At PeaceCon2020, my cup runneth over
Take a shot glass and pour a gallon of water into it.

This is a good summation of my last three days at the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s PeaceCon202, held this week online. The shot glass is my brain (though this is arguably a thimble), and the water the wonderful information and insights I gathered during the conference.

All the presentations were excellent, though several exemplary sessions stick out. The first, moderated by Monica Curca of Plus Peace, was about how emergent peacebuilding is become urgent, left me with more questions than answers (a good thing). My tweet (right) sums it up pretty well. The tweet doesn’t talk about privilege and colonialization, which were also discussed. One speaker talked about how as peacebuilders we must “get our shit together” before we can teach and promote peace elsewhere. I’d say in this category, I’m a work in progress, like most of us. I was also challenged by the conversation about expertise, and the traditional and mistaken notion that expertise is possible only if it comes from those privileged—white males from rich Western countries. I’m always wary of the legacy of colonialism and careful about coming across as a “white savior” or the “ultimate expert” when I teach overseas.  I instead try to position myself as facilitator, not savant, who can learn as much from my students as they learn from me. After this discussion, I will redouble my efforts in this regard.   

Another session featured Lisa Schirch from the Toda Peace Institute discussing peacebuilding in the digital sphere. She presented results from a terrific study on 25 spheres of digital peacebuilding (https://toda.org/assets/files/resources/policy-briefs/t-pb-93_lisa-schirch.pdf ). She debunked the notion that the positives and negatives of social media pretty much balance out. (See graphic, left.). I agree with her techno-pessimism assessment. Also speaking in this session was Kylie Holmes from Facebook. She said Facebook doesn’t get many reports about negative or misleading posts from “places we have the biggest concerns,” and that without these “signals from the community,” the company is not able to be proactive in targeting problematic content. I’m reflexively skeptical of anything Facebook says or does, given their track record, and am not optimistic that change in this area will come from content platforms. Instead, I think the real silver bullet to counter online hate and misinformation is media literacy training.

The final session that really caught my eye was about what comes next in peacebuilding in the U.S. Joseph Bubman, from an organization called Urban Rural Action (https://www.uraction.org/), spoke about the divides in our society, and how they are fueled by incivility, social media, partisan media, a political system that rewards extremism, and isolation from those who disagree with us.  He said  we must work across the divide while standing  up to oppression to advance positive peace. “You can solve problems while you build relationships—they are mutually reinforcing,” he said.

Julia Roag, the president and CEO of Partners Global (https://www.partnersglobal.org/) followed up by asking, “How do you combat a war of ideas? Is it with facts?”  Answering her question, she stated that facts should be accompanied with a narrative frame (and a solution) that helps to explain and contextualize the facts for any given audience. 

Roag noted that the partnerships that we form also depend on framing, and thus, we must deeply understand how narratives change people’s understanding. She asked, “What is our peacebuilding narrative, and what are people already thinking about peace and peacebuilding?” This is a question I need to start asking about my peace journalism projects—What are people already thinking about the news media, and its role in creating a climate where non-violent responses to conflict are valued?

For more on framing, see https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/article/five-framing-tips-framing-for-social-change/.

Peace journalism fits nicely with Roag’s notions of framing and narratives, since PJ seeks to correct misleading (and sometimes stereotyping) narratives and replace them with counternarratives that provide a different framing, one that humanizes “them,” gives voice to the voiceless and peacebuilders, and leads societal discussions about solutions while rejecting inflammatory, divisive language.

Thanks, Alliance for Peacebuilding, for giving me so to think about. Next year, I plan to bring a bucket.