peace and security and the lived realities of those most frequently positioned as its subjects. Focusing on young women peacebuilders operating at the intersection of the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) policies, the study asks how meaningful participation is understood, experienced, and negotiated in practice. While participation is repeatedly invoked as a normative good within global peace and security frameworks, it is rarely theorized beyond procedural inclusion or measured in ways that capture influence, accountability, or power.

Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews and sustained practitioner-researcher engagement across multiple regions, this research centres young women as analysts of participation rather than merely its beneficiaries. The findings reveal that participation is frequently experienced as conditional, extractive, and uneven, shaped by intersecting hierarchies of age, gender, language, education, sexuality, and institutional legitimacy. The dissertation demonstrates how participatory processes often prioritize visibility over authority, consultation over co-creation, and access over influence, reproducing exclusion even within inclusion-focused frameworks.

The study advances a relational understanding of participation, arguing that meaningful participation cannot be reduced to presence or representation alone. It introduces the “Triangle of Meaningful Participation” as an analytical model identifying three enabling conditions: co-creation, influence over outcomes, and a feedback loop. By reframing participation as a relational and political practice rather than a technical procedure, the dissertation contributes to feminist, decolonial, and critical peacebuilding scholarship and offers policy-relevant insights for rethinking participation within WPS and YPS agendas.