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Abstract
“Participation” has been defined as the engagement of local populations in the design and implementation of peace-building processes in post-conflict settings and it has been presumed to be critically important to sustainable conflict intervention. In this article, we explore this concept, so central to the field of conflict resolution, focusing on a set of problematic assumptions about power and social change that undergird it. As a remedy to these issues, we offer a narrative as a lens on the politics of participation. This lens thickens our description of our own participation as interveners, a reflexive move that is notably missing in most efforts to redress the dark side of “participation” – that it has often been used as a means to upend structural violence, only to contribute to its reproduction. Drawing on the work of Ginwright, specifically his work with black youth in Oakland, CA, we explore participation as a process involving the critical examination of master/counternarratives. By offering a narrative lens on participation, we hope to illuminate a framework for the ethics of conflict resolution practice that enables practitioners to ethically navigate the politics of “participation.”
International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution |
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Article | Pondering over “Participation” as an Ethics of Conflict Resolution PracticeLeaning towards the “Soft Side of Revolution” |
Keywords | participation, structural violence, narrative compression, master-counter narratives |
Authors | Sara Cobb en Alison Castel |
DOI | 10.5553/IJCER/221199652016004002004 |
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