Search results for ""Author John Paul Lederach""

John Paul Lederach's work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding, in his view, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, he says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the "moral imagination."

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For eight years, the San Francisco neighborhood of Bernal Heights was mired in controversy. Traditionally a working-class neighborhood known for political activism and attention to community concerns, Bernal housed a diverse population of Latino, Filipino, and European heritage. The branch library, beloved in the community, was being renovated, raising the issue of whether to restore or paint over a thirty-year-old mural on its exterior wall. To some of the residents the artwork represented their culture and their entitlement to live on the hill. To others, the mural blighted a beautiful building. To resolve this seemingly intractable conflict, area officials convened a mediation led by Roy, an experienced mediator and Bernal resident. The group, which reflected the wide range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds in the community, ultimately came to a strong consensus, resulting in the reinterpretation of the artwork to reflect changing times and to honor the full population of the neighborhood. The Bernal Story recounts in detail how the process was designed, who took part, how the group of twelve community representatives came to a consensus, and how that agreement was carried into the larger community and implemented. Roy's firsthand account offers an essential tool for training community leaders and professional mediators, a valuable case history for use in sociology and conflict resolution courses, and a compelling narrative.

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Designing Peace asks, how might we collectively put our creative forces together to envision a future we want to live in and take action to create it now? This book is an intersectional snapshot of the actions—culturally diverse and wide-ranging in scale—that are currently in play around the world. Offering perspectives on peace through essays, interviews, critical maps, project profiles, data visualizations, and art, this book conveys the momentum that design can gain in effecting a peace-filled future. From activists, scholars, and architects to policymakers, graphic, game, and landcape designers, Desiging Peace flips the conversation: peace is not simply a passive state signifying the absence of war, it is a dynamic concept that requires effort, expertise, and multi-dimensional solutions to address its complexity. Designers engage with individuals, communities, and organizations to create a more sustainable peace—from creative confrontations that challenge existing structures, to designs that demand embracing justice and truth in a search for reconciliation. This publication aims to expand the discourse on what is possible if society were to design for peace.

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This much-needed handbook offers conflict resolution professionals working (or planning to work) in foreign countries a critical, step-by-step guide for dealing with difficult and potentially dangerous disputes in other nations. The editors, John Paul Lederach and Janice Moomaw Jenner, have gathered a stellar panel of seasoned experts who illustrate how to approach international peacebuilding with effective actions and approaches gained through experience that will contribute ultimately to a more positive outcome. Based on the experience of the contributors-- work as global peace brokers, the book includes a wide array of guidelines, pragmatic approaches, and models of constructive, culturally appropriate ways to respond to conflict.

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