This study takes the work of transforming violence and conflict online and offers insight into the practice of dialogue in virtual settings for peacebuilding purposes. In the field of peace and conflict studies and peacebuilding practices, a significant amount of literature has dealt with the theory and practice of dialogue in face-to-face settings. This project is unique as it takes the peacebuilding practice of dialogue and explores it within an online context.
The research is framed and analyzed through the dialogue theories of Martin Buber and Paulo Freire. This project is distinct in its exploration of the connection between dialogue encounters and positive peace, the practical linkages of which are often difficult to articulate or identify. As such, this book offers unique contributions to the knowledge and understanding of dialogue-based peacebuilding in online settings and provides an understanding of how dialogue practices enable outcomes within the construct of positive peace.
This book is aimed at academics as a presentation of research into a relatively unexplored field of inquiry. However, it is also relevant and applicable for peacebuilding practitioners who want to navigate taking their practices into online settings and provide a framework for linking practices to intended positive peace outcomes.
Author(s): Rachel Nolte-Laird
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 234
City: Cham
Preface
References
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Why Online?
1.3 Research Design
1.4 Reflexivity & Cogitatio
1.5 Book Structure
References
2 Positive Peace and Dialogue: A Theoretical Framework
2.1 Positive Peace
2.2 Dialogue Theory
Martin Buber
Paulo Freire
2.3 Qualities of Dialogue
Dialogic Moments and the Sphere of Between
Presentness
Awareness
Authenticity
Mutuality
2.4 Dialogue as Humanization
2.5 Dialogue as Transformation
Conscientization
2.6 Critiques
Positive Peace Theory
Dialogue Theory
2.7 Summary
References
3 Community-Based Dialogue and Online Peacebuilding Practice
3.1 Dialogue in Peacebuilding Practice
Characteristics of Dialogue in Community Peacebuilding
Outcomes of Dialogue in Community Peacebuilding
Critiques & Limitations of Dialogue in Community Peacebuilding
3.2 Online Dialogue-Based Peacebuilding
Online Peacebuilding Models
Critiques of Online Dialogue for Peacebuilding
3.3 Gaps
3.4 Summary
References
4 Bringing Into
4.1 Introducing the Participants
4.2 “Journey to Soliya”
“A Marriage Between Two Worlds”
“Try Something New with Different People”
“An Experience Issue”
“Was Not Voluntary for Me”
“Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Little Constructive, Positive Thing”
4.3 “I Expected To…”
“The Muslims, the Americans, and Us”
“Disagreement Is Natural”
4.4 “The Source of My Knowledge”
“Of Course, the Media”
“Like a Taboo”
4.5 Cogitatio
4.6 Summary
References
5 The Setting
5.1 Connect Program and Characteristics of Dialogue in Community Peacebuilding
Encountering Other and Exploring Identity
Safe Space
Examination of ‘Truth’
Relational Movement
5.2 Program Design: Influencing Factors
The Facilitator
The Curriculum
5.3 ‘The Water’
“We Thought the Group is Stuck”
“An Expression of International Power Dynamics”
5.4 Benefits
“There Are No Barriers of Borders, or Religion, or Anything.”
“You Can Make It a Very Inclusive Environment”
“I Think That This Makes People Brave to Speak”
5.5 Limitations
“Technology Tends to Fail Us”
“We’re in the Car!”
“There Is a Kind of Spirit that You Miss”
5.6 ‘The Setting’ and Positive Peace
5.7 Cogitatio
‘Insider’
Power
5.8 Summary
References
6 The Encounter
6.1 Individual in Encounter
Distinctiveness
“Think About My Identity and My Values and Beliefs”
6.2 The Sphere of Between
Presentness
Awareness
Authenticity
Mutuality
6.3 Cogitatio
6.4 Summary
References
7 Potentialities
7.1 “New and Beautiful Friends”
“Not Friends in Reality.”
7.2 “To See Something Different”
“I Never Thought of Myself as…”
“These People Are Not Monsters.”
7.3 How’s the Water?
“The Circumstances and the Situation and the Differences.”
“I Won’t Hold My Tongue.”
7.4 “I Don’t Change Easily”
7.5 Cogitatio
7.6 Summary
References
8 The Conditions of Positive Peace
8.1 Positive Peace: The Conditions
Condition: Friendship
Findings: Friendships & Changed Perceptions
Condition: Love
Findings: Emergence & Intervention
8.2 Critiques of the Findings
Dialogue Without Emergence
Emergence Without Intervention
Friendships Without Emergence or Intervention
Ideal Setting
Variations in Potentialities
8.3 Can Online Dialogue Enable Positive Peace?
8.4 Summary
References
9 Conclusion
9.1 Contributions to Knowledge
9.2 Recommendations & Future Directions
Practice & Policy
Future Research Directions
References
Index
