talking peace

For knowledge sharing between researchers, practitioners and policymakers

This dialogue series is jointly organised by bicc, RPTU Friedensakademie and UNU-EHS

Large-scale land-use changes—associated with development corridors, extractive industries, conservation initiatives as well as climate adaptation projects—profoundly reshape the social and political orders in which they unfold. They also frequently exacerbate existing conflicts, generate new ones, or sustain and intensify structural violence. Under some circumstances, however, they also contribute to peace.

The sessions explore the multiple relationships between infrastructure and environmental change on the one hand, and violence and conflict on the other. The focus is on the power-laden dynamics through which infrastructure development and environmental transformation intersect with different forms of conflict and violence, their drivers, current challenges and sustainable pathways.

The series is guided by the following questions:

• Violence and peace: How do environmental changes, and the social and political consequences of economic infrastructure, conservation  and climate adaptation projects interact with dynamics of violence and peace?
• Power relations: What power relations mediate such interactions?
• Policy implications: What solutions can foster peace and what are current challenges to advancing such solutions?

The series provides a platform for researchers and practitioners to present diverse perspectives on the questions raised above. It also serves as a space for networking, for deepening inter- and transdisciplinary debate and for fostering collaboration among researchers, practitioners and policymakers working across these issues. By fostering these conversations, we seek to put perspectives of local communities that are most affected by development interventions, conflict, and climate change centre-stage.

Key information:

• Monthly sessions take place every second Thursday of the month
• Moderation is shared between bicc, RPTU Friedensakademie and UNU-EHS
• Format: presentation or panel followed by moderated discussion