Empathy Dynamics in Conflict Transformation
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: CREET
Abstract
Empathy Dynamics in Conflict Transformation is a knowledge exchange project designed to bring academic research into dialogue with conflict transformation experts and practitioners.
Applied linguistic research carried out by Professor Lynne Cameron at the Open University, UK investigated how people construct, negotiate or resist empathy with others through dialogue and interaction. That work has produced a model of the interactional dynamics of empathy, insights into strategies that people use to support and block empathy, and methodology for analysing the dynamics of empathy in dialogue and interaction. Initial application to post-conflict reconciliation in Northern Ireland and to conflict transformation interventions in Kenya showed the potential of the research to contribute to the field of conflict transformation. This new project aims to concretise that contribution by working further with the project partner, Responding to Conflict (RTC), a conflict transformation and peace building non-governmental organisation.
In its first phase, the project will bring together a network of academics and conflict transformation experts to produce a shared framework that maps models of conflict transformation processes against the research findings about empathy dynamics, to be called the Empathy in Conflict Map (EiC Map). The EiC Map will enable conflict transformation professionals to identify empathy dynamics that might be at play at different stages of conflict transformation and thus to design more effective interventions and training.
The second phase will operationalise the Empathy in Conflict Map through collaborative work in Kenya (post-conflict) and Nepal (settlement phase of conflict) with conflict transformation practitioners and parties to conflict. In north-west Kenya, RTC has contributed to successful conflict transformation through the Integrated Peace and Livelihood Project, Diocese of Maralal (IPLP). On-going conflict between tribes of pastoralists has been hugely reduced through road-building and other projects. Our knowledge exchange work there will use people's stories of key moments in conflict transformation, and video of important locations, to understand how empathy worked in this successful case. Since we will be visiting Kenya shortly after the elections planned for December 2012, we will also be able to evaluate the resilience of the conflict transformation during the potentially-sensitive election period.
RTC has an ongoing project in Nepal working to reintegrate un-acknowledged former child soldiers in partnership with Child Workers Concerned Centre, Nepal (CWIN). Without a deep understanding between conflicting parties of the positions, interest and needs of each other, effective reconciliation cannot take place. The learning from the LwU project will be drawn upon to map people's positions, interests and needs and help CWIN identify entry points and strategies for encouraging empathy in the dialogue process. Stories and videos from Nepal will be brought to the UK and used in a workshop for Nepali staff of CWIN. Training at the workshop will help with understanding how empathy can be supported and how blocks to empathy can be removed.
The third phase of the project will bring conflict transformation experts back together to learn what happened when the Empathy in Conflict Map was used in Kenya and Nepal and to discuss implications. The knowledge exchange cycle will be completed with the production of training materials and activities, and online videos accessible to a wider audience.
Applied linguistic research carried out by Professor Lynne Cameron at the Open University, UK investigated how people construct, negotiate or resist empathy with others through dialogue and interaction. That work has produced a model of the interactional dynamics of empathy, insights into strategies that people use to support and block empathy, and methodology for analysing the dynamics of empathy in dialogue and interaction. Initial application to post-conflict reconciliation in Northern Ireland and to conflict transformation interventions in Kenya showed the potential of the research to contribute to the field of conflict transformation. This new project aims to concretise that contribution by working further with the project partner, Responding to Conflict (RTC), a conflict transformation and peace building non-governmental organisation.
In its first phase, the project will bring together a network of academics and conflict transformation experts to produce a shared framework that maps models of conflict transformation processes against the research findings about empathy dynamics, to be called the Empathy in Conflict Map (EiC Map). The EiC Map will enable conflict transformation professionals to identify empathy dynamics that might be at play at different stages of conflict transformation and thus to design more effective interventions and training.
The second phase will operationalise the Empathy in Conflict Map through collaborative work in Kenya (post-conflict) and Nepal (settlement phase of conflict) with conflict transformation practitioners and parties to conflict. In north-west Kenya, RTC has contributed to successful conflict transformation through the Integrated Peace and Livelihood Project, Diocese of Maralal (IPLP). On-going conflict between tribes of pastoralists has been hugely reduced through road-building and other projects. Our knowledge exchange work there will use people's stories of key moments in conflict transformation, and video of important locations, to understand how empathy worked in this successful case. Since we will be visiting Kenya shortly after the elections planned for December 2012, we will also be able to evaluate the resilience of the conflict transformation during the potentially-sensitive election period.
RTC has an ongoing project in Nepal working to reintegrate un-acknowledged former child soldiers in partnership with Child Workers Concerned Centre, Nepal (CWIN). Without a deep understanding between conflicting parties of the positions, interest and needs of each other, effective reconciliation cannot take place. The learning from the LwU project will be drawn upon to map people's positions, interests and needs and help CWIN identify entry points and strategies for encouraging empathy in the dialogue process. Stories and videos from Nepal will be brought to the UK and used in a workshop for Nepali staff of CWIN. Training at the workshop will help with understanding how empathy can be supported and how blocks to empathy can be removed.
The third phase of the project will bring conflict transformation experts back together to learn what happened when the Empathy in Conflict Map was used in Kenya and Nepal and to discuss implications. The knowledge exchange cycle will be completed with the production of training materials and activities, and online videos accessible to a wider audience.
Planned Impact
Who will benefit from this research?
The project partner will benefit from engagement with the research to focus explicitly on empathy dynamics in their ongoing work. They already acknowledge the importance of empathy in their conflict transformation practice, and, from their knowledge of the PI's research in the Living with Uncertainty project are convinced of its value for further collaborative development.
As a knowledge exchange project, the proposed activities 1-7 have been planned as engagement activities with direct beneficiaries, and to have further impact potential.
Direct beneficiaries include all those involved in project activities in the UK, Kenya and Nepal: staff at the project partner, Responding to Conflict (RTC); other organisations that deliver conflict transformation projects, peace-building and conflict transformation experts brought together in the opening and closing workshops, and in the project advisory group; conflict transformation practitioners, and people who have been parties to conflict, who we will work with in Kenya, Nepal and UK.
Indirect beneficiaries include other NGOs working in developing countries in the field of peace-building, conflict transformation and other conflict-sensitive projects such as volunteering; the donors who fund this work, including governments, philanthropic foundations and charitable organisations; policymakers at government level, for example in Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DfID, or within charitable / philanthropic organisations; practitioners in areas connected to conflict transformation, e.g. mediation, conflict resolution, and education more generally.
How will they benefit from this research?
For direct beneficiaries, the project will generate conversations, collaborations, new models of conflict transformation and tools for effective interventions, that each bring the dimension of empathy dynamics into conflict transformation processes. Concrete benefits include understandings offered by the Empathy in Conflict Map, strategies developed in the project for fostering empathy and dissolving dyspathy, alternative empathy-related indicators for progress towards positive peace, and stories and video film collected from key actor groups that may be used in dissemination, training and public engagement. Each of these also offers potential of the impact, both in the work of the direct beneficiaries and more broadly.
More effective conflict transformation intervention and evaluation should enhance the quality of life and health of parties to conflict in the project sites, producing more stable environments that support cessation of violence and peace building, increase human safety, and support the emergence of more stable, democratised societies and communities, all of which contribute to reduced global uncertainties and increased security. Social impact may also in turn lead to economic impact.
The project partner will benefit from engagement with the research to focus explicitly on empathy dynamics in their ongoing work. They already acknowledge the importance of empathy in their conflict transformation practice, and, from their knowledge of the PI's research in the Living with Uncertainty project are convinced of its value for further collaborative development.
As a knowledge exchange project, the proposed activities 1-7 have been planned as engagement activities with direct beneficiaries, and to have further impact potential.
Direct beneficiaries include all those involved in project activities in the UK, Kenya and Nepal: staff at the project partner, Responding to Conflict (RTC); other organisations that deliver conflict transformation projects, peace-building and conflict transformation experts brought together in the opening and closing workshops, and in the project advisory group; conflict transformation practitioners, and people who have been parties to conflict, who we will work with in Kenya, Nepal and UK.
Indirect beneficiaries include other NGOs working in developing countries in the field of peace-building, conflict transformation and other conflict-sensitive projects such as volunteering; the donors who fund this work, including governments, philanthropic foundations and charitable organisations; policymakers at government level, for example in Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DfID, or within charitable / philanthropic organisations; practitioners in areas connected to conflict transformation, e.g. mediation, conflict resolution, and education more generally.
How will they benefit from this research?
For direct beneficiaries, the project will generate conversations, collaborations, new models of conflict transformation and tools for effective interventions, that each bring the dimension of empathy dynamics into conflict transformation processes. Concrete benefits include understandings offered by the Empathy in Conflict Map, strategies developed in the project for fostering empathy and dissolving dyspathy, alternative empathy-related indicators for progress towards positive peace, and stories and video film collected from key actor groups that may be used in dissemination, training and public engagement. Each of these also offers potential of the impact, both in the work of the direct beneficiaries and more broadly.
More effective conflict transformation intervention and evaluation should enhance the quality of life and health of parties to conflict in the project sites, producing more stable environments that support cessation of violence and peace building, increase human safety, and support the emergence of more stable, democratised societies and communities, all of which contribute to reduced global uncertainties and increased security. Social impact may also in turn lead to economic impact.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Lynne Cameron (Principal Investigator) | |
| Alexander Laffer (Researcher) |