Summary

In this chapter we draw together some of the themes from earlier chapters and outline what we think are the foundations for practice in peacebuilding through community development. We consider some of the theoretical foundations; we try to address some of the questions which practitioners on the ground might have about how do you know what needs to be done, how to do it, how long it might take and how you know whether it is working. We also draw particularly on the editors’ experience of working in Northern Ireland as well as an appreciation of the importance of grounded community-based peacebuilding approaches supported by the members of the Foundations for Peace Network (FFP) – a network that was co-founded by Avila Kilmurray in 2004.

What is peace and how does it come about?

The contributions in this book draw on very diverse contexts and experiences of working in conditions of violent conflict. However, a common theme is that they reflect Galtung’s conception that peace is not simply the absence of open violence (negative peace) but to be sustainable requires the underlying (‘structural’) violence of economic and social conditions to be addressed (Galtung, 1969). Another common theme which is perhaps particularly reflective of a community development approach to peacebuilding is summed up on the placard displayed in a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro referred to in Chapter 7 (p 130): ‘Peace without voice isn’t peace.’ As Chapter 2 by Ware, Ware and Kelly points out, much community development is concerned with bringing about ‘everyday peace’. This entails both a task and process orientation, reflecting the understanding of community development that is presented in the definition of community development adopted by the Community Workers Co-operative, Ireland, in 2006 (AIEB, 2016), that was cited in Chapter 1. When both task and process have to be addressed in the context of open violence, they are invariably more problematic as the underlying causes of conflict may themselves be contested in the eyes of different communities. Understanding the complexity of the nature of the conflict experienced also remains crucial as demonstrated by the situation in the Caucasus – ‘neither war nor peace’ – and violent conflict in parts of Nigeria is endemic.