​The Moral Imagination and Peacemaking

From Conflict Resolution to Social Healing
​
in appreciation of the work of John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach

John Paul Lederach is professor of international peacebuilding at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Angela Jill Lederach is a research associate at the Center for Public Policy Studies in Boulder, Colorado.  John is the author of The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace and the two of them are authors of When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation.  Their approach to peacemaking invites a shift in worldview which resembles and enriches a process or Whiteheadian approach  This page combines excerpts of reviews of their books with a short synopsis of a Whiteheadian approach to peacemaking. ​

The Art of Peacemaking:
​A Process Approach

Process Philosophy supports "a context-based, dynamic platform capable of generating nonviolent solutions."  

In process philosophy peacemaking unfolds, not only with negotiations and agreements, but with a recognition of the centrality of relationships in human life; an appreciation of local communities; and the cultivation of the moral imagination. This does not mean that international agreements and treatises are unimportant; it simply means that they are not enough.  Deeper than an agreement is mutual transformation for the sake of a just and sustainable world.  Accordingly, In an age of global climate change, the everpresent threat of nuclear war, political and economic breakdown, process peacemakers want to help bring about local communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, multicultural, humane to animals, and ecologically wise, with no one left behind.  

The work of John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach embodies the spirit of a process approach.  ​

A Shift in Worldview
Twelve Themes ​

​The Moral Imagination in Whiteheadian Perspective

​John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach propose that constructive peacemaking requires a shift in worldview.  What might this shift entail?  Here are twelve aspects of the shift as proposed by those influenced by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead:

1)  From "us" and "them" to a web of relationships in which all persons have stories to be heard and respected.

2)  From the world as a machine to the world as an organic journey with an open future capable of novelty.

3)  From identities as fixed and abstract to identities as concrete, flexible, and relational.  Identities are not simply assigned by others, they are also created out of the complexities of relationships; and people are always more than their identities.
 
4)  From ethics as rule-guided behavior alone to ethics as respect and care inspired by the moral imagination.

5)  From divinity as a bully in the sky to divinity as a the sacred whole of the universe arcing toward love and justice.

6)  From peacemaking as conflict resolution alone to peacemaking as attention to social healing in relational contexts.

7)  From the idea that there is one 'right' way of being human to a recognition that there are many ways of being human and that diversity makes the whole richer.  

8)  From the idea that lasting change comes through violence to the idea that lasting change comes through non-violent creative transformation.

9) From the idea that peacemaking can be separated from environmental well-being to a recognition that humane, sustainable communities are essential to peace.

10) From the idea that peace is peace among humans to the idea that peace includes peace with other animals and the earth.

11)  From the idea that that peace can be achieved through unilateral control or domination -- as in the domination of one nation over others -- to the idea that peace emerges through constructive interaction among relevant parties.

12) From the idea that beauty (harmony and intensity in relationships) plays no role in constructive peacemaking to the idea that peace is itself a form of beauty.

Of course, Whiteheadians well recognize that worldviews alone cannot achieve peace.  They are means to the ends of peace, but peace is always more than "thinking in new ways."  It entails and requires immersion in the concreteness of daily life: the messiness of local situations, the hard work of listening and forgiving, and a commitment to the grittiness of love.  Peace is not a once and for all achievement but an ongoing process, needful of renewal at every level and at every moment.  Its emergence depends, not only who what we do but also on who we are.  Ultimately, the Whiteheadian approach emphasizes the becoming of peace within the human heart and within relationships as the ground and outcome for lasting peace. The Lederachs point us in the right direction.

-- Jay McDaniel

​Reading the excerpts from the first chapter of The Moral Imagination not only resonates with my understanding of a process view of social change, it inspires me to engage in the kind of moral imagination that can take the “risk of stepping into the mystery of the unknown that lies beyond the far too familiar landscape of violence.” Lederach’s language seems quite congenial to a process thought. The centrality of “creativity” and “transformation” in peacebuilding falls just short of the language of “creative transformation,” which is, for me, at the heart of process theological ethics. The dynamic relational dimensions of a process worldview appears to be embedded in Lederach’s conviction that peace takes place within the context of “relational platforms” that do not lead us to a static set of agreements to address conflicts, but rather – as the quote I began with states –takes us into the risky “mystery of the unknown” where peace beckons as wider, more inclusive community. Finally, the observation of how the moral imagination of peacebuilding “must have one foot in what is and one foot beyond what exists” bears remarkable resemblance to Whitehead’s understanding of the role of propositions—those hybrid entities that meld concrete actualities with novel possibilities. The very notion of “moral imagination” captures well the idea found in Whitehead’s contention that propositions serve as lures for feeling toward change. Indeed, “moral imagination” is suggestive of how we might bring together the insights of process thought with the insights of virtue theory and narrative ethics in the quest for building peace.

-- Paul Bube

Peacemaking:
​Exercising the Moral Imagination as it emerges from the 'hard realities of human affairs.' ​

"This book poses the question, “How do we transcend the cycles of violence that bewitch our human community while still living in them?” Peacebuilding, in the view of this book, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, this book says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act — an exercise of what the book terms the “moral imagination.” This imagination must, however, emerge from and speak to the hard realities of human affairs. The peacebuilder must have one foot in what is and one foot beyond what exists. The book is organized around four guiding stories that point to the moral imagination but are incomplete. The book seeks to understand what happened in these individual cases and how they are relevant to large-scale change. The purpose is not to propose a grand new theory; instead it wishes to stay close to the “messiness” of real processes and change, and to recognize the serendipitous nature of the discoveries and insights that emerge along the way. Like most professional peacemakers, the author of this book sees his work as a religious vocation."

-- The Moral Imagination, Oxford Press

​The Moral Imagination:
Imagining ourselves in a web of relationships
that includes our "enemies"

​"Moral imagination requires the capacity to imagine ourselves in a web of relationships, one that includes even our enemies.

1. It requires the ability to embrace complexity without getting caught up in social schism.
2. It requires a commitment to the creative act.
3. It requires an acceptance of the risk that necessarily goes along with attempts to transcend violence.

To foster moral imagination, we must understand the dynamics of protracted violence, the destructive legacy such violence leaves, and why breaking these violent patterns is so difficult. In addition, we must explore how the creative process can help to bring about social change and transform human relationships."

-- from review of John Paul Lederach's The Moral Imagination in Beyond Intractability

​The Moral Imagination:
Providing spaces for creativity and new ways of thinking

​"Moral imagination arises through creative human action that arises out of the everyday and yet moves beyond what exists to something new and unexpected. Because new ways of thinking may pose a threat to the status quo, it is important to provide space for the creative act to emerge. This requires a commitment to creativity and a belief that it is possible to move beyond the parameters of what is commonly accepted. This quality of providing for and expecting the unexpected is well-known in the world of artists and needs to be cultivated in the world of peacebuilders. Creativity opens us to avenues of inquiry and provides us with new ways to think about social change."

-- from review of John Paul Lederach's The Moral Imagination in Beyond Intractability

​The Moral Imagination:
Focusing on the building of relationships and not simply the arrival of agreements

​"Constructive change is a matter of moving parties toward a relationship of love rather than one of fear. While relationships of love are characterized by openness, mutual respect, and dignity, relationships characterized by fear are defined by blame, self-justification, and violence. Constructive social change seeks to change the dynamics of human interaction that uphold relational dignity and respectful engagement.

Most of the conflict resolution literature offers an image of violent conflict and peacebuilding as a rising and then falling line of escalation. This image emphasizes negotiation of the symptomatic and more visible expressions of conflict, but not the relational context that generates the fighting. In short, it focuses on reaching an agreement, rather than healing damaged relationships.

But what is an agreement? The true nature of social and human change is obscured by the metaphor of agreement and the linear image of conflict. Speaking of agreement implies that the parties have reached a solution and that the conflict has ended. However, it appears that agreements that end conflict are difficult to find. In fact, most peace accords propose negotiated processes and aim at stopping the shooting and killing. While these are laudable goals, they are only a small part of the change process that needs to occur."

-- from review of John Paul Lederach's The Moral Imagination in Beyond Intractability

​The Moral Imagination:
The development of context-based, relational platforms aimed at long-term solutions

​"According to Lederach, to sustain change processes, people need to shift to a context-based, dynamic platform capable of generating nonviolent solutions to ongoing episodes of conflict. Peaceful transformation requires a long-term view that involves ongoing changes to relationships and addresses both the episodic expressions of conflict and its relational core. This is matter of being capable of responding to day-to-day issues while also launching new ideas for long-term change. Thus, we should not think of the post-agreement phase as a distinct temporal time period, but as a phase connected to the broader processes of social change. Lederach suggests that the multiple processes that are required to create and sustain ongoing change can be built by supporting the constructive engagement of people who have been historically divided. These relational platforms are more important than any individual solutions that are created. While agreements may solve specific problems, platforms generate processes that may ultimately be able to transform the relationships that lie at the root of conflict. Without these deeper processes of genuine engagement, the peace agreement will collapse."

-- from review of John Paul Lederach's The Moral Imagination in Beyond Intractability

The Constructive Role of Music Making, Metaphor Creating, and Storytelling

​"Around the world, communities that have suffered the trauma of unspeakable violence – in Liberia, Somalia, West Africa, Colombia, and elsewhere – are struggling to recover and reconcile, searching for ways not just to survive but to heal. 

In When Blood and Bones Cry Out, John Paul Lederach, a pioneer of peacebuilding, and his daughter, Angela Jill Lederach, show how communities can recover and reconnect through the power of making music, creating metaphors, and telling their extraordinary stories of suffering and survival.

Instead of relying on more common linear explanations of healing and reconciliation, the Lederachs demonstrate how healing is circular, dynamic, and continuing, even in the midst of ongoing violence. They explore the concept of "social healing," a profoundly important intermediary step between active warfare and reconciliation. Social healing focuses on the lived experience of those who have suffered protracted violence and their need to give voice to that experience, both individually and collectively. Giving voice, speaking the unspeakable, in words and sounds that echo throughout traumatized communities, can have enormous healing power.

Indeed, the Lederachs stress the remarkable effects of sound and vibration through tales of Tibetan singing bowls, Van Morrison's transcendent lyrics, the voices of mothers in West Africa, and their own personal journeys. They also include inspiring stories of transformation: a mass women's protest movement in Liberia that forces leaders to keep negotiating until a peace agreement is signed; elders in Somalia who walk between warring clans year after year to encourage dialogue; former child soldiers who run drum workshops and grow gardens in refugee camps; and rape victims in Sierra Leone who express their pain in poetry. With equal measures of insight and compassion, When Blood and Bones Cry Out offers a promising new approach to healing traumatized communities. " 

-- description offered by publisher: Oxford Press

Intertview with John Paul Lederach
​

On Being Studios · John Paul Lederach — The Art of Peace (Jan 12, 2012)

After trauma, music permits us to touch again​​, to feel touched, and to touch our own person and voice

MS. TIPPETT: Right? And, I mean, you've experienced this in many, many places how music has this power to be transcendent and to help people transcend the moment. I mean, again, we've all experienced that in less extreme circumstances, but also to connect the mind and the heart, right? That place where we try to put words around things and that level of blood and bone where we are inhabiting the experience.

MR. LEDERACH: Yeah. Well, this was in part — music, among other things, is based very much on sound, and sound is based on vibration. So the way we experience music is much more holistically — it's a whole body experience. And music, sound, smell — there are several of our senses — are among the things that permit us to move and transport us in time, actually. You can hear a song and it will take you back to a moment.

MS. TIPPETT: Yeah.

MR. LEDERACH: Or you can catch a certain smell and it will suddenly feel like you're transported. And this notion of transportability, we think, is a window into several places in which reconciliation and healing would do well to give more consideration to.

MS. TIPPETT: Right.

MR. LEDERACH: One is that this idea that vibration touches us, and that quite often what people talk about when they talk about peace-building or they talk about violation or they talk about a peace process, their biggest complaint is they don't have a voice in the things that are happening. Now, we often take the notion of voice out to the notion of power, which is one element of it, but there is another element that that word "voice" is a metaphor for, which is that violation, violence, numbs people. It leaves people feeling numb. And there's an element that when we find that a lot of what's happening for the healing is about feeling like a person again, that those are things that fall below the speakable. They are dealing with acts that were unspeakable and they are moving into the arena of the ineffable. And in that I think what music does is it permits people to touch again, to feel touched by, and to even maybe touch their own sense of personhood and voice. And so while you may not be able to explain, you may not be able to speak your way through certain things, there are times in which music and/or sound may in fact permit that to happen in a much deeper way.