Program on Urban Peacebuilding

Our education and training programs focus on linking theory and practice in urban peacebuilding. We build on the knowledge and experiences of everyday urban peacebuilders and connect that knowledge with existing research on effective approaches to peacebuilding. We identify urban peacebuilders and their allies and support their work in the violence-affected communities where they live and work. Drawing on experiential education, educational theater, simulations, and other cutting-edge approaches, these programs draw on emerging research about the most effective ways to learn about and respond to destructive conflict. In addition to advancing knowledge about urban peacebuilding and the skills needed to respond to these challenges, these educational programs provide opportunities to convene a broad array of stakeholders and further develop peacebuilding networks within and across cities.

Our goal is to conduct cutting-edge research with a diverse array of partners and to make that research accessible and widely available. Our approach is focused on understanding, amplifying, and bridging knowledge across epistemic communities in the city utilizing complexity theory, network theory, systems theory, and other interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks that allow for better understanding the generation, diffusion, and uptake of knowledge about peacemaking in urban environments. 

The past several decades of research on violence prevention clearly demonstrates that violence in cities is the result of multiple overlapping risk factors and deeper underlying cycles that produce the conditions whereby deprivation, anti-social behavior, and violence are all too likely. However, there are still too few studies that examine approaches that foster pro-social behavior, resilience, collective-efficacy, creative resistance to injustice, and other community-driven processes of change. To address this gap, we draw on an interdisciplinary approach to engaged scholarship that is grounded in the co-production of knowledge, bringing together stakeholders from various backgrounds, formal and informal actors, and academics to develop models that link theory and practice.

The Program makes this knowledge accessible and useful outside the academy through partnerships with grassroots organizations and dialogue with policymakers, as well as creative projects exploring themes with key grassroots influencers. We also disseminate this knowledge within the academy, highlighting the need for more research on urban peacebuilding through conferences focused on these themes while generating outstanding academic publications that ground us as an academic center for excellence in engaged research. 

 

We leverage our research to provide technical assistance to communities of practice. Technical assistance involves the development of tools and resources for practitioners and policymakers in order to improve a specific set of practices. This includes using data to assist practitioners and policymakers in exploring new approaches to key challenges, articulating and refining their theory of change, and developing approaches for implementing specific policies or procedures. Our strengths in this area are grounded in over 25 years of building expertise in bridging theory and practice at the Carter School and within our network of Visiting Scholars with specific expertise in cities.