As I have been working through many of the books of Peace Studies scholar-practitioner John Paul Lederach, here’s one from the late 90’s. Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, as the title suggests, has a strong focus on the role of culture in conflict transformation.
Lederach observes rightly that so much of conflict intervention training treats culture as a skill or an additional step of application after learning technique and methodology that often comes in a once size fits all training. Lederach offers a strategy and approach to conflict mediation across cultures that works within culture. Culture becomes an active agent and key variable to the conflict intervention process through the use of language, metaphor, storytelling, and the awareness of power and ethical engagement.
Another key feature of Preparing for Peace is the focus on training methodology. Lederach criticizes heavily “expert” models in which a single person delivers content and expertise and then participants must squeeze their culture or experiences into what they learn. He argues for a more empowering model that cultivates not just technique and skill, but increased awareness and the empowerment that comes through actively participating and creating/shaping the learning process. His approach seems to be a blend of adult learning education and cross-cultural communication theory.
There’s a great amount of wisdom in this book both in terms of culture, leadership, conflict, training, and education. Of all his books, this is the one most focused on training methodology when dealing with conflict in a particular context.
