Activity - The cultural dimension of conflictThis is a featured page

Purpose: To support participants to understand and internalise the “cultural dimension of conflict and change” as described by John Paul Lederach.
Time:90 minutes (40 minutes for group discussions; 40-60 minutes for plenary discussions).
Participants:2 participants or more.

Materials:
  • Pens;
  • Notebooks;
  • Flip charts;
  • Marker pens;
  • Masking tape;
  • Visual aids - Handouts with questions.
Process:I) Ensure pens and notebooks are distributed in advance to individual participants.

II) Ask participants to think about their society as it currently exists.

III) Now ask individuals to form groups according to the organisation that they belong to (or else as appropriate), and discuss the following questions and note their findings in their flip charts:

Assessing Cultural Resources and Patterns
  • What cultural patterns seem to have an impact, whether positive or negative, on how conflict is understood, approached, and handled in your context?
  • What aspects of inter-group conflict may be affected by cultural and worldview differences?
  • When you look at other groups what aspects of their culture contribute positively to the expression and handling of conflict, and which patterns appear to make it worse?
  • What cultural patterns have been affected by factors such as displacement or migration, population growth, conflict dynamics, and/or “modernization,”? (with particular attention to what aspects of traditional culture are strained by these elements, and what, if any, important traditions have been lost)
Program and Activities
  • Which aspects of peacebuilding/conflict transformation are partly or primarily oriented toward changing a cultural pattern? (probe for what they do/programmes in their organizations)
  • What are realistic timeframes to think about the cultural shift desired? For example, are components of the program working with generational change?
IV) Distribute flip chart papers and markers in each group together with handout questions. Ask participants to note down responses to the questions on their flip charts for presentations.

V) Ask each group to choose one participant to do presentations in plenary based on the above questions with questions and answers from the rest of the participants.
Source:
The questions have been adapted from Lederach, J. P., Neufeldt, R., Culbertson, H, Reflective Peacebuilding: A Planning, Monitoring, and Learning Tool Kit, Notre Dame (IN): The Joan B. Kroch Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2007, p. 23. The pdf file of this publication is available for free here.


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