Partnerships for Peacebuilding: Critical Reflections

• In Event: Higher education in times of crisis and conflict

Proposal

The CIES theme, “Power of Protest” declares that the power of education is in its ability to create collective action and change. Social change begins with acts of education, activism, solidarity, and understanding the needs for change to move toward building a culture of peace. The purpose of this study is to explore the understandings of and contributions to peacebuilding through partnerships in higher education (HE) and the equitability of collaborators’ roles through a qualitative inquiry with an intrinsic case study approach (Creswell & Poth, 2018). In its entirety, my thesis addresses Global South-North partnerships’ reality of equitability and their potential to contribute to building a global culture of peace, in collaboration with colleagues participating in and using partnerships for peacebuilding. A particular case has been identified at a university in Somaliland, using international partnerships for peacebuilding. Global HE partnerships emphasize the multiplicity and relational aspects of peacebuilding through human relationships at “every level of society” to help transform “inhumane social patterns, flawed structural conditions, and open violent conflict that weaken the conditions necessary for a flourishing human community” (Lederach & Appleby, 2010, p. 22).
To strategically focus on these relationships, the main research questions investigate these complex aspects of peacebuilding.
1. How do Global South-North HE partners (administrators, faculty, and stakeholders) perceive Global South-North partnerships’ contributions (or lack thereof) to peacebuilding in their contexts?
a. To what extent do participants perceive (the structures and roles of) partnerships in higher education working toward peacebuilding?
b. What are perceived challenges/opportunities in Global South-North partnerships to build a culture of peace?
c. What can potentially be applied to other Global South-North higher education collaborative partnerships?
Research into Global South-North HE partnerships, their equitability, productivity, and sustainability is significant, especially now, because they are beginning to play a critical role in international higher education relationships, research, and social structures (Pherali & Lewis, 2019). It is significant at this point in time because the South is moving from being the researched to becoming the researcher through local, collaborative, and decolonial efforts (Abdi et al., 2015; Connell, 2007; Tuhiwai Smith, 2012). Yet, there are still quite a few areas that have yet to be developed in the literature debates and/or dialogues and why it is vital to employ decolonial, peacebuilding, and critically reflexive methodologies to restructure the global “asymmetrical growth of knowledge” (Murithi, 2008). For this reason, I will use a nested framework that grounds peacebuilding relationships within post/decoloniality to guide the analysis of interview transcripts, documents, ethnographic field notes, observations, and archival materials; while allowing other themes to emerge from the findings (Lederach, 1997). I plan to focus on various insights of Global South-North HE partnership administrators, faculty, and stakeholders to better understand the transformative possibilities (or not) for peacebuilding through HE relationships.
Universities have the potential to advance peace strategies because they are social institutions with responsibility of shaping educators, social and political actors, and the social and educational structures that could contribute to fueling conflict or peacebuilding (Mbembe, 2016; Milton & Barakat, 2016). The role of a university in local and global “citizenship, democracy, and peacebuilding” has been formally acknowledged by international organizations; especially in post-conflict societies and development contexts (Millican, 2018, p. 18). Somaliland is a unique case context in its post-conflict hybrid-democracy that embeds indigenous peacebuilding traditions in societal relations; at the same time fighting to be recognized as a stable and independent state. This study seeks to examine the multiple perspectives of Somaliland colleagues’ experiences, opportunities, and challenges in the hopes of transferring their peacebuilding practices to other South-North partnerships in HE. This research could contribute to a better understanding of Global South- North relationships in HE and their (in)abilities to work toward building a culture of peace.
This paper will present my initial findings that could indicate new paths in HE toward decolonizing structural practices within their communities, collaborations, and beyond. This research offers an opportunity for the Global North to practice critical reflexivity by listening to and better understanding their colleagues; while examining and reflecting upon their partnership practices, and use the insights gathered to work toward creating genuinely equitable partnerships that encourage peacebuilding processes at their roots.

Key References
1. Abdi, A.A.; Shultz, L.; & Pillay, T. (Eds.) (2015). Decolonizing global citizenship education. Sense Publishers.
2. Connell, R. (2007). Southern Theory. Polity.
3. Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage, Singapore.
4. Gilder, A.; Bentley, M.; Ali, N.M.; Antoniou, N.; and Lai, D. (2022). Peer learning and student ownership in an international environment: A student-created website on human rights and peacebuilding. European Journal of Legal Education, 3(1), pp. 49–67.
5. Lederach, J.P. (1997). Building peace: Sustainable reconciliation in divided societies. Washingtion, DC: United Institute of Peace Press.
6. Lederach, J.P. and Appleby, R.S. (2010). Strategic Peacebuilding: An Overview. In Philpott, D. and Powers, G.F. (Eds.)(2010). Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World. (pp. 19-44). New York: Oxford University Press.
7. Mbembe, A.J. (2016). Decolonizing the university: New directions. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 15(1), pp. 29-45.
8. Melber, H. (2015). Knowledge is Power and Power Affects Knowledge: Challenges for Research Collaboration in and with Africa. Africa Development / Afrique et Developpement, 40(4), pp. 21-42.
9. Millican, J. (ed.)(2018). Universities and Conflict: The role of higher education in peacebuilding and resistance. New York: Routledge.
10. Milton, S. and Barakat, S. (2016). Higher education as the catalyst of recovery in conflict-affected societies. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 14(3), pp. 403-421.
11. Murithi, T. (2008). African indigenous and endogenous approaches to peace and conflict resolution. In Francis, D.J. (Ed.) Peace & Conflict in Africa. (pp. 16-30). New York: Zed Books.
12. Pherali, T. & Lewis, A. (2019). Developing global partnerships in higher education for peacebuilding: A strategy for pathways to impact. Higher Education, 78, pp. 729-44.
13. Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012) Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples, (2nd edition). London, Zed Books.

Author

• Nicki L. Gerstner, Seoul National University