The language used to name those at the receiving end of international peace initiatives has generated considerable recent research interest. While initial attempts focused on investigating the discourses of policy makers and street-level bureaucrats, scholars have tended to ignore the perspective of those-to-be categorized. Drawing on fieldwork in post-war Ivory Coast, and applying Yanows' approach to category analysis, this research explores the meanings that recipients attach to the categories in use for identifying and classifying them. By bringing together critical approaches to policy studies and International relations, I argue that the way in which peacebuilding recipients experience categorizing has implications on the policy at hand. By taking the perspective of those-to-be categorized seriously I hope to further illustrate the work that categories do in situations of policy implementation.
