Sociality, Reciprocity, and Solidarity

This chapter unpacks three key conceptual components of everyday peace: sociality, reciprocity, and solidarity. The chapter has two parts. In the first, the concepts are unpacked in the abstract. In the second, they are illustrated, mainly by drawing on a set of interviews from Lebanon. Sociality, reciprocity, and solidarity are regarded as occupying a continuum, with sociality requiring a minimum commitment and solidarity requiring explicit action such as standing with members of an out-group when they are under threat. The chapter helps illustrate how everyday peace is a way of reasoning as well as a set of activities. It also helps illustrate how individuals and communities may not always be consistent in their everyday peace actions and stances. The interview material from Lebanon helps shows the tactical agency that individuals and communities use when living side by side with out-group members and how this might change over time.