SECURITY CULTURE IN THE FUNCTION OF CREATING A CULTURE OF PEACE

The current crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has destroyed many lives and economies of many countries around the world, has shown, more than ever, how much the need for security has become more pronounced. Due to uncertainty, fear of the unknown and permanent concern about how the crisis will affect them, their loved ones and their existence in general, people are trying to regain predictability, order and control in their lives. Of course, this includes all aspects of “security”: emotional security, physical security, financial security, the effectiveness of law and justice, freedom from fear, social stability, security of property, health and well-being. stress, and even today they face a life in which there is little order and predictability. Although rational beings, they have not yet adopted a security culture as a kind of skill of living, which is a precondition for creating cultures of peace and non-violence, which is key to human existence and prosperity.

Peace (Re)building Initiatives: Insights from Southern Kaduna, Nigeria

Violent conflicts and crime have reached new heights in Nigeria, as cases of kidnapping, armed banditry, and communal unrests continue to tear at the core of the ethnoreligious divides in the country. Southern Kaduna has witnessed a virulent spree of communal unrest in northern Nigeria over the last decade due to its polarized politics and power differentials between the various groups in the area, particularly the Christians and Muslims, who are almost evenly split. In response to their experiences of violence, the people of that region have also shown incredible resilience and grit in transforming their stress and suffering. This policy note focuses on the transformative practices of the Fulani and other ethnic communities in southern Kaduna in terms of how they problem-solve deep-seated socio-political rivalries and violent relations by working through their shared identity, history, and cultures of peace. The note explores how peace practitioners and donor agencies could consolidate local practices of sustaining peace as complementary or alternative resources to the state’s liberal system.

Rethinking the Cultural Politics of Punk

This chapter is a reconsideration of the contribution punk rock made to antinuclear and antiwar expression and campaigning in the 1980s in Britain. Much has been written about the avant-garde, underground, independent, DIY, and grass-roots (counter)cultural politics of punk and post-punk, but the argument here is that such scholarship has often been at the expense of considering the music’s hit and even chart-topping singles. The chapter has three aims: first, to trace the relations between punk and cultures of war and peace; second, to reframe punk’s protest within a mainstream pop music context via analysis of its antiwar hit singles in two key years, 1980 and 1984; third, more broadly, to further our understanding of (musical) cultures of peace. Punk was a pop phenomenon, but so was political punk: the vast majority of the many pop hit songs and headline acts with antiwar and antinuclear messages in the military dread years of the early 1980s were a lot, or a bit, punky. This chapter argues that a wider and at the time significantly higher-profile social resonance of punk has been overlooked in the subsequent critical narratives. In doing so it seeks to revise punk history, and retheorize punk’s social contribution as a remarkable music of truly popular protest.

Resilience Humanitarianism and Peacebuilding

How do we build the foundations for more resilient social, economic, and political systems and link individual with collective resilience to sustain change across generations? These are pressing questions in the fields of resilience humanitarianism and peacebuilding, fields that seek transformative, sustainable changes to achieve ambitious goals affecting research, policy and practice. This chapter provides three examples of systems-level thinking on resilience that have structured the architecture of the humanitarian and peacebuilding agenda. These examples offer proof-of-concept approaches to synergistically foster wealth, health, and peace, in ways that link: resilience and peacebuilding to household wealth and food security; resilience and social cohesion to individual health and stress regulation; and cultures of peace to caregiving and early child development. They emphasize a theory of change that strives to strengthen the social compact between state, civil society, and families in contexts of fragility, conflict, or forced displacement. Resilience is an everyday practice for crisis-affected communities, one rooted in the political economy of social action and structural transformation. Efforts to build systems-level resilience require careful work with respect to conceptual clarity, meaningful measurement, and grounded intervention.

Peace Education in Times of Covid-19: Rethinking Other Kind of Logic from the Imagination, Fantasy, Creativity and Utopia

This article aims to reflect on the challenges of peace education in times of Covid-19 global pandemic from a positive perspective, understood as a new opportunity for education to consider the teaching of how to make peace from our daily experiences; and in this way, humanity can forge a more peaceful future. In this task, the use of imagination, fantasy and creativity as educational resources will be revalued. Likewise, utopia is proposed as that unknown horizon, still to come, that will show us, in the face of so many doubts and uncertainties, those possible scenarios which will motivate us to continue working for cultures of peace. This reflection starts from the Reconstructive-Empowering Peace Education approach that I have been proposing in my research as a member of the Interuniversity Institute of Social Development and Peace.

Stigma and mental health: The curious case of COVID-19

Introduction: This article considers the impact of COVID-19 on stigma and mental health across the life spectrum and the ways that people access services. Purpose: To explore the ways that a pandemic (COVID-19) has changed/shifted the relationship between mental illness or mental ill health and stigma across the life spectrum and call to re-focus resources on sustainable healthy societies, building cultures of peace. Methodology: A literature search was employed, combined with informal interviews and observation. Results and Discussion: On the one hand, the pandemic has opened public discussion of mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression, reducing some of the stigma attached as the experience is more common amongst people who have not previously declared mental health challenges. On the other hand, people previously experiencing mental ill health have mostly had that health challenge exacerbated by the pandemic. With fewer resources available, and changes in service delivery to largely on-line resources, the reduction in stigma has not meant better mental health care and services, but rather further marginalized some of the population. Cultures of peace are inclusive and provide space for full growth of all citizens, in contrast to reactive approaches now more readily applied. Mental health services are a basic right for all people and should be considered as such in all planned health strategies. Limitations: The article focuses on literature review, anecdotal and observation and is focused over a short term, in North America. It is a preliminary study. Strengths: As a preliminary study, the article highlights an emergent and present dilemma. It also highlights the need for a much more holistic, global approach to mental health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Conclusion: While there are calls for national strategies for mental health services and services for people with dementia, in particular, there is still a need to take a more holistic approach to mental health as part of a whole health strategy to support human dignity and inclusion across the lifespan

Pedagogies for Building Cultures of Peace: Challenging Constructions of an Enemy: International Issues in Adult Education, Volume 25

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Pedagogies for Building Cultures of Peace: Challenging Constructions of an Enemy: International Issues in Adult Education, Volume 25

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