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International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict |
Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA |
One technique that stimulates peacebuilding and reconciliation is to engage in joint projects with people on the other side of a conflict. If opponents can be brought together in some cooperative endeavor, they tend to break down their negative stereotypes, begin to depend on each other, and start building normal, positive relationships which can later be extended to issues in conflict.
Examples of such projects include rebuilding war-damaged houses, buildings, or roads, or developing joint educational efforts (for example, a group of Palestinians and Israelis are currently working together to create a joint production of the children's educational television show, Sesame Street).
The advantage of such projects is that people can interact without necessarily having to confront the most difficult aspects of their conflict which they still may not feel comfortable confronting. Yet they can begin the process of building trust and understanding with people on the other side, while they focus on an external, clearly mutual problem. Once they learn to work together, and learn that they can, indeed solve problems together, then they are in a better position to redefine (or reframe) their fundamental differences in terms of common problems and begin to work together in a cooperative way to solve those problems too.
Links to Outside Sources of Information on Joint Projects Which comes first -- mended relationships or restored houses fields
Copyright ©1998 Conflict Research Consortium -- Contact: crc@colorado.edu