This dissertation examines how order is negotiated, produced, and sustained in urban areas affected by armed conflict through urban conflict agreements . It understands these agreements as locally negotiated arrangements that seek to manage, mitigate, or end violence within cities and towns during conflict. The central argument it proposes is that urban conflict agreements constitute a distinct form of order-making in urban areas affected by armed conflicts. The dissertation is paper-based, structured around four articles, and advances a qualitative oriented mixed-method research design. Article 1 establishes the conceptual foundations for understanding urban conflict agreements, offering a theoretical framework that distinguishes these agreements through a typology based on process inclusion and governance content. Article 2, coauthored with Achim Wennmann, zooms into the discussion of urban political settlements, engaging in a conceptual discussion on how ordering actors through ordering capacities seek to control spheres in urban areas. Article 3 examines urban conflict agreements globally, identifies patterns across cases, and analyses the varied roles played by one specific type of ordering actor – customary authorities. It shows how these are central to these agreements not only in rural settings, but also in urban areas. Article 4 expands the theoretical framework of civilian protective agency to analyse how civilians shape order-making during armed conflict. Drawing on fieldwork in the Philippines, it presents a case study of the 2017 Marawi Siege to demonstrate the influence civilians exert on urban conflict agreements.
