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This volume is a documentation
of the proceedings of the Southeast Asian Conflict
Studies Network (SEACSN) Regional Workshop on
Culture and Conflict Resolution, which was organized
in the Philippines from the 30th of November
to the 4th of December 2001 in Davao City. This
workshop is the second of a series or regional
workshops organized by the SEACSN with support
from the Swedish International Development and
Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The first regional
workshop was on Ethnic and Religious Conflicts
in Southeast Asia organized this year in Indonesia.
In this regional workshop held in the Philippines, particular
focus was given on culture as a factor to be examined
in order that the understanding of various conflict situations
may be deepened. Culture is also an important aspect
to consider in developing more appropriate and effective
strategies for conflict resolution or management. Culture
cannot be neglected because both peace and conflict contain
what a people aspire for and value in their collective
lives. Moreover, both conflict and its management involve
a grammar that is necessary for the production of meaningful
action. This grammar, which forms the essence of culture,
consists of the prescriptions that make up the explanations
for conflict and the practices engaged in for the resolution
of conflict.
This workshop was organized with the intention of determining
local theories of conflict and of examining local practices
of conflict resolution and peacemaking. The questions
that were to be answered through the papers and discussions
in the workshop were the following:
- What are a group or community’s perceptions
of, and understandings about the nature of conflict?
What various aspects of community life and experience
contribute to these perceptions and understandings?
- What is a group or community’s history of
conflict? What characterizes its relations with whom
conflict is experienced? What meaningful events contributed
to the nature of conflict as experienced and understood?
How are the actions of conflicting parties understood?
What are highlighted in the identities of the parties
within the experience of conflict?
- What are considered appropriate methods for resolving
conflict? What are the important elements within
the dynamics of accepted conflict resolution techniques?
What issues emerge in third party intervention undertaken
in the resolution of conflict within a community?
- What are the issues from the local or community’s
point of view that require responses or solutions
regarding conflict and its resolution?
These questions were considered from various perspectives
and from different points of view. As a result, we obtained
from the workshop a wealth of ideas and concerns that
basically came from the involvement of each participant
as regards conflict and peace research and practice of
conflict resolution. We therefore, have in this set of
proceedings a variety of themes that sought to address
the basic questions framed within each symposium. The
papers and discussions produced several important issues,
which were later identified for discussion in the workshops
that followed the paper symposia.
This volume contains the summaries of the papers presented
and the highlights of the discussions during the symposia,
the workshops, and in the dialogue that was organized
with Philippines peace advocates. The papers in their
complete forms are to be published in a separates volume.
The goals of the regional workshop have been achieved
in basically two ways. First, the concerns and issues
confronting both the practitioner and the researcher
were identified when more specificity is given to the
examination of conflict situations and conflict resolution
processes. Second, the various hues that define culture
as far as conflict and its resolution are concerned have
been brought out through the workshop papers and discussion.
What emerge are interesting accounts of local meanings
that need analysis at later times. |
