Tag: Peacebuilding

Postconflict

The temporal term ‘post-conflict’ is used in peace and conflict studies and international development discourses to mark the end of civil wars or the conclusion of peace negotiations. This reference hides sources of persistent violence, and quickly becomes a misnomer in cases of conflict relapse. Postconflict can be reimagined as a qualitative condition that accounts for the lasting impact of war and other conflicts, as a process, and as an aspirational goal; this is possible through decolonial perspectives that underscore social justice as the basis for sustainable, durable peace.

Futures-Thinking

Futures-thinking encompasses a range of methods, tools and practices designed to explicitly engage with possible and desired futures. The word “futures” is used in the plural to acknowledge the diversity of potential future situations that have yet to materialise. Both external experts and conflict-affected communities use futures-thinking for analytical purposes and to drive societal transformation in conflict contexts. While business and military planning have professionalised the systematic development of futures-thinking methodology, anticipating and preparing for the future is inherent to all human societies. Therefore, systematic and power-critical futures-thinking can lend itself to participatory, reflexive and constructive practices that are beneficial to conflict transformation.

Pluriversal peacebuilding

Pluriversality is a concept from decolonial theory that names the existence of irreducibly plural ways of knowing and being that connect people to one another and to the world(s) around them. Decolonial theory reveals how modern Eurocentric epistemologies support their claims to universality by eradicating resources for imagining and enacting alternatives to a world structured according to the racialized, gendered, territorialized, and capitalist logics of modernity.

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