Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020
Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post- conflict context A study of communication in the aftermath of the Abkhaz- Georgian armed conflict
Communication for Development One-year master 15 Credits Spring 2020 Supervisor: Josepha Wessels
Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Abstract This study aims at researching how a sustainable culture of peace can be built through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context. It does so by learning from locally based NGOs, working for a culture of peace in areas affected by the Abkhaz-Georgian armed conflict which occurred 1993 to 1994. The studied NGOs work for different components within a Culture of Peace such as; women’s rights, peace building, social and economic development, democratic participations and human rights. In order to answer the research question following sub questions are answered:
What can we learn from the experiences of the studied organizations’ participatory communication for social change? How has the culture of communication in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context been affecting the participatory communication for social change for the different organizations?
The method to collect data to the research has been through a field study in Abkhazia and outside its border on the Georgian side, in the city Zugdidi which is the closest city to the Abkhazian border. Participatory observations and interviews with representatives from the different organizations working for a culture of peace were conducted during two and a half months. The theoretical framework used for the study consists of three theories. The first is the theory of “Culture of Peace”, used to analyze how the studied NGOs are working for a culture of peace. The second is the theory “participatory communication for social change” which is used to analyze the work of the studied organizations in order to know how they work for sustainable civic engagement. Lastly, the theory used to look at how the Abkhaz-Georgian post-conflict context is affecting the communication, is the theory “culture of communication”. The findings of the research present solutions of how to practice participatory communication to build a culture of peace in a post- conflict context. However, the research also discovers how certain public values and views in a post-conflict context can hinder effective work through participatory communication as well as ways of overcoming these challenges.
Keywords: Communication for development, participatory communication, social change, civic engagement, culture of peace, peace building, post-conflict, communication culture, Abkhazia, Georgia
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all people contributing to this study. The experiences and the people I have met throughout the field study conducted for this research impacted me deeply and taught me lessons for the rest of my life.
I am particularly grateful for the warm and lovely hospitality I received throughout my fieldwork; for the assistance, time and warmth people gave me everywhere I arrived. I would like to offer my special thanks to all the respondents of the interviews, for sharing your experiences, wisdom and stories. I would not have been able to do this without them, the host-organizations, my host families, the interpreters, and the people constantly earnestly assisting me on the field. For the sake of anonymity those names will not be mentioned here. My great appreciation also goes to Dr. Minna Lundgren, researcher in sociology at Mid Sweden University who put me in contact with the host-organization from the beginning, and has been an invaluable support throughout the study. I also wish to acknowledge the help provided by Dr. Marta Lindvert, researcher in women’s entrepreneurship, as well as the support from Johanna Arkåsen, former representative for Kvinna till Kvinna in the areas I visited. My sincere appreciation also goes to my supervisor Josepha Wessels, who has helped me to find ways and solutions to conduct this study, as well as providing good encouragement and support. Lastly, I would like to thank Malmö Universitet for giving me the opportunity to study Communication for Development, and the important teaching it have been giving me through this master’s program.
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Table of Contents Abstract ...... 2
Acknowledgements ...... 3
Table of Contents ...... 4
1. Introduction ...... 5
2. Putting the research in the context of previous literature ...... 10
3. Theoretical/Conceptual Framework ...... 14
3.1 Culture of peace ...... 14
3.2 Participatory communication for social change adapted to the work of the organizations ...... 16
3.3 Culture of communication ...... 20
4. Methodology ...... 25
4.1 Field study ...... 27
4.1.1 Participatory observation ...... 28
4.1.2 Semi-structured interviews ...... 29
5. The studied organizations ...... 32
6. Analysis ...... 35
6.1 Applying the organizations’ work to a Culture of Peace ...... 35
6.2 How the organizations work with participatory communication for social change, and what we can learn from their experiences...... 37
6.2.1 Inform ...... 38
6.2.2 Involve ...... 42
6.2.3 Collaborate ...... 45
6.3 What the culture of communication looks like in the Abkhaz- Georgian post conflict context ...... 48
6.3.1 Views about family and gender norms ...... 48
6.3.2 Political and public views of NGOs ...... 51
6.3.3 Views about ethnicities ...... 53
6.3.4 Discussing solutions through the theory of culture of communication ...... 56
7. Conclusion ...... 59
8. References ...... 62
Table of figures Figure 1 : Map of Georgia with Abkhazia…………………………………………………………………………………………………....5 Figure 3: Research strategy ………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………..…..9 Figure 3: Table of culture of peace……………………………………………………………………………………………………….... 15 Figure 4: IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation………………………………….………………………………………………..………19 Figure 5: IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation explained in detail …………………………………………………………………...…20 Figure 6: Map of Abkhazia and its rayony (districts), and Zugdidi on the other side of the border ……...………………………………..25 Figure 7: The studied organizations …………………………………………...………………………………………………….……...…34 Figure 8: Table of The organizations applied to culture of peace………………………………...……………………………………...…36 Figure 9: dialogue of the components in participatory communication for social change ………………………………….………...... …37 Figure 10: Table of components in participatory communication for social change……………………………………………...……..…38
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1. Introduction “No one should experience war like we did. I want it to be peace everywhere, people to be generous, kind and open. This is what I can tell you, this is what I want everyone to understand, because when it is war people can’t develop and go further” (Sofia, interview, in Abkhazia, 12/2019)
Figure 1 : Map of Georgia with Abkhazia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Abkhazia_and_South_O ssetia#/media/File:Georgia,_Ossetia,_Russia_and_Abkhazia_(en).svg
It was after the collapse of Soviet Union, which made the entire Caucasus region political and economically unstable, that an armed conflict occurred during a 13 months period in Abkhazia in 1993 and 1994 in between Georgian and Abkhazian (with support from other Caucasus regions) forces (Accord, 1999). The Abkhazian side fought for independence and the Georgian side fought to keep Abkhazia under its governance. The Georgian and Abkhazians refer to different historical phases in their argument for the status of Abkhazia, and there is not much common ground for resolution (Stewart, 2003). International organizations, non-governmental organizations and individual states all failed to reach a resolution (Accord 1999). The war left around 10.000 to 15.000 people dead and at least 8.000 wounded (Greenberg Research, ICRC, 1999). Around 250,000 people escaped from Abkhazia, almost half of the population. Among these most of them were Georgians and Mingrelians (an ethnicity often connected to the Georgian side) (Accord, 1999). Today Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context about 45.000 to 60.000 Georgians have returned to the district in the southeast of Abkhazia which was mainly populated by Georgians and Mingrelians before the war. The rest of the people who fled are mainly living as internally displaced persons within Georgia, the majority of them in the city of Zugdidi, just south of the border to Abkhazia, and some live in other parts of the former Soviet Union. Abkhazia is now a de facto independent state, but only recognized as a sovereign state by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria, and Nauru. Consequently, the former administrative boundary line between Georgia and Abkhazia is now a de facto state border, controlled by the Abkhazian and Russian forces, and is an obstacle for those who wish to return to Abkhazia (Lundgren, 2016). Since the war Abkhazia has suffered from isolation and extended the economic and political ties with the Russian Federation (Stewart, 2003). Civic freedom of expression is lessened and questionable (Freedom House, 2018). The brutal nature of the war left wounds from ethnic sweep operations, terror, expulsions, looting and rapes inflicted on the other ethnic group. Personal experiences of ethnically based violence lead to cycles of retribution and separation of Georgian and Abkhaz people who earlier had lived peacefully together. The loss of trust between the Abkhaz and Georgians is still a major obstacle for both official negotiations and reconciliations on the ground (Stewart 2003).
This study aims at researching how a sustainable culture of peace can be built in a post conflict context like this through participatory communication.
“Peace… is not only the absence of war, peace also implies transformations capable of minimizing social inequalities…, and a concept of a culture of peace as an alternative to cultural violence.” (Vicente 2015 p.1). Furthermore, building a Culture of Peace includes working for tolerance, disarmament, sustainable economic and social development, democratic participation, gender equality, freedom of expression, and respect of human rights (Wick, 2014).
Most of the work using different communication tools in post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction are carried out by NGOs, who are funded by different donors (N.N, 2011). Therefore this paper is researching how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), who are working for any of the components of culture of peace, can communicate to engage civic society for sustainable reconstruction in a post conflict context. It will do so through
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context learning from locally based NGOs, with local staff, operating in areas affected by the Abkhazian-Georgian armed conflict. The studied organizations work for different components within a Culture of Peace such as women’s rights, peace building, social and economic development, democratic participations and human rights.
Media and communication interventions used for development in post conflict contexts today often lack focus of making a deeper and longer impact (Kalathil et al., 2008). Further, most research about communication in post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction process are made as an afterthought, rather than looking at communication processes in post conflict reconstruction for a long term development (Kalathil et al., 2008). To address this gap this research will focus on communication specifically for sustainable post-conflict reconstruction.
In order to make a deeper more sustainable impact, the cornerstone of communication for social change is to create a conceptual ground built on civic engagement to position citizen’s needs, rights and responsibilities, where local knowledge is the focus Tufte (2017) notes. Moreover, to reach a sustainable social change, all action and all change have to come from the people, because they are the key to change, according to Clammer (2012). Consequently, the research question for this study is:
How can NGOs communicate to create a culture of peace through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context?
The theory “culture of peace” will define how the studied organizations are contributing to a culture of peace. The theory that represents civic engagement and a bottom up approach in this study is participatory communication for social change; it will be used as a lens when analyzing what we can learn from the studied organizations work. Furthermore, the theory used to analyze how the Abkhaz-Georgian post-conflict context is affecting the communication is “culture of communication”. Subsequently, the theoretical frameworks for this study consist of these three theories; 1) Culture of Peace, 2) Participatory Communication for Social Change, and 3) Culture of Communication.
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Subsequently, in order to answer the question “How NGO’s can communicate to create a culture of peace through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context” following sub questions will be asked:
What can we learn from the experiences of the studied organizations’ participatory,+ communication for social change? How has the culture of communication in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context, been affecting the participatory communication for social change for the different organizations?
The method to collect data to this research has been through a field study in Abkhazia and outside its border on the Georgian side, in the city Zugdidi which is the closest city to the Abkhazian border. Interviews and field work with different organizations operating in the affected areas of the Abkhazian-Georgian war was conducted.
The research strategy is presented as following:
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
How are the the studied organizations' work relevant in building a a culture of peace? - Will be answered by caterizing the work of the organizations through the theory "culture of peace"
What can we learn from the experiences of the studied How has the culture of organizations’ participatory communication been effecting communication for social the participatory communication change? for social change for the different organizations? - Will be answered by analyzing the studied - Will be answered by analyzing organizations' work through the Abkhaz-Gerogian post conflict the theory of participatory context through the theory of commuincation culture of communication
How NGOs can communicate to create a culture of peace through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context
Figure 2: Research strategy
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2. Putting the research in the context of previous literature Following chapter will examine previous research related to the present study, and by that argue for the study’s relevance.
Kalathil et al (2008) argue that the area of media and communication of post conflict reconstruction and development is relatively under-examined. Still, almost all post-conflict interventions rely on different aspects of communication (2008, Kalathil et al). The lack of investigation in the fundamental component in peace building, in the broader context of post-conflict environments, can potentially lead to missed opportunities and negative outcomes, they explain. Kalathil et al.’s (2008) volume highlights the very important role of media and communication in post-conflict contexts in enabling citizens to engage in dialogue, serve as platforms for debates, and facilitate poverty reductions and development (Kalathil et al, 2008).This shows a research gap within this area, and opens up for a study on how a more sustainable culture of peace can be build in a post-conflict context, as the present study aims at.
Furthermore, the field Communication for Peace is closely connected to my research question, a new and emergent field which points out how communication can be used to incite and escalate violence, but also to mitigate and prevent violence (N.N 2011). Moreover, from the field of peace studies we can draw many parallels and bring knowledge and understanding to the purpose of this research. The field emphasizes a move from a top- down hierarchical approach to more inclusive, interactive tools through information, in similarity to what the present study is researching. It also emphasizes that empowerment creates better opportunities for a greater self-sufficiency of communities of crisis and conflict, where free communication and information flows are essential (N.N. 2011, p.4). In similarity, Vicente (2015) explains that to reach actions towards peace it is important that the communication comes from bottom up, from the grassroots and the civil society, in order to achieve a sustainable transformation. This in turn, can be achieved through participatory communication for social change (Cadiz, 2015). In that way, it points out the Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context relevance of a research on how participatory communication for social change can be used for a culture of peace in a post conflict context, as the present research does. However, the need for free communication and information flows in creating greater self-sufficiency of communities of crisis and conflict, demonstrates a problem in contexts where free flow of information and communication is not assured, as in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context. This adds another aspect of relevance of researching how communication in a context like this can be used for empowerment and a culture of peace.
In her article Baú (2016) tries to see the connections between participatory communication and civic engagement with post-conflict peace. In similarity to the present study, she is looking at how a communication for development approach can engage citizens in strengthening the peace building and reconstruction process in the end of the violence. Her focus lies in looking at a how a more bottom up process, based on dialogue and inclusivity, can create a peace building process that can start from the community. With this she wants to bring together notions of peace building, citizen engagement and communication for development, in similarity to the present study (2016, p.348). In conclusion, her article demonstrates that Communication for Development can play an important role in facilitating participation in peace building, and through the implementation of participatory communication and media activities (2016, p.355). With that being said, the similar focus of the present study “participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post conflict context” is also highly relevant for the field of Communication for Development.
Baú (2016) further notes that the disconnection between citizens and political leadership as well as the lack of communication and access to information in post-conflict environments, especially among certain groups, can hinder a stable peace building. Concerning the disconnection between citizens and different groups in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context, this is also adoptable to the present study. Baú (2016) continues to explain that it is crucial to amplify citizens’ voices in peace building, citizens’ engagement, and in participatory governance, such as the organizations that will be studied in the present research is doing. Moreover, Baú (2016) notes that participatory communication and customized use of media and technology can create platforms for citizens to be the agents in the national reconstruction. She also claims that too often peace-building is focusing on
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context only escaping the conflict, rather than focusing on a long-term establishment of addressing the roots of the conflict. Here, the citizens have a crucial role in a reconstruction process. It argues that when individuals participate in decision making they begin to identify themselves with the role of being a citizen and are more prone to think in terms of public good, and is most likely to succeed if it engages all groups in the society, she notes (Bau, 2016). With this being said, the importance of studying how participatory communication can be practiced in post conflict contexts, like the present study, does is verified, since it builds on citizens’ engagement. One way of building this type of reconstruction process in a post-conflict can be by building peace with local capacities and through social structures that are already in place (Bau, 2017). This can be done through addressing informal institutions and community representatives; so that new institutions based on a bottom up and community oriented values and traditions can participate in the process (Bau, 2017). This shows the relevance of the present study which researches locally based NGOs in particular, consisting of local employees, who know the social structures that are already in place in the context they work in. These people within the studied organizations can therefore be looked at as the addressed community representatives in informal institutions (their NGOs), which can contribute to the long term establishment of peace building, based on a community oriented value.
Furthermore Baú (2016) says that one very important component in the reconstruction process is that the state can provide its citizens services and accountability which they demand. Here, free flow of communication plays a big role so that communities can analyze and articulate their needs, as well as becoming aware of their rights and create a public dialogue. This however, points at the very problem of a reconstruction process in a post-conflict context like the present studied Abkhaz-Georgian context, since it does not assure any of the above components. With this being said, in the studied post-conflict context of the present research, the state(s) cannot always provide its citizens services and accountability which they demand, due to the political situation (Kolstø & Blakkisrud, 2008). Neither can a free flow of communication always be assured.
The literature presented above is all adaptable to the present study, however it does not address the challenge of how participatory communication for development can be applied
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context at a place that lack common understanding and ground due to different point of views after a conflict. How can people share a conceptual ground in places where people are segregated and have different perceptions of reality and needs? How can participatory communication for peace be carried out when freedom of speech, a free press and the right to freely participate in political debates and decision-making is not assured? In conclusion, these questions open up for the research question of the present study.
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3. Theoretical/Conceptual Framework As mentioned in the introduction, the data collected will be analyzed through three different theories used for the theoretical framework of this research. These theories are; 1) Culture of Peace, 2) Participatory Communication for Social Change, and 3) Culture of Communication.
3.1 Culture of peace The concept of a culture of peace was established year 1989, during the International Congress on Peace in the Minds of Men, by UNESCO (UN General Assembly 1997). Since then, the concept has grown in to a global movement on many levels all around the world, through participation of the civil society (Wick, 2014). Baú (2016) notes that peace can be built through many different approaches which include promoting the integration of competing or marginalized groups within the society, providing equitable access to political decision-making , social networks, economic resources and information, and rebuilding trust between communities. The interests of the minority need to be protected (Bau, 2016). In correlation, Vicente (2015) writes that peace studies are no longer only defining peace as absence of war, peace also includes a change capable of minimizing social inequalities and a concept of a culture of peace as an alternative to cultural violence. Looking at the cause of inequalities in society is an important aspect to peace building, he says. Equality enhances a peaceful co-existence (Vicente, 2015 p.3).This can be looked at as an extended view of peace studies, which also includes unjust social and economic structures. In the present research this extended view of peace studies will be defined as a “culture of peace”. This also includes information in peace building where choices are based on equitable participation of the people involved. When Vicente (2015) talk about active peace and communication from a multidimensional perspective, he says that focus is more on the social, economic and political structure of a society in order to reach a peace building process. The culture of peace encompasses, as stated in the UN resolution A/RES/52/13: “a set of values, attitudes, modes of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations” (UN, 1997). There are 7 action areas to work Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context within to enhance a “culture of peace”. These 7 areas of action will be adapted to the studied organizations in this research, and are presented as following:
The action area Description 1. Foster a culture of peace through Promoting educational curricula, promote values, attitudes education and behaviors of a culture of peace, such as peaceful conflict-resolution, dialogue, consensus-building and
active non-violence. 2. Promote sustainable economic and Promote sustainable economic and social development, by social development reducing economic and social inequalities, by working for social justice, special support to groups with special needs,
environmental sustainability, and poverty reduction 3. Ensure equality between women and Work for equality between women and men, through full men participation of women in economic, social and political decision making, eliminating of all discrimination and
violence against women, and support women in need 4. Foster democratic participation Foster democratic principles, practices and participation in all sectors of society, a transparent and accountable governance and administration, the combat against terrorism, organized crime, and corruption 5. Advance solidarity tolerance and Advance understanding, tolerance and solidarity to understanding diminish war and violent conflicts. We need to transform enemy images with understanding, tolerance and solidarity
among all peoples and cultures. Learning from our differences, through dialogue and the exchange of information 6. Support participatory communication Work for freedom of information and communication. The and the free flow of information and sharing of information and knowledge are indispensable for a culture of peace. Measures need to be taken to knowledge address the issue of violence in media, including new information and communication technologies 7. Promote international peace and Work for disarmament internationally and promote efforts security in negotiation of peaceful settlements, human security, and elimination of production and traffic of weapons, post-
conflict initiatives
Figure 3: Table of culture of peace Based on http://www.peacedayphilly.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Culture-of-Peace-Action-Areas.pdf
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
3.2 Participatory communication for social change adapted to the work of the organizations One way of creating a sustainable social change is through participatory communication for development (Tufte, 2017). This will be used as the theoretical framework in my research when analyzing how the NGOs are working for development in a post conflict context.
There are many different approaches to participatory communication for development. Cadiz (2015) definition will be the predominant in the present study. She defines participatory communication for development by summarizing different theoretical approaches and notes that it should involve the people in the community so that they feel ownership of the projects; so that it truly addresses their needs from their own perspective. Through doing this it becomes sustainable she says. Participatory communication for Development can be seen as “a planned activity, based on the one hand a participatory processes”, and on the other hand on media and interpersonal communication. This facilitates a dialogue among different stakeholders about development problem or goals, Cadiz adds (2015, p.146). Over all, the community has to be the point of departure. Self- management is the most developed form of participation, where participation is possible in the decision-making regarding selection procedures, planning and media content, she says. Participatory communication for empowerment is therefore closely related to the definition of participatory communication for development as well (Cadiz, 2015).
Further, Manyozo (2012) defines the participatory and communication approach as if it aims at reaching a community based engagement communication and a dialogic notion. He notes that the idea with the participatory and communication approach is to make development emerge from below, in a bottom up way, where the indigenous knowledge is of high value. The object of the approach can be seen as a ‘cyclical’ communication, where the reflecting, evaluation, planning and rethinking involves everyone, in this way the decision-making is suppose to be inclusive for everyone (Manyozo, 2011 p.18ff).
Tufte (2017) explains that participation in processes of change has been approached from many different perspectives thought the years. Historically participation has not been tied specifically to development cooperation, but to different visions of citizens’ engagement for social and structural change (Tufte, 2017, p.60). The theory of participation related to
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context decision-making and democracy can be found in literature already in the 18th century (Baú, 2016 p.352). Later, in the second half of the 19th century, Henry Main’s notion of participation in civic life gained more importance. He argued that if people had the opportunity to participate in decision-making they would be more inclined to think in terms of the public good and identify themselves with the role of being a citizen (Bau, 2016 p.352). During the 1990 and the new millennium there was a particularly strong focus on participation in governance, such as policy processes and as a means to enhance public sector accountability (Tufte, 2017 p.62). Tufte (2017) argues that the many different discourses on participation that evolved during the 1990 created the dominant discourse on participation today. This discourse includes a rights-based approach to participation in political perspectives and changed power-relations. During this time even the field of Commuincation for Dvelopment was shifting more and more from a one way communication where “imposing predetermined polices on the poor” (Mudgal, 2015 p.113) towards a more bottom up planning. The new approach today is more participatory, inclusive and takes the indigenous knowledge into account better (Mudgal, 2015 p.113).
Tufte (2017) further explains that today, the notions of participatory communication in social change can be associated with two locations of action; participatory communication in development projects, and community based participatory communication. The former is more tied to development projects and associated with more system-driven communicative- driven processes. The latter is more associated with informal citizen initiatives and the field of community media. In this research the focus will be on communication in development projects.
The baseline in different approaches within social change processes are different discussions around voice and agency as well as activism and empowerment, Tufte (2017) argues. When it comes to participatory communication in development in particular, Cadiz (2015) notes that it can happen on many different levels; community/local level, international, national, as well as an organizational and project management level. In this research it will be looked at organizational and project management level.
Cadiz (2015) also points out that the model of participatory communication for development is founded on Freire’s model of dialogue. Fraire is one of the most influential
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context thinkers about education and dialogue and was active in the late twentieth century. His concern was that traditionally pedagogy was oppressive and dehumanizing, and therefore worked to develop pedagogy that could liberate the “oppressed”. One of his most famous books is “Pedagogy of the oppressed” 1970 (Fraire, 1970). A quote of Freire summarizes the importance of participatory communication well:
“As groups begin to see themselves and their society from their own perspective and become aware of their potentialities, hopelessness is replaced by hope. Society now reveals itself as something unfinished, it is not a given but a challenge. This new critical optimism leads to a strong sense of social responsibility and of engagement in the task of transforming society” (Freaire, 1970).
Cadiz (2015) summarizes how Fraire’s characteristics for participatory communication inform us about the most important characteristics within participatory communication for development. These are as following: 1) Communication between equals; the equality between the change agent and the development partner. 2) Problem-posing; a problem- posing dialogue drawing from the learner’s and people’s knowledge and experiences, rather than presenting solutions to development problems. 3) Praxis, a cycle of action and reflection; adopting people’s experiences, and drawing analysis from theories and generalizations from lessons learned through reflections. 4) Conscientizing; a process of applying critical consciousness in a dialogue, where development partners and the participants grow in an understanding for the human, social and development process. 5) “The five values; in order to make it a true dialogue” which have to be applied. These values are; love, humility, hope, faith in development partners capability, and critical thinking.
There are different approaches in trying to conceptualize participation in to different levels. One of the more famous models of participation is Sherry Arnstein’s ladder of participation (Arnstain, 1969). A more recent model used for practitioners of participation based on Arnstain’s ladder is the “spectrum of public participation”, presented below, and conceptualized by the international association of public participation (IAP2). In the spectrum of public participation IAP2 present 5 levels; inform, consult, involve, collaborate
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context and empower. The highest level you can have is if you have applied all of them. This model will later be used in the analysis of the studied organizations’ work.
Figure 4: IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation Source: https://sustainingcommunity.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/spectrum-of-public-participation/
Following each level is explained more in detailed, as noted by Stuart (2017);
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
This first level of the spectrum is in fact not “participatory communication” since it only Inform: involves a one way communication. However, it still needs to be within the spectrum of participatory communication since it providing information for the community is an important foundation within participatory communication. It aims at trying to inform the public what they need to fully understand about the project or decision to reach their own conclusion. The level of “involve” is focusing on the community’s involvement in the project/program Involve: throughout the whole process. It does imply that issues that are raised should be taken in to account, but it does not necessary include that it is the public who is making the decisions. At this level the decisions are still generally made by the organization or department. The level of “Consult” focuses on feedback from the public, and can be looked at as the Consult: basic minimum for public input to a decision. It mainly includes communication from the public to the agency, so mostly one way communication, but still involves some aspects of two way communication. This feedback usually includes ideas, plans, options or issues. This can be made through surveys, focus groups, public meetings, for example. This level is useful in the beginning of a participatory communication process, for example in order to get feedback on a draft plan in the beginning of the planning process. The level of Collaborate is including the public in the decision making a lot more. It Collaborate: promises to incorporate advice and recommendation to the maximum extent possible. It is an interactive two-way process throughout the program. Here it is important to create trust and a genuine engagement in between the community and the agency. This level implies a bottom up process where the decision-making is in the hand of the Empower: public. It requires that those affected by decisions can have input into the process as well as interaction and engagement. It is meant to “implement what you decide”, but the responsibility for the decision can still be within in the agency as long as it is respecting the inputs from the public. However, less significant decisions about minor issues can still be made by the agency. The way empower is used in this spectrum is not the same as empowerment.
Figure 5: IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation explained in detail Source: https://sustainingcommunity.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/spectrum-of-public-participation/
3.3 Culture of communication The theory culture of communication will be used in the analysis, in order to understand the cultural mechanisms that affect the studied organizations’ communication with the beneficiaries.
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Communication as it is - is an extremely complex process with plenty of influencing factors of the interpretation of the information carriers. Social relationships, power structures, standards value etc, play a crucial role (Boeren, 1994, p5). A large part of social manifestations, such as communication, are based on beliefs and values (Vicente, 2015). “Interpersonal communication involves social relationships between people. Factors of power, control and dependency are inherent in social relationships, and most relationships are characterized by a certain inequality defined by differences in knowledge, wealth, position etc “(Boeren 1992, p.46).
There are many theories and models trying to explain the process of how a message is produced, disseminated, and interpreted. One of the most predominant on the field is Stuart Hall’s (1980) famous model of “encoding and decoding”. In short, it explains how the audience members are coding (interpreting) the message differently depending on what makes sense for them, based on a number of things such as connotations, social contexts, history. There are different degrees of understanding and misunderstanding in the communicative exchange which depends on the degrees of relations and equivalence established between the sender and the receiver. This in turn depends on identity or non identity in how the sender and receiver “code” the message, and how the message is interrupted. Misunderstandings are happening when there is a lack of “equivalence” between the sides (Hall, 1980). A lot more could be said around Stuart Hall’s model and other attempts to approach different communication models. However, in this theoretical framework, the focus will be on how the culture, such as values, believes, social context, and shared views, is affecting the communication between the sender and the receiver. This will be defined as “Culture of communication”, and will mainly be based on Boeren’s text from 1994 called “In other words:… the cultural dimension of communication for development”. Even though it was 26 years since Boeren wrote this text, it is still very relevant today and reminds of the important aspect of the culture within communications. The theory is relevant for this research since it is easily applicable in trying to identify the context of the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict, and what affect the communication in that specific culture. Boeren (1994) writes about the importance in taking the Culture of Communication in to account as a big influencer within the field of communication for development. He states; “the development agent and producer of communication materials
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context had to take into account the social and cultural interests of the intended beneficiaries, and had to be sensitive to the cultural dimensions of development and communication. In fact, people's culture had to be mobilized to let development succeed, and communication for development needed to reinforce the cultural identity, local values, and knowledge of people as an avenue to their active participation” (Boeren, 1994, p.2)
Hence, as communicating for social change, and in this case social change for peace building, is aiming to change the way people look at things, the way they do things, and the way they relate to each other and the world around them, this can be a highly sensitive process (Boeren 1994, p2). The cultural conditions, the psychological aspects of communication processes and the pedagogic requirements of adult education are therefore crucial to take in to regard when looking at communication for social change (Boeren 1994, p3). This goes in line with Vicente’s (2015) notes, that in order to make a structural change through creating a type of culture, we also have to remember that this culture still sometimes disagree with other more traditional cultures practiced by other parts of the population. Therefore, we have to learn to accept different cultures Vicente (2015) explains. Vicente (2015) further explains that we have to remember that different groups of people wants to see different type of changes and that no change have been created before that has not been based from peoples previous experiences and history. However, what we cannot accept in working with communication for peace is parts of those cultures who do not accept otherness as legitimate and valid, he continues. This is not an easy task, since confronting these points of views of individuals and collective positions also can include conflict. In these situations, communication can be a tool to diminish the disagreements of members of different communities (Vicente, 2015).
Interestingly, Boeren (1994) wrote this in the era when the Soviet Union was breaking up, and as the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict was going on. He writes how the end of the cold war gave hope to a long lasting peace, but how it turned out to be differently. Instead there was an outbreak of civil wars, nationalistic feelings, and open racism. Even though many of these conflicts were influenced by economic interests, most of them still came out as ethnic conflicts. He explains that time as if “groups were claiming to be from the same origin cling together to fight the ‘others’ who, in their view, assaulted, discriminated and
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context mistreated them…. A man… As a social animal he fights for the interests of his groups, for political and economic gains, but most importantly, for his cultural identity” (Boeren 1994, p.54).
With this being said, Boeren (1994) points out how cultural identity and shared ideas, customs, religious principles, and values regulates and define the relationships within the group and the outside world. Assaulting the culture of people can be more serious than economic threats or physical assaults because it hits on people’s very existence – and the direction and purpose of a groups life can have the feeling of being threatened. Subsequently, it is crucial to take this aspect in to communication and how it can be interrelated.
Culture is directly related to values, a human intervention shared by members of a group, which determine how people consider the purpose of human existence and their relations to the environment and the world around them. However, it is important to remember that value systems are rarely consistent or homogeneous (Boeren, 1994, p.61ff). Value conflicts usually occur in between different ethnic, cultural, social, political, or economic groups, as well as between individuals. Nationally, value conflict are usually based on different political views, such as democracy vs. totalitarianism, capitalism versus communism, religious principles vs. economic models, majority rule vs. minority sensitivity etc. These types of different value oriented conflicts can also happen in between different groups or cultures. Values determine our lives in most matters and are responsible for practices from anything from women’s inferior position in big parts of the world, racism, nationalism or exploitation, but also for social justice, equality, tolerance, peace and development. (Boeren, 1994, p.61ff). This all is important to take in to account when it comes to communication, considering acceptance or rejection of information and new ideas depends on values and culture (Boeren, 1994, p.63).
One way values is demonstrated in cultures within communications is through “taboos”, meaning things, practices or ideas that are avoided or prohibited by a social custom. These taboos can vary from anything from sexuality, political matters, and deceases etc. Culture and values also define the status of different roles in society. Roles are another variable to take in to account when it comes to looking at effective communication. These different
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context roles determine the communication patterns between people through codified rules. Who is saying what can be as determine as what is being said. Statuses within the community can bring either limitations or privileges when it comes to how the influential communication is, depending on public expectations and societal norm. These roles are mainly defined by age, gender and status around the world, and can also be depending on age, occupation or ethnics (Boeren, 1994).
In conclusion, Boeren (1994) points out that the most effective communication happens in- between people who have a lot in common and have some degree of mutual understanding. If the shared background is not there, one or both parties in communication should take the responsibility to increase the level of mutual understanding, which requires an open mind, a sincere interest for the others, and a common language (Boeren, 1994 p 53). With other words, in communication the participants need a common interpretation of the ideas or messages that are being exchanged (Boeren, 1994 p.26). In similarity Vicente (2015) notes that communication in peace building has to work towards actions which respect local diversity and the plurality of concepts. We need acceptance of interdependence, and a tolerance towards the diversity of social, ethnic, cultural and religious views, he says (Vicente, 2015).
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4. Methodology As mentioned in the introduction, the method to collect data to this research has been through a field study in Abkhazia and outside its border on the Georgian side, in the city (municipality) Zugdidi which is the closest city to the Abkhazian border. Zugdidi is also the closest city to the only crossing point from Georgia to Abkhazia, which is highly restricted by border guards and three checkpoints. One Georgian checkpoint on the Georgian side, who defines the border as it is an administrative boundary line (which share the view with the majority of the world), and two checkpoints on the Abkhazian side; one accompanied by Abkhazian authorities and one by Russian border guards; these defines the border as an international border. This study refrains from any political opinion about Abkhazia’s status of recognition, and aims at presenting the data as neutral as possible.
Figure 6: Map of Abkhazia and its rayony (districts), and Zugdidi on the other side of the border Source: Map drafted by the authors from multiple sources. (O'Loughlin, et al., 2011)
During the field study interviews with different representatives for locally based NGOs, working for some kind of culture of peace, was conducted on both sides of the border. What all the visited places, and the contexts the studied organizations work in, have in common is that they all have been affected by the Georgian/Abkhazian conflict. Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Furthermore, the studied organization’s also have in common is that they are all working for a culture of peace in different ways and they all are locally based non-governmental organizations. The people interviewed, who was representing their organizations, all had in common that they were women, and all of them originating from any of the areas affected by the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict. Through the interviews with these women I got information about the organizations they worked with, but I also got information which was not representative for the organization, but represented them privately. Nevertheless, this information was also relevant for the present study. The organizations will be presented in detail in next chapter “studied organizations”.
Participatory observation of these organizations’ work and contexts was also conducted. Due to security reason and in order to treat the shared information confidently, names of the organizations and the staff interviewed will be left out. The organizations names will be exchanged by numbers and the staff’s names will be exchanged by other names. In order to not being able to track the information to certain organizations based on location, the location of the organizations will not be mentioned more distinctively than “Zugdidi” or “Abkhazia”. Nevertheless, the Zugdidi municipality consist of 105.500 people (with 43.000 of those living in the city Zugdidi), and 48 administrative units (Zudgdidi Municipality City Hall, 2019). Abkhazia exist of 215.500 people and 7 “rayony”, districts (Kolstø & Blakkisrud, 2008). The political and social contexts and conditions look different at different places, and depending on what ‘people group’ you belong to. With that being said, the people interviewed and the different areas within this post-conflict context do not constitute a homogenous group. Even though it would have been relevant to take the locations and people groups in to account more, this will not be done in this research.
Furthermore, the purpose of this study is not to compare the different areas or people groups, even though the political and social conditions vary at different places, within different ethnic groups, regions, and the different sides of the Abkhazian border. Rather, the purpose is to find general potential mechanisms that affect the communication for a culture of peace that can occur in a post-conflict context like this one. With this being said, this study will present examples of such mechanisms, and these examples might not always represent all of the regions studied, or all of the organizations and beneficiaries.
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4.1 Field study Field study is a type of long participatory observation study. Participant observation, ethnography and fieldwork are often used conversely and they all include living and working among people for a longer period of time to be able to see patterns and learn how people and communities are understanding “their world” (Delamont, 2012). Fieldwork is a tool that helps us describe the various, and often conflicting, perspectives and worldviews in a community (Given, 2008). A field study is not aiming at deciding who is right and wrong, it just helps to describe and portray the situation on the field (Given, 2008). According to Hammersly & Atkinson (1995) a field study can take place in a wide variety of types of settings, what’s important is that the setting is relevant to the nature of the relationship to the people that the study want to research (1995). Seen from an ethnographic explanation, a field study should seek to understand the world view, social context and culture from the people on the field’s own perspective (Denscombe, 1998). However, since there are strict rules around what a proper ethnographic method is, which are not followed in detail in this research, and since anthropologists claim that they are the only ones who can use the true ethnographic methods, I choose to say that this research is “inspired by ethnographic methods” (Delamont, 2012).
As a conflict consists of many different points of views and as described above “conflicting perspectives in a community”, conducting a field work notably was an adaptable method in this present study in order to grasp all different perspectives of the post-conflict context. Since the present study’s research question is not searching to know who is right or wrong, it merely wants to describe and portray the situation on the field; a field study for this research was suitable. In addition, it is hard to find articles and studies around this specific context after the war, knowing there are many different views that both political sides manipulate history for their own purposes and use a variety of arguments based on different historical phases (Stewart, 2003). Hence, it was reasonable to learn from the field and the people there, to try to understand how the organizations perceive their work of communication for social change.
During my field study I visited Zugdidi and Abkhazia for two and a half months. I lived and worked both inside Abkhazia, and in Zugdidi. All together one and a half of those
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context months were inside Abkhazia, and one was outside. In Abkhazia I lived with a half ethnically Abkhaz and half ethnically Mingrelian family, and in Zugdidi I lived with a Georgian woman who was internally displaced after the war from Abkhazia. I had one host organization on each side of the border, both of them working for women’s rights and peace building. These two organizations I call the “gatekeepers”, and they helped me to get in contact with other relevant organizations for my research.
4.1.1 Participatory observation When conducting participatory observation, the researcher is seeking to collect data, in the “real context”, why it involves field studies (Denscombe, 1998). Participatory observation is used to get in to situations to understand the culture and processes of the studied groups (Denscombe, 1998). Saying participant observation does not necessary mean that the participant is actually helping out in the work, it rather means that the person is watching the people doing the work to learn how they do it, as well as interact with them while they are doing it (Delamont, 2012). When doing participatory observation it is important to remember that as an observer, we interpret and perceive things differently based on aspects such as earlier experiences, the level of familiarity, current mode etc. (Denscombe, 1998).
The way I conducted participatory observation during my field studies was that I took field notes and wrote about what I learned and experienced every day, while the memories were still fresh. Most of the days, in both Abkhazia and Zugdidi, I was following the work my ‘gatekeepers’ were doing. I participated in meetings, campaigns, projects and their everyday work life in their offices. These organizations also helped me to organize visits to other organizations working for a culture of peace in the aftermath of the Abkhazian/Georgian conflict.
To make things unfold even more and grasp the situation more deeply, it would have helped to stay on the field a longer period of time; however this was not an option for me with my timeframe. Also, it would have been of huge benefit if I would have had greater knowledge of Russian and Georgian and the other languages that were spoken within the context (for example Mingrilian). However, I did learn to communicate the basics and most of the time people helped me to translate and interpret the situation I was in. Of course this gave less objective views, since the interpretations’ subjective understanding was
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context unavoidable. I did spend time with different organizations representing different ethnicities in different areas of the case, but the time was not equally distributed since my “gatekeepers” constituted my main bases. It can further be discussed if I can say that I represent all views and ethnicities within the case equally since I spent different much time with different groups.
4.1.2 Semi-structured interviews The method of interviewing is an interaction between the interviewer and an interviewee, or a group. Interviews typically serve the researcher’s already set theme by answering the questions the interviewer already has prepared (Given, 2008). There is usually a distinction between standardized interviews and non-standardized interviews. Interviews with high standardization have already preset questions and are usually connected to quantitative studies. In interviews with low standardization only the theme of the questions are preset and the questions asked during the interview are asked in order to clarify and deepen the earlier answers of the respondent. The later is usually used for qualitative studies (Eljertsson, 2005). Semi-structured interviews, as used in this research, have a preset structure, themes and questions, but the interview is flexible and the interviewee is free to elaborate and develop his/her ideas during the interview (Denscombe, 1998). As an interview is a social interaction and the communication between the interviewer and the interviewee the main concern is to make sure that the responder gets his/her voice understood correctly. By doing interviews the interviewer is going in to the interviewee’s world and private experiences, therefore it has to be remembered what consequences the interview could have for the respondents (Birch et al. n.d). This is not always an easy task, especially not when a translator is needed. Since the interviewer is in a position of power through the organizational control, it is very important that a special kind of sensitivity takes place in an interview (Birch et a n.dl.).
The reason for choosing semi-structured interviews to collect data for this research was to get to know things more in detail about my already set theme; participatory communication in the post-conflict context. I considered only doing participatory observation of the organizations’ work for the period I was on the field would not give me as much detailed information as doing interviews, and hearing the point of views of the staff in the
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context organizations. The people working with the organizations have experiences from working with communication in the context they work in, and can grasp a reality covering a much longer time than I could have done the short time I was there. I see it as a way of getting under the surface of what is visible, each person from the organizations in this context, carry a lot of information. In addition data collection through interviews made it possible for me to get information from many different organizations within the context, rather than only the perspective of the organizations I joined for participatory observation through the field work. By doing interviews I could target the questions and get direct information connected the organizations’ level of participatory communication for development, I could look in to what challenges they have had, and what they have seen been the most effective type of communication to reach out to their beneficiaries.
In total I conducted thirteen interviews. Ten of the interviews were with representatives from the different NGOs working for a culture of peace, in the different locations. 4 of them were located in Zugdidi, and 6 of them in different regions of Abkhazia. They will all be described in detail in the next chapter “the studied organizations”. The rest of the three interviews were made as reference interviews, in order to understand the context the studied organizations are working in better. Two of those were beneficiaries of some of the organizations, one was an older woman in Abkhazia, and one was a middle aged active civic community member in her village within the Zugdidi municipality, just next to the border to Abkhazia. The third reference interview was made with the Deputy Mayor of the Zugdidi municipality. Since my interviews were all semi-structured they had some structure and pre set questions, but I still left space for spontaneous information from the interviewees (Ejlertsson, 2005). With this being said, my interview guide was based on questions that gave me the insights of how the organizations were working through “participatory communication for social change”, and what challenges, experiences and knowledge they have in using these to reach civic engagement in their context. All interviews but one were recorded and transcribed. The one that was not recorded was instead memorized by taking notes through the interview. The reason for that was that the person interviewed preferred to not being recorded. I mainly conducted individual interviews. However one of the interviews was in a group of four people from the organization they represented. This group interview was done because all these four people
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context were all gathered to meet me, and I considered it to be a good way to get out more information about their work by including all of them to answer my questions. In my research some interviews required a translator, why I had to take in to account that some translation can have been misunderstood. Therefore I had to try to capture the whole context of what the person was saying. I had to put extra effort in perusing to understand the person correct, rather than listening to some specific words, and to look at the idea behind the words. However, some of the interviewees spoke English, and no translator was needed. Even in these cases I had to remember that English was never the respondent’s native language and that some language barriers could occur. With this being said, as an interviewer in a new cultural context, I had to be prepared for the complexities that could occur, as well as trying to understand the significant cultural communication behind their actual wor
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5. The studied organizations In this chapter the studied organizations will be presented more in detail based on the interviews with the representatives of each organization. Both the organizations’ names and the interviewees’ names have been treated confidentially for security reason.
Organization 1 Person interviewed: Anna, employee, age 30-40 Type of organization: Locally Founded Location: Zugdidi Organization 1 is a locally founded organization that works for women’s rights and to support internally displaced people from Abkhazia. One of their missions is to promote women’s participation in conflict resolution and peace building processes, as well as to involve women in politics and to enhance their influence politically. The organization also provides psychological aid and lawyers to women who are in need and are working against gender based violence. Besides this they teach about reproductive health, human rights and other skills, such as entrepreneurial and computer skills in the IDP communities. The woman interviewed is an employee since many years back at organization 1. She became an internal displaced person in Zugdidi after the Abkhazia/Georgian armed conflict. She spoke English well so the interview was conducted in English.
Organization 2 Person interviewed: Maria, employee, age 40-50 Location: Zugdidi Organization 2 is an internationally founded organization working for issues related to refugees and internal displaced persons. The focus in this study will be on their field office in Zugdidi. They work within a numbers of sectors, covering mostly internally displaced people and their communities within Georgia, to promote social and economical development. For example they build shelter and small scale infrastructure and access to community service. They promote economic recovery, such as self-reliance, small –business, rural development as well as vocational and educational training. The organizations also provide protection as well as legal and aid assistance as well as working for capacity building and civil society support. The person interviewed for this organization grew up in Georgia and is in between 40 and 50 years old. She has a long background in different development and human rights organizations, and is now an employee at Organization 2 since a few years back. She spoke English well so the interview was conducted in English.
Organization 3 Person interviewed: Julia, head of office, age 45-55 Location: Zugdidi Organization 3 is an international founded humanitarian organization. They work for protecting lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence and provide them with assistance. The focus in this study will be on the work of their Georgian national office located in Zugdidi. Their main responsibility is to cover all of Georgia and to do analysis around political situations, for protection, and for finding missing people. They create “family missing programs” for Georgia and update people about the humanitarian law. They work multidisciplinary to clarify the fate and loss of people missing after the armed conflict, and to provide answers to the families about their missed ones. They also help people to communicate between the different sides of the Abkhazian border as well as questioning documents that makes it hard for people to cross the borders. The person interviewed left Abkhazia during the war and became an internal displaced person in Georgia. She has a background of working with other international organizations but has worked for Organization 3 for 5 years. She spoke English so the interview was conducted in English. She wished to not be recorded; therefore it was memorized by taking notes instead. Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Organization 4 Person interviewed: Alina, head of office, age 50-60 Location: Zugdidi. Organization 4 is located in Zugdidi and is aiming to provide free locations for democratic dialogues among citizens. It is operating as a neutral space and is gathering different sectors, actors, as well as the citizens to spread public information and create dialogues. It was locally founded as a response to the lack of free spaces to meet and discuss for opposition parties and the need for a neutral space to do that. The organization is working to facilitate discussions around different topics and issues of the society, and to encourage to meetings/dialogues of local and international importance. The organization is also working to advocate issues of different importance on municipality level. They work to support civic initiatives by communicating with various public and private entities as well as mobilizing civic activists and media. The organization even operates as a media-center during the elections. The person interviewed for grew up in Zugdidi and has a background of working in many different international organizations.
Organization 5 Person interviewed: Anastasia, program coordinator, age 25-35 Location: Abkhazia Organization 5 is a locally founded organization located in Abkhazia. The Organization aims at working for development and equal rights for women and men, providing opportunities and empowerment to women and girls. They work with protection and providing lawyers for women, helping to find working opportunities for survivors of domestic violence, as well as trying to facilitate economical independency for these people. The organization is also works to promote human rights and equal services through implementing different project including; cultural activities, awareness raising, educational activities, such as trainings, seminars, workshops for youths, women groups etc. as well as working for healthcare and information consultation to promote societal equality. They also work for peace building through youth camps across nationalities and to build dialogues around the war. The person interviewed is left Abkhazia to live on the Georgian side as an internal displaced person due to the war, but was able to return about 10 years ago. Since then she has been working with Organization 5.
Organization 6 Person interviewed: Olga, project coordinator, age: 25-35 Location: Abkhazia Organization 6 is a locally founded women’s rights organization in Abkhazia. They are working to protect women from gender based violence and to raise awareness about women’s rights. They aim at providing psychological and consultant aid, as well as providing lawyers to women in need. They also facilitate economic self sustainable alternatives for women, as well as working through campaigns and advocacy to raise awareness about women’s rights. The person interviewed had been an employee for four years in the organization and grew up in Abkhazia. She did not speak English, therefore a translator was needed to conduct the interview.
Organization 7 Person interviewed: 4 people from the organization; Tanya, Klaudia, Magda, Martina, employees and manager, Tanya’s age 50-60, Klaudia, Magda and Martina’s age 20-35 Location: Abkhazia Organization 7 is a locally founded organization working for women’s rights, social and economic development, and to support people with disabilities. The organization also works to provide better opportunities of healthcare for people with deceases such as diabetics. Moreover, they provide trainings and education on reproductive health and women’s rights. Besides this, they work through youth camps to build understanding and peace. The interview for this organization was conducted in a group, they all grew up in the area they worked in. The manager spoke English and therefore translated for the rest of the women.
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Organization 8 Person interviewed: Daria, program manager and founder, age 40-50 Location: Abkhazia. Organization 8 is a locally founded organization in Abkhazia; working to publish media content in order to promote civic engagement, and to consult other organizations. The organization is aiming at spreading awareness about opportunities in taking initiatives for social change and self governance. This is done through spreading media content, working with workshops where they raise dialogues around different societal issue as well as trying to encourage civil initiatives. The person interviewed grew up in Abkhazia but has a dual citizenship through her mother in Ukraine. She has a background in technology and computer administration and has worked for different NGOs for over 20 years, as well was for transparent elections in Abkhazia. She spoke English so the interview was conducted in English.
Organization 9 Person interviewed: Sofia, founder, age 50-60 Location: Abkhazia. Organization 9 is a locally founded organization in Abkhazia aiming to work for youths and social development such as aid for disabled people. Their work to activate youths and to provide them with training and education. They also work for civil education in general, and to develop general skills that can be used in society, as well as working with education around conflicts. This is done through conducting different activities, projects and cooperation, based on the interests of the youths. The organization was founded to fill up gaps in society that the government could not cover after the war. The person interviewed has a background as a teacher and working in schools. The person did not speak English and the interview was conducted with the help of a translator.
Organization 10 Person interviewed: Karolina, employee, age 20-30 Location: Abkhazia. Organization 10 is working to prevent political and social violence and to achieve sustainable peace through conflict transformation. It is an international organization but with local project offices. They aim at building knowledge, skills and resources in a shared process of reflective learning, and works with local partners. Their work includes workshops and interviews to build understanding and a widening perspective for different sides of the conflict. They exchange interviews of people who have been affected by the war, so that people have an opportunity to listen to each other’s voices and learn from each other. The interviews they conduct are recorded and presented at workshops where people listen to the interviews in groups. After that, the groups have a dialogue about the experiences that are shared in the interviews, and discuss the scenarios. The person interviewed work within different projects run by organization 10. She grew up in Abkhazia where she has been living her whole life and works in other projects for other NGOs in Abkhazia as well, including projects for organization 5. Besides this she is a university student, studying law. She spoke English well and the interview was conducted in English.
Figure 7: The studied organizations
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6. Analysis In this chapter, I will look at how the work of the organizations can be applied to the seven components of a Culture of Peace. This will be done in order to know what of the studied work of the organizations are relevant when researching how NGOs can communicate to create a culture of peace. Following that, I will look at what we can learn from the organizations’ participatory communication for social change. This I will do by categorizing the organizations’ work under the three different components of participatory communication as will be presented. After that, I will talk about the main predominant shared values, in the social and political context the organizations work in, which are affecting the organizations’ communication with their beneficiaries, based on the interviews and the field study. This I will do in order to get an understanding of the culture of communication in the context the organizations are working in. Lastly, I will discuss how participatory communication for development and a culture of peace can be done within a culture of communication in the context the organizations are working in. Subsequently, this is done to answer the research question; how NGO’s can communicate to create a culture of peace through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context”, based on the findings.
6.1 Applying the organizations’ work to a Culture of Peace Here each of the organizations’ work is applied to the 7 components of Culture of peace based on the results shown in the chapter “The studied organizations”. This is done in order to know why these organizations are relevant for the study and how their work is applicable to a culture of peace. As Vicente (2015) is writing, an extended view of peace studies includes working against unjust social and economic structures. As discovered, most of the organizations work for equality in different ways and against socially and economically unjust structures. They also work to include marginalized groups, such as the IDPs in society, and survivals of domestic violence (Anna, interview, 11/2019, Maria interview, 11/2019). Baú (2016) mentions that it is important to rebuild trust between communities, when building a culture of peace, as many of the studied organizations are doing. Further, the graph below shows more in detail how the work of the organizations are applicable to the 7 aspects in building a culture of peace, defined by UN general assembly (UN, 1997). Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
1. Foster a culture of 2. Promote sustainable economic 3. Ensure equality 4. Foster democratic 5. Advance solidarity 6. Support participatory 7. Promote peace through and social development between women participation tolerance and communication and the international peace education and men understanding free flow of information and security and knowledge Org. Works for social and economical Works for women’s Involves women in Works for peace Teaches technology and development through education and rights through politics and enhance building through holds computer classes 1 building capacity advocacy, aid and their impact education and empowerment relations
Org. Works with economical and social Provides voting in the programs communities about 2 project’s priority
Org. Teaches humanitarian Builds social development and Helps people to Works for security law wellbeing by helping them to find communicate from both for the people 3 families sides of the conflict affected by the war
Org. Works for social and economic Facilitates public Invites everyone, development through facilitating dialogue and including provides media coverage, 4 local initiatives, and discussing social all parties and citizens works as a free media and political issues center for all parties and citizens Org. Works for equal societies, social Works for women’s Works between the Provides computer assistance, and economical self rights, equality and different groups to classes and language 5 sustainability empowerment build understanding classes, which for each other, contributes to more through interviews or communication relationships Org. Creates fairs where women can sell Works for women’s their handicrafts and other products rights and spreads 6 for an income, and gives social aid awareness about rights
Org. Works for social and economic Works for women’s Works for a wider development rights understanding 7 through summer camps
Org. Gives examples of self Works to spread governance and information, media 8 encourages impacting content and dialogues the politics and society through civic initiatives Org. Provides education Works for social development and for conflict youths, encouraging for to further 9 prevention, organizing income by fostering skills camps for school kids focusing on conflict and peace building Org. Provides with Works for a greater education about understanding through 10 conflict interview and transformation experience-sharing
Figure 8: Table of the organizations applied to culture of peace
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
6.2 How the organizations work with participatory communication for social change, and what we can learn from their experiences In this part of the analysis I will categorize the work the organizations are doing based on the levels of IAP2’s spectrum of public participation. This will be done in order to see what of the organizations’ conducted work can be looked at as part of participatory communication and what we can learn from it. To simplify the categorization I will scale IAP2’s levels down to three. For practical reasons the level “inform” will be the first level, “involve” the second level, and the third level will be a merge of the levels “consult, collaborate and empower”. The reason for the merge of those three levels is because the level “consult” includes feedback and needs assessment and can therefore be related to the level involve’s “listening to beneficiaries advices and incorporate it in the decisions for the future”, and the level “empower” can be seen as a higher level of the level collaborate. The last three merged categorizations will go under “collaborate”. Since the level collaborate includes bringing the beneficiaries opinions and feedback in to future projects, these levels can be seen as if they are cyclical, a key in participatory communication (Manyozo, 2012). Consequently, the model used to categorize what of the organizations’ work is participatory communication for social change will look as following:
1. Inform
3. 2. Collaborate Involve
Figure 9: dialogue of the components in participatory communication for social change
Taken together each of these three components will be categorized as following:
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1. Inform 2. Involve 3. Collaborate Summary of the Informing beneficiaries Engaging the beneficiaries, Monitoring and evaluation different approaches about objects and sharing information among of participatory visions, giving stakeholders and cooperate Addressing needs from the communication beneficiaries updates with others beneficiaries point of view along the project Involve the beneficiaries in the decision-making, implementing the feedback in future programs Example of what it Newsletters Workshops Public comments can be in practice Fact sheets Reference/working/steering Focus groups Web sites groups Surveys TV Deliberate polling Citizen advisory Radio Committees Consensus building Participatory decision making
Citizen’s juries Ballots Future search
Figure 10: Table of components in participatory communication for social change
The work categorized under each of these components will be analyzed through the theory of participatory communication, to validate what of the studied organizations’ work are applicable to participatory communication, in order to know what we can learn from that. The categorized work will also be analyzed through the lens of the theoretical framework ‘culture of communication’, in order to learn how this affects the communication of the studied organizations.
6.2.1 Inform As discussed in the theoretical framework, the features of “inform” by itself, only involves a one way communication. However it is still a significant part of participatory communication since it is important that the beneficiaries are well informed about the projects to feel as if they are a part of it (Stuart, 2017). With that being said, the organizations’ project, vision and objects have to be well communicated to the beneficiaries. Under this section it will be looked at what we can learn from the studied organization’s experiences of informing the beneficiaries about their project, visions and objects.
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Based on the experiences of the studied organizations we can learn that the most effective type of communication to reach out to the beneficiaries with information about their projects, visions and objects is interpersonal communication (Alina, interview, 11/2019, Tanya et. al, interview, 12/2919). This can be explained by Fraire’s (1970) notion that interpersonal communication includes more exchange of ideas and therefore facilitates a more dialogical approach, which is significant for effective communication. In correlation, Boeren (1994) talks about how interpersonal contact is a preferred channel of communication since it has been included in most local traditions, and ways of life, historically and provide an exchange of ideas (Boeren 1994).
Another important factor in making the communication effective in reaching out to the beneficiaries with information about their projects was to use already existing personal relations (Sofia, interview, 1/2012). According to the theory of culture of communication, personal relationship can enhance the feeling of having a lot in common with the “sender” of the message (Boeren 1994). Therefore, building social relationships is significant in order to share information more effectively and to build a deeper common understanding between the organization and the beneficiaries. This mutual understanding can be built through working and acting in the beneficiaries’ community for a long time (Maria, interview, 11/2019). When meeting with the beneficiaries to give information, it is important to make a close and friendly atmosphere where the organization listens to the beneficiaries in order for the organization’s information to be more accepted (Maria, interview, 11/2019). One challenge that can occur when aiming at reaching out with information is that not all people have access to communication technology (Anna, interview, 12/2019). Therefore, it is necessary to build people’s capabilities in communication skills, such as computer skills and education in new technology, in order to be able to reach out to more people, through more communication channels. For example, many older people do not have internet or social media (Anastasia, interview 12/2019). This can be related to how one of the elements of communication for empowerment is to build local people’s capabilities in communication through such as computer skills, which Cadiz (2015) is talking about. This is important in order to put local people in control of development processes, she says. Other ways to reach the old people can for example be to
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context communicate through printed- or verbal information, as well as spreading the information through the head of the administrations in villages (Anna, interview,12/2019).
Internet, TV, and broadcasting, was also shown to be effective means in reaching out with information to beneficiaries, since these can reach even those who cannot meet the organization in person. These means of communication are also a good alternative when information needs to reach out faster, since interpersonal communication takes longer (Tanya et. al, interview, 12/2019). Another effective way of reaching out to beneficiaries were through “influential people”, such as letting celebrities hold banners with information on and then broadcast this and publish it on social media (Olga, interview, 12/2019). The reason this can be effective can be explained by the theory ‘culture of communication’ which points out that roles with more influence in society often brings a more effective communication (Boeren, 1994).
One crucial component in spreading information effectively to beneficiaries is to give group specific information. This can be done by dividing the beneficiaries up in different focus groups (Maria, interview, 11/2019). It can also be done through learning about these groups more in detail and getting to know them well (Daria, interview, 12/2019). Another important factor in giving out information is that the media selection should be based on a careful analysis of the objects, target group, and conditions of the particular communication event. When giving information, it is also significant to be clear about what the message’s intention is, so that the beneficiaries understand the point in listening to the organization and how they can be helped by this (Anna, interview, 12/ 2019). This can also eliminate the suspicion from the beneficiaries towards the organizations information. It is important to build a trust bridge in between the organization and the beneficiaries in order for the message to be accepted (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). As Cadiz (2015) mentioned when looking at practical elements in communication for empowerment; “obviously, people will not pay attention to messages that they find irrelevant to their realities” (Cadiz, 2015 p.151). From a culture of communication perspective this could be explained by the importance of making the receiver feel like they have a mutual understanding of the project as the organizations do, in order to be willing to receive the message (Boeren, 1994).
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We can also learn from the studied organizations that schools are a very tactic and effective place to spread information at, if this is allowed (Tanya et. al, interview, 12/2019). However, not all of the organizations are allowed to spread information in the schools, due to politics. This becomes a challenge in reaching the beneficiaries with information as well as some of them are not allowed to spread information on the streets (Anastasia, interview 12/2019). Ways of getting around this challenge can be to try build more trust and understanding to the organizations work, and to give information at other places instead (Karolin, interview 11/2019).
Another challenge in reaching out with information for the organizations can be that it is harder to reach out to beneficiaries living at places which are more heavily affected by the war, because it can be easier for a radicalism to develop there (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). One way to go around this is to try to find a better common understanding, and show a common ground between the representative from the organization and the beneficiaries (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). This can be related to Freire’s (1970) notion about equality between the change agent and development partner for a good dialogue to happen. Linked to the theory of culture of communication, this could be explained by how people with mutual understanding more easily accept the message that is being shared
(Boeren 1994).
Another hindrance in sharing information to beneficiaries for the organizations is that not everything can be shared due to taboos connected to ethnicity, gender norms, or political views of NGOs. As Boeren (1994) explains, values can be demonstrated in cultures within communication through taboos. This can cause the organizations not being able to share things openly, or having to leave certain things out when sharing information (Anna, Daria, Anastasia, Karolin). This is usually out of fear of being judged or due to security (Daria, interview 12/2019, Anastasia, interview, 12/2019). One way of avoiding this is to try to use more coded language or words, or to make people understand the information by sharing things indirectly instead, such as using parallels or historical examples. It is helpful to not use sharp words and to be careful in these cases (Daria, interview, 12/2019). Other solutions can be to use closed ‘social media information groups’ that the public cannot see (Anna, interview, 11/2019).
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6.2.2 Involve Under this category, it will be looked at what we can learn from how the organizations involve the beneficiaries and the community in their projects and program throughout the project process, as explained by IAP2 (Stuart, 2017). It will also look at how the organizations include community based engagement in their projects, as well as how the beneficiaries are involved through a dialogue, which are significant components in participatory communication (Manyozo, 2012).
When learning from the experiences of the organizations in working with the level “involve” in participatory communication there are a number of things to remember. In order to involve the beneficiaries in the organizations’ projects it is of value that the beneficiaries get a feeling of importance, and that they understand the purpose of being involved (Karolin, interview, 12/2019). This can be linked to one of Fraire’s characteristics of a true dialogue; conscientizing, which is the process of understanding something in- depth to achieve consciousness. By achieving this, beneficiaries increase their willingness to participate despite risks, because it is based on a conscious decision to engage in the activity (Cadiz, 2015). Through the interviews it shows that it is helpful to make people feel more aware of their potentials in order to take more social responsibilities. In relation, Fraire (1970), talks about how creating a feeling of becoming aware of one’s own potentialities and a sense of social responsibility for their society, is necessary in participatory communication.
When engaging people it is of value to involve the beneficiaries in a dialogue throughout the whole project process with the organization, as well as with other beneficiaries (Julia, interview, 11/2019). As Manyozo (2012) points out, one definition of participatory communication is that it is a process that facilitates a dialogue (Manyozo, 2012). The dialogue can be looked at as the whole process of the project from the needs assessment to implementation, but also at a more interpersonal level (Cadiz 2015). In order to involve the beneficiaries it is necessary to listen openly to the beneficiaries (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). This can be linked to how Fraire (1970) talks about giving priority to active non- judgmental listening over expressing oneself, for effective communication. For the reason
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context of giving everyone space to express themselves, it is good to not have too big groups when creating discussion groups, or other groups made for dialogue (Maria, interview, 11/2019).
When involving the beneficiaries it is also important to value their knowledge. One way of doing this can be to make them share their knowledge to other beneficiaries, as well as to make the beneficiaries contribute the organizations’ projects through their knowledge and skills. This can for example be through letting the beneficiary’s encourage others by sharing their experiences and knowledge through storytelling (Anna, interview 11/2019, Anastasia, interview, 12/2019, Karolin, interview 11/2019). Sharing beneficiary’s experiences and knowledge can also be a way of valuing the indigenous knowledge, one of the main ideas of participatory communication (Manyozo, 2012). In addition, when stories are shared from beneficiary to beneficiary, more common understanding and sense of shared background might be created. This can enhance the sense of equality between the “sender and the receiver of the message”, which is one of the qualification for a good dialogue according to Fraire (1970).
One sign that the beneficiaries are truly involved is when they are giving skills gained from the projects further to other beneficiaries (Anna, interview, 11/2019). Cadiz (2015) explains that empowerment is achieved when new projects are initiated by the local people. It can be when the beneficiaries start up their new own projects, such as advocacy projects, for example. Seen in the interviews, it is important for the studied organizations to listen to the knowledge of the beneficiaries without presenting an already set solution in order to make them think independently, when trying to engage (Daria, interview, 12/2019, Karolin, interview, 11/2019). This goes in line with one of the characteristic of Fraire’s dialogue; problem posing. Problem posing intends to draw from the learner’s insights by raising relevant thought-provoking questions, instead of presenting solutions to development problems. By doing this, the communicator only has the role as a “facilitator” (Cadiz, 2015, p. 148). Another effective way of getting involved can be through hands on experiences which can become “learning by doing” (Tanya et al., interview, 12/2019). In accordance, Cadiz (2015) notes that one of the elements in communication for empowerment is hands on experiences. “Development means change, change requires learning and learning by doing is rich and meaningful” (Cadiz, 2015, p.151).
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Challenges to involve people may include that the beneficiaries feel mentally stressed as a consequence of the war or poverty, and therefore can become passive and not motivated to be involved. Because of this, it can be good to involve them in training to make them feel responsible for their own future (Maria, interview, 11/2019, Anna, interview, 11/2019). Cadiz notes that “in a community where people are passive recipients of changes ... and are locked up in dehumanizing poverty and other social ills, community organizing is an intensive process of awakening people’s critical consciousness and developing their leadership capabilities to take action on their development problems” (Cadiz, 2015, p. 153).
Discovered in the interviews, lack of donors can also be a challenge in involving people, since it create economical limits and lack of recourses (Alina, interview, 11/2019). One reason it is hard to find donors can be because of lack of attention from the world, or as in Abkhazia’s case, isolation (Sofia, interview, 12/2019). It is more difficult to reach out to donors around the world when being isolated (Olga, interview, 12/2019). It is also more complicated for sponsors to give donations to organizations in complex political situations (field dairy 11/2019).
Another challenge in involving beneficiaries in the organizations projects can be misunderstanding of the project and the intentions of the organizations (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). In these cases it helps to make people understand that their involvement is important for the society and their country, to make them feel as though they are part of something bigger (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). This can be related to one of the central ideas of participatory communication; the importance of creating a feeling of ownership of the project (Manyozo, 2012). It can also be linked to Fraire’s (1970) statement that making a person feel that hopelessness is replaced by hope can make her/him engage in the task of transforming society.
Other challenges in getting beneficiaries involved in the projects can occur on a more political level, such as restrictions around participating in activities that the organizations are organizing (Daria, interview, 12/2019). It can also be due to fear among the beneficiaries in getting involved if it is in disagreement with the governments values. One example of this can be such as being involved in activities that teaches critical thinking, since it can be perceived as threatening by the government (Daria, interview, 12/2019).
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However, critical thinking is one of the five values that Fraire (1970) explains is crucial to include, in order for it to be participatory communication. Another obstacle in involving beneficiaries is that it can be risks included be involved, which can be the case for survivors of domestic violence for example. Sharing experiences and knowledge is therefore sometimes avoided among the beneficiaries, due to the fear of being heard and found by their perpetrators (Olga, interview, 12/2019). For this reason, it is always crucial to value the beneficiaries’ anonymity and security (Anna, interview, 11/2019).
A good way to involve the beneficiaries can be through voting throughout the process of the project (Maria, interview, 11/2019). This is a good example of how self-management can look at as a first stage, where participation is possible in the decision-making in such as selection procedures, as Cadiz explains (2015). However, there are challenges connected to voting too, when it comes to including the minorities, such as the elderly for example, since they know that their interests will not get as much influence among the other votes. For this reason, it can be good to remember to do group specific involvement, and voting (Maria, interview, 11/2019).
Another challenge in involving women in particular is that they sometimes do not have enough self confident and believe their voice do not matter, due to lack of confidence. In these cases it is important to make the women feel empowered and make them feel that their voice matter (Karolin, interview, 1020). In relation Cadiz (2015) says that building the beneficiaries capabilities and confidence in communicating is one of the elements in communication for empowerment. Men can also be hard to involve in the processes (Maria, interview, 11/2019). This is due to other reasons, such as mental illness after the war, and because they were not brought up acting as actively in the society as women were (Alina, interview, 11/2019).
6.2.3 Collaborate Under this category it will be looked at what can be learned from the feedback from the beneficiaries about the projects, and it is used for future project planning. It will also be looked at how the beneficiaries are included in the decision-making and how the organizations incorporate advice and recommendation from the beneficiaries. As explained, the level “collaborate” includes creating trust and a genuine engagement in between the
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context community and the agency (Stuart, 2017). Under this category it will also be looked at what we can learn from the organizations when it comes to including feedback of the beneficiaries and used a bottom – up approach in their planning of their projects.
Discovered in the interviews, all of the studied organizations have been practicing the level of “collaborate” through conducting different types of needs assessments among the beneficiaries before they started their projects. The needs assessments can be done through questionnaires, interviews, surveys or different type of dialogues such as through interpersonal communication. Some of the organizations conducted open meetings and “round tables”, and some did more formal meetings, with the beneficiaries (Anastasia, interview 12/2019, Karolin, interview 11/2019, Maria, interview, 11/2019). This is strongly correlated to the idea of participatory communication where the community always has to be the point of the departure (Cadiz, 2015). Some organizations collaborate with other organizations to get a clearer picture of the needs of the beneficiaries, by forming networks with other NGOs (Alina, interview, 11/2019). In support, Cadiz (2015) explains that it is a good idea in the process of communication for development, to form networks with other organizations and entities since it provides for resource sharing and “synergy of efforts among various sectors toward common goals” (Cadiz, 2015, p.155).
Some organizations also go to their beneficiaries to find out the most important needs, by supporting them in identifying the needs and to write them down (Anastasia, interview, 12/2019, Sofia, interview, 12/2019). After that, the beneficiary’s gets to vote about what needs should be the priority to meet for the organization (Maria, interview, 11/2019). This can be looked at as an exemplary way of how to find out the beneficiaries needs and also how the beneficiaries are included in the decision making when it comes to participatory communication, based on the idea that self-management is the most developed form of participation (Cadiz, 2015).
It can be beneficial to do more group specific needs assessments with different focus groups. One way of making needs assessment among the organizations was through working in the beneficiaries’ communities and work with different groups for a long time to understand their needs on a deeper level, and to get to know them (Maria, interview, 11/2019). This can be explained being helpful since effective communication is happening
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context easier when a mutual understanding and a common interpretation exists in-between the agency and the development partner, according to the theory of culture of communication (Boeren, 1994). This is also applicable to researching needs in general, since it is harder to understand the whole picture without knowing the context, and being able to interpret the needs that the people are trying to express. The culture determines the context of the communication and how it is interpret by the participants (Boeren, 1994). With this being said, it is crucial that the organization knows the context, the culture, and the people well to interpret the needs from the beneficiaries own perspective.
Found in the interviews, all of the studied organizations were trying to include the feedback and evaluation from the beneficiaries in future projects. This is an indication that a true dialogue (participatory communication) has been practiced according to Fraire (1970); “a praxis of a cycle of action and reflection”. In order for it to be participatory communication it should include a process of learning together with the beneficiaries where reflections, evaluations, and reviews on the previous action taken should be drawn from the beneficiaries in order to learn new lessons for coming actions/projects (Cadiz, 2015).
When it comes to the component “collaborate” within participatory communication for social change, a number of things are important to remember according to the interviews. It is necessary to listen to the beneficiaries’ own perspective of the needs; you never know what they see as their problems (Anastasia, interview 12/2919, Anna, interview 11/2019). In order to listen to what they have to say, it is good to create a nice and friendly environment (Maria, interview, 12/2019). It is also very important to know the community and beneficiaries you are working with well, in order to be able to interpret the needs correctly, and to avoid misunderstandings (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). Preferably people in the organizations have worked in the community of the beneficiaries for a long time, and have had previous positions in the beneficiaries’ society where they gained an understanding for the context the beneficiaries are living in (Tanya et al. interview, 12/2019). This can be looked at as a good way of creating trust between the community and the organization, which is a significant component in the category “collaborate” in order to create a genuine engagement in between the community and the agency (Stuart, 2017).
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It is also important for the organizations to do the needs assessments repetitively, since the needs of the people can change, especially after major political changes or catastrophes (Sofia, interview, 12/2019). In order for the needs and evaluations to really be from the perspective of the beneficiaries, it is suggested to work through an inductive approach. With this being said, it is important to not first suggest what the beneficiaries should think, but to work through problem posing, and try to make the beneficiaries think themselves. It all has to be praxis of a cycle of action and reflections, evaluations and reviews
6.3 What the culture of communication looks like in the Abkhaz- Georgian post conflict context As Boeren (1994) explains, communication is an extremely complex process with plenty of influencing factors of the interpretation of the information carriers where social relationships, power structures, standards value etc, play a crucial role (Boeren, 1994 p.5). In this part of the analysis, I have withdrew what is found to be the main shared values that are affecting the communication of the organizations presented in the context they are working in. This is done in order to get a better understanding of the acceptance or rejections of the organizations work and communication. The reason for this is because acceptance or rejection of information and new ideas depends on shared values according to Boeren (1994 p.63). As also mentioned by Boeren (1994), it is important to remember that value systems are rarely consistent or homogenous, and often look different within different groups and nationalities as well as in between those. With this being said, there might be many exceptions to these generalized shared values within the groups, and of course in between the different groups. However, the values presented represent at least some of the shared views that can affect the communication of the organizations.
The main themes of shared ideas, customs, principles or values, that have been affecting the communication of the organizations extracted from the interviews and throughout the field study is related to shared ideas about; 1) family and gender norms, 2) political and public values about NGO’s, and 3) views about ethnicities, and will be presented below.
6.3.1 Views about family and gender norms In general, all of the organizations are working in contexts with norms where the men are valued higher than women. Boeren (1994) explains that values are responsible for practices
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context of women’s inferior position around the world. Tatiana explains how people kept telling her that having a son was better than having a daughter when she was pregnant (Tatiana, interview, 11/2019).
This shared value of family and gender norms can affect the organization’s communication with their beneficiaries since it defines the role and status of women in the society, such as values do, according to Boeren (1994). With this being said a women’s voice in communication might not always be as influential as a man’s. During a UN-women’s meeting in Zugdidi where different women from different sectors were gathered to talk about women’s role in peace, a film was screened of how women from different sides of the north Ireland conflict created a political party which contributed to peace negotiations. The women at the meeting said that it is harder for women in Georgia to do something similar, because they do not have the same influence and women have a lower position there, they said (Field dairy 14/11/2019).
Alina takes an example from her own family; “My father gave his heritage to my son when he was already three years old, and not to my daughter. Since we brought our men up like this it has generated loss of skills among men, but made women very active and sustainable instead. Therefore a lot of burden is put on women today, this is my theory” (Alina, interview, 11/2019). This culture may affect the effectiveness of the organizations’ communication since it can be harder to attract men to participate in their activities. In correlation, many of the interviewees explain that there are always mostly women involved in their activities (Maria, interview 11/2019).
As noted earlier, more women than men are active and involved in the organizations’projects. Men are more willing to help out in the more practical part (Maria, interview, 11/2019). One reason that women are more active in society than men, at least in Abkhazia, can be explained by the consequences of the war. Much of what was considered as more suitable working places for men disappeared through the war, such as factories for example which were bombed. This resulted in more working opportunities for women who were willing to take any work they could find after the war, whereas men still didn’t want to accept work “that did not suit them”. In addition many men were not mentally well after the traumas of fighting in the war and there were no consultation for them (field dairy,
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2/12/2019). In this way, women became more used to be active in their communities, which can be an explanation why they are more women involved in developing projects and in the NGOs’ activities.
Seen in the interviews from Abkhazia, the organizations work against gender based violence and domestic violence is often mistaken by the society and politicians as if they were “splitting families” or intervening in “family business” (Olga, interview 12/2019, Anastasia, interview 12/2019). This can indicate a view where a united family is higher valued than the independent rights of a woman. However, the misunderstanding can also be due to a lack of common understanding of what domestic violence means. As an example, a police man from the security service was visiting Organization 5. He did not understand why the organization was working against domestic violence and why they were trying to “change people’s minds” in the families. After talking with him for some time, the people from Organization 5 realized that the concept of domestic violence was perceived by him as if it concerned more regular arguing in between family members. He did not understand that it implied to actually work against physical and mental violence (field dairy 16/12/2019).
Moreover, the government in general doesn’t want to admit that there is a problem of domestic violence in their societies, and blame the organizations for coming up with this idea themselves. Therefore, some of the organizations receive a lot of aggressions from the structures in Abkhazia (Anastasia, interview, 12/2019). For this reason, it can be hard to work publically with raising awareness about gender based violence and domestic violence and they cannot make their activities as open as they want them to be (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). Another challenge when it comes to working for women’s rights among organizations is that that there is no law against domestic violence in Abkhazia. It can go as far as a woman being killed openly on the street without the man being judged. Nevertheless, there is a law ratified in Abkhazia about gender equality, but it doesn’t work in practice due to lack of implementation (Olga, interview 12/2019, Karolin, interview, 11/201). This lack of law can also make the victims of domestic violence to feel hopelessness, why they do not want to receive help from the organizations. The women doubt that it is worth it, doubt their rights, and that they actually need help (Anastasia,
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context interview, 12/2019). Daria (interview, 12/2019) explains that the traditional norms are not necessarily bad for women in Abkhazia. Those traditions say that the family should support and protect the woman. However, she explains; “now it’s like the traditions doesn’t work anymore and only the ugliest part is there, the family doesn’t always support the women after a divorce for example and it has been cases when she has been killed by her husband instead, and if a woman has sex before marriage or a relationship she gets punished for example. This all becomes a norm you know, values changes when the norms changes, but I don’t know how to change it back” (Daria, interview, 12/2019).
The value about gender norms can also affect the communication between the organizations and the beneficiaries in the sense that women do not always feel competent enough to communicate or to give feedback, due to their status. This has been explained through the interviews being a problem when trying to get the women to speak up (Karolina, interview, 11/2019, Anita interview, 12/2019). Since one way values are demonstrated in cultures of communication is through “taboos” (Boeren, 1994), this value of gender norms also naturally creates taboos in the communication. There is for example taboo to talk about reproductive health (Field dairy, 11/2019). Karolina (interview 11/2019) explains; “we have to be very careful about what we post on facebook and other social media, because everything can be perceived wrong. For example we try to avoid using the words sex and gender”.
6.3.2 Political and public views of NGOs As Boeren (1994) explains, the culture of communication is highly important to take in to account for development agencies, such as NGOs. This is because, in fact, people's culture has to be mobilized to let development succeed, he explains. As most NGOs work for some kind of change, and aims at changing the way people look at things, and the way they relate to each other and the world around them, this can be a highly sensitive process (Boeren, 1994, p.2). Hence, since according Boeren (1994) assaulting the culture of people can be more serious than economic threats or physical assaults because it hits on people’s very existence, the work of NGOs can easily be taken as threatening.
The political culture varies at different location in Abkhazia and Georgia which affects ways of communication for the NGOs. In Abkhazia it is not always easy to work openly as
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context an NGO because of a political resistance or misunderstandings of their work. The attitude towards NGOs is often negative because they are associated with the west, explained by Olga (interview, 12/2019). This is because these organizations are often sponsored by European countries, countries that did not recognize Abkhazia. Because NGOs also often work with human rights, the concept “human rights” can have a negative connotation in our society, she explains. “We have something that we call our moral code in Abkhazia. People sometimes think that human rights are contradicting to our traditional moral codes, but it is in fact not, our moral codes also includes everyone’s equality” (Olga, interview, 12/2019). “People in Abkhazia sometimes think that these countries cannot be following the “moral code” since they did not recognizing the country. Therefore they draw the conclusion s that human rights cannot be good for us”, Olga continues to explain (interview, 12/2019). Another prejudgment about NGOs in Abkhazia is that people think they are working for foreign money, and therefore have interests which are not in line with theirs, within peace building for example, which maybe would benefit Georgia (Karolin, interview, 11/2019). These are examples of how rejection of information and ideas can happen when people doubt that they have shared background and shared values as the communicator, as Boeren (1994) talks about. In this case the misunderstandings and skepticism against NGOs seem to be based on the doubt of the intentions of the NGOs, since they are sponsored by countries that have not recognized Abkhazia.
“I dream that I one day can be an NGO worker and that the people will trust me without having to proof my background and that my dad fought for Abkhazia in the war” (Karolin, interview 11/2019)
Karolin (interview, 11/2019) explains that the current government in Abkhazia is very anti NGOs, and that there is a proposal to implement a law against all foreign agencies influenced by Russia, which would cause all the NGOs to have to shut down, because most of them have sponsors and donors in other countries. “We all really hope that this law will not be ratified. “Many radical people want to blame us for working for foreign money for this reason, so we have to be very careful of what we are saying” Karolin says (interview, 11/2019). However, there is another law that was recently ratified which allows individuals to be responsible for international agencies, and judged personally for what an agency is
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context doing, Daria explains (interview, 12/2019). “This has created a lot of problems for human rights organizations in Russia and we expect it to be similar here” she continues (Daria, interview, 12/2019). Daria believes the reason for this is due to Russia’s influence on a political level. ”If there will be no NGOs in Abkhazia, there will be many gaps in the society that the government do not have capacity to fill up, and then Russia can claim that we need them even more” (Daria, interview, 12/2019). All this of course affect the organizations’ communication to their beneficiaries in Abkhazia, and they cannot always work as openly as they want, and have to be careful with what they say and do.
Some of the organizations say that the government does not intervene in their work, which they think is good enough, but neither do they get any support from the government (Tanya et al. 12/2019, Sofia, interview 12/2019). However, the organization being based in the area of Abkhazia which is more populated by people connected to Georgian ethnicities, are more restricted in their work. They often get visits by the security service because politicians are afraid of what the organization is doing since they work against some traditions and norms. However, the security service cannot sue them because they have not been breaking the law (Field dairy, 26/11).
In Zugdidi the NGOs can work more openly (Alina, interview, 11/2019). One common view of NGOs in the internal displaced persons’ community, where many of the organizations are working, is that these NGOs will come and give them aid when they need it, because NGO’s have done this since the war. This view of NGO’s can cause people in the IDP communities to become passive and not trusting themselves that they can do something for themselves, Maria explains (interview 11/2019). This can sometimes be a problem when trying to involve them or empowering them, she continues. Maria hopes to see a change in this so that the people in the IDP communities also see their part in improving their own conditions. This idea about NGOs is hindering the communication of the organizations in trying to get the beneficiaries involved, since the beneficiaries are expecting to only receive.
6.3.3 Views about ethnicities “I wish that people would no longer be divided by ethnicity because we were all born equally” (Anita, interview, 12/2019)
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
Boeren (1994) expresses “as a social animal a man fights for the interest of his groups, for political and economical gains, but most importantly – for his cultural identity”. Shared origin such ethnicity can be strongly related to people’s social identity and very feeling of existence. Therefore, the shared views of ethnicities are highly affecting communication between different ethnicities. A lot can be said when it comes to ethnical values in a context that is characterized by an ethnic conflict. This of course, is affecting the organizations communication with society, beneficiaries and each other, as well. Rather than looking at the extreme complexity of infected relationships in between ethnicities, the focus will be on how this can affect the organizations communication in this context.
At the meeting in Zugdidi organized by UN women, where they gathered women to talk about women’s role in peace building, they talked about challenges in communication with the other “side/ethnicity” (field dairy, 14/11). One of the main challenges that were mentioned was that in order to get anywhere in the peace process, they had to challenge the views of stereotypes about “the other ethnicity”. The women explained that part of the problem in doing so is that they have a closed border in between each other that are separating them. “There is a lack of information in-between us”, we don’t have a place where we can meet the other side” the women said in the discussion. Similar stories were told in Abkhazia, even though some of the Georgians and Abkhazians live within the same de facto border. “Even though we live together in Abkhazia there are still not always possibilities for different ethnicities to meet” Karolin says (interview, 11/2019). This is one of the reasons there are many prejudgments towards the other nationality she explains.
Many of the interviewees explained that it is a greater understanding amongst the older population because they lived with the other ethnicity before the war and had relationships to them. Many of the younger people are more radical because they have been separated from the other ethnicity for most of their life. Therefore, the younger population does not have many other references to the other ethnicity than the stories and consequences from the war (Karolin, interview 11/2019). There is still a sort of information war going on, usually the different ethnicities/groups only get information from one side, Georgia only share one side and Abkhazia only share another story, this makes it polarized and of course hard for people to know what side to listen to (Field dairy, 27/11/2019). An old woman
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context interviewed in Abkhazia told the same story that was told many times; how they (the Abkhazians) before the war lived peacefully next to Georgians and Mingrilians in her village. At that time they didn’t identify themselves by ethnicity. Boeren (1994) explain that in order for the most effective communication to happen easier in-between people there need to be some kind of mutual understanding. With this being said, it is understandable that communication in-between the different ethnicities in this case can be challenging after the armed conflict.
Anastasia (Interview, 12/2019) explains that the main challenge in their work is that some of them are Georgians in Abkhazia, which create problems. “It is hard to raise problems in Abkhazia without other Abkhazian people, and the government, commenting that we don’t have rights to talk about problems in Abkhazia. When we talk about problems, like for example early marriages, they say that this is only a problem in eastern Abkhazia populated by more Georgians, and that it is not a problem of Abkhazia, but we are convinced this is everywhere, at least in the more rural villages around Abkhazia” (Anastasian interview 12/2019.
Karolin (interview, 11/2019) explains that when she communicates with Abkhazian people it helps her to show that she has the “right Abkhazian background” and to tell them that her dad was an ex-combatant in the war for the Abkhazian people, but that he was killed. “When I tell this they are more willing to listen to me, so my background helps me. I say that I don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing as I did, then they keep silent for a while and realize that I have the same values as them, and that I have a reason to work with this and change the country from inside my own region, not from anywhere outside” (Karolin interview, 11/2019). This can be related to how Boeren (1994) is saying that who is saying what can be as determine as what is being said.
Daria (interview, 12/2019) tells that even though she was brought up in Abkhazia she is not ethnically Abkhazian which affect people’s prejudgments about her. For example she was judged for being the one talking about how bad the nationalism in Abkhazia is at an OSCC conference, when it in fact was her ethnically Abkhazian colleague who was talking about it. This created a lot of hatreds towards her when she got back and a lot of comments on internet against her (Daria, interview, 12/2019). This proofs how prejudgments can
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context influence the communication of other ethnicities. This also affects the communication in between the organizations and the beneficiaries, since they have to take all these prejudgments about ethnicities in to account and to be extra sensitive to not being misunderstood. This can lead to leaving certain information out for the organizations, or having to adjust it, and thereby effect the communication.
6.3.4 Discussing solutions through the theory of culture of communication As shown above, there are many cases where the organizations’ participatory communication can be hindered when the common ground and mutual understanding is not there between the organization, their beneficiaries, and the context they are in. Different shared values around such as political and public views of NGOs, ethnical views, as well as views of family and gender norms can make the communication complicated. As seen earlier in this analysis, many of these different shared views could be traced back to the conflict; some of them to the fear of the opposing opinions about the state of Abkhazia’s recognition, and some of them as consequences of the armed conflict and war.
As Boeren (1994) points out, in order for the most effective communication to happen, it is easier in-between people who have a lot in common and have some degree of mutual understanding. However, one of the very insights from the field study was the polarized information from each side of the conflict. As one of the staff from organization 5 said; “it is hard if you only get information from one side, Georgia only share one side, and Abkhazia only share one side – there is still an information war going on, of course this angled information will affect people” (field diary, 27/11/2019) . These different pictures of the situation and the “other side” was also very evident as a researcher, depending on what side of the Abkhazian border the field study was conducted on - different pictures were given from the general public society of the other side of the border (field diary, 11/2019). This information gap in-between the sides can create a feeling of “difference”, which clearly makes it hard when trying to build a mutual understanding.
Naturally, Abkhazia’s isolation hinders information from the population to reach out effectively. Even the higher world politics and political allies, as well as connections to the “west or east”, highly impact the information that is being shared around this studied post-
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context conflict context, as seen through the field study and the interviews. This obviously also increases the information-gap between the sides, and hinders the population’s own stories and information to reach out, both to the rest of the world, but also to the other side of the conflict. However, the political aspect of the information and communication in this context opens up for a deeper further discussion, too large for the scope of the present study.
Further to discuss; how can the studied organizations work with participatory communication to build a culture of peace despite these challenges? In order to get an idea of how this can be done, we can go back to what the theory of culture of communication has taught. Boeren (1994) says that if the shared background is not there, one or both parties in communication should take the responsibility to increase the level of mutual understanding, which requires an open mind, a sincere interest for the others, and a common language (Boeren, 1994 p 53). With other words, in communication the participants need a common interpretation of the ideas or messages that are being exchanged (Boeren, 1994 p.26).
With this being applied to the studied context, one way for the organizations to work for a culture of peace through participatory communication could be to increase the level of common ground. This could be done by emphasizing the already existing shared backgrounds. As seen earlier in this analysis, many times there are more misunderstandings and prejudgments due to political and social constructions, as well as lack of information, than there are opposing values among the commutating actors’ (the organizations, the beneficiaries, the society, and the governments). Often, the beneficiaries share the studied organizations’ and the other ethnicity’s values more than they assume. Creating a mutual understanding is in one way what the organizations already are working for; by trying to provide platforms for the different ethnicities to meet, by summer camps and other types of ways where they build relationships among beneficiaries and themselves.
Another approach according to Boeren (1994) in creating more effective communication is to have some kind of mediator, the “common interpretation” of the ideas or messages. Even this can be applied to the work of the studied organizations who are trying to build “trust bridges” in different ways. However if there is no common ground, shared values, or common background to show, as in some cases, Vicente (2015) approach could be
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Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context adaptable. He says that communication in peace building has to work towards actions that respect local diversity and the plurality of concepts. We need acceptance of interdependence, and a tolerance towards the diversity of social, ethnic, cultural and religious views he says (Vicente, 2015). With that being said, working to build acceptance where there are differences in values, is another important aspect in participatory communication for a culture of peace. This is not an easy task, since confronting these points of views of individuals and collective positions also can include conflict. However, in these situations communication can be a tool to diminish the disagreements of members of different communities, Vicente (2015) says. In conclusion, in order for effective participatory communication for a culture of peace to happen, the studied organizations would benefit from 1) working to emphasize the already existing shared values and to eliminate misunderstandings to emphasize the common ground 2) Try to fill up the information gap between the sides, minimize polarization of information, and increase the mutual understanding 3) work for acceptance where the values differ through communication.
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7. Conclusion Based on the analysis above, the research question “How can NGOs communicate to create a culture of peace through civic engagement in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context” has been answered through the sub questions as follows;
What can we learn from the experiences of the studied organizations’ participatory communication for social change?
Based on the data of this study we can learn that; in order to practice participatory communication for social change to create a culture of peace, in the Abkhaz-Georgian post- conflict context, organizations should pursue to;
Know the beneficiaries context well; build personal relationships, know their “audience” well to adjust the media means and the content well enough so that it reaches the beneficiaries, as well as knowing the structures and the social context in the society well. Be group specific; get to know the differences of the groups well, different groups have different needs. Include all groups, even minorities. Create a feeling of “equivalence”; a feeling of shared background, shared values, and shared interests. Use a dialogical approach; where non-judgmental listening has to be priority, to value the beneficiaries’ knowledge. Empower the beneficiaries; make them become more aware of their potential, build capabilities such as leadership, communication and societal capabilities, and create a feeling of importance and ownership. Awaken people’s critical consciousness; make the beneficiaries think for themselves, and identify needs and problems independently. Care about the security of the beneficiaries; such as their integrity, for example through anonymity or closed, not public, groups and contexts to be in. Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
How has the culture of communication in the Abkhaz-Georgian post conflict context, been affecting the participatory communication for social change for the different organizations?
In order to communicate to create a culture of peace through participatory communication in the Abkhaz-Georgian post-conflict context, the organizations have to be aware of the challenges of the culture of communication in the context. These are related to values about family and gender norms, political and public values about NGOs, and values about ethnicities. Taken together these values can create following challenges in communicating for a culture of peace through civic engagement:
Some voices become less influential; due to roles and status in society. Harder to involve certain groups; due to lack of self confidence, fear of getting judged, and misunderstandings. Harder to work practically for people’s rights; due to lack of implemented laws, misunderstanding, or different shared views of “rights”. Having to adjust the information; due to taboos, fear, and prejudgments. Hard to work openly; due to political restrictions or public views. Harder to operate; due to economical or political limits. Hard to communicate across borders, de facto borders or ethnical boundaries.
Ways of overcoming these challenges can be;
Working to emphasize the already existing shared values and to eliminate misunderstandings to emphasize the common ground. Try to fill up the information gap between the sides, minimize polarization of information, and increase the mutual understanding. Work for acceptance where the values differ, through communication.
In conclusion; the findings above present different solutions of how the studied organizations have found ways of practicing participatory communication to build a culture of peace, which we can learn from. However, also shown, certain values and views in the culture of communication are hindering the organizations to effectively work through participatory communication. Nevertheless, in some of the cases the culture of 60
Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context communication presented remains a hindrance for the organizations to work for a culture of peace through participatory communication. In these cases we can learn from the theory ‘culture of communication’ in order to build common understanding and trust bridges between the organizations, the beneficiaries, and the society they work in.
7.1 Suggestions for future research The results of this research give implications for practitioners of how to make communication for a culture of peace more effective in a post-conflict context. It implicates components within participatory communication which are relevant to strive for in peace building, in social and economic development, as well as in work aiming to enhance human rights. Even though the results of this specific context cannot be generalized to other contexts, it can still indicate possible mechanisms that can hamper communication in post- conflict contexts. By doing that, it suggests further discussions to solutions around these potential mechanisms for practitioners and brings a perspective worth to keep in mind. The result of this research also gives implication of what can be further studied. For example, it would be interesting to see further research on how the angled information for the different sides of the conflict affects the culture of peace, and how this information gap can be covered. Quantitative researches can be added to cover peoples’ perceptions wider, and to be able to generalize more within the context. It would also be interesting to know how this information gap and angled information affects the policy making and politics. Subsequently, it would be relevant to look in to the political aspect of the information and communication in this context, and how different interests in the conflict impact the information that is being spread – both within the post-conflict context, but also to the rest of the world. Further, more investigation could be made around how a non-recognized state/break-away region such as Abkhazia is affected by the isolation when it comes to building a culture of peace. Moreover, future observation can be made on this post-conflict context in order to see how the progress of communication for a culture of peace goes in line with the regular political changes. Lastly, the results of this research can also be a reminder to all practitioners, policymakers, media, and general citizens - about the complexity in post-conflict contexts and thereby the very importance to deeply evaluate review received information around it. This in turn can lead to greater understanding and enhance a culture of peace.
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Personal communication
Anastasia (26/12/2019) program coordinator at organization 5, Abkhazia
Anna (17/11/2019) employee at organization 1, Zugdidi
Anita (3/12/2019) Beneficiary, older women, Abkhazia 64
Degree project, Communication for Development, Hanna Sjödin, August, 2020 Participatory communication for a culture of peace in a post-conflict context
‘ Alina (19/11/2019) head of office at organization 4, Zugdidi
Daria (4/12/2019) program manager at organization 8, Abkhazia
Julia (15/11/2019) head of office at organization 3, Zugdidi
Karolina (29/11/2019) employee at organization 10, Abkhazia
Konstantino (20/11/2019) Deputy Mayor Zugdidi City Hall, Zugdidi
Maria (20/11/2019) employee at organization 2, Zugdidi
Olga (4/12/2019) project coordinator at organization 6, Abkhazia
Sofia (1/12/2019) founder at organization 9, Abkhazia
Tanya, Klaudia, Magda, Martina (13/12/2019) Employees and manager at organization 7, Abkhazia
Tatiana (19/11/2019) Beneficiary, active in civic engagement, Zugdidi
Field diary (12/11/2019- 25/01/2020) Discovering the context, from the field of Zugdidi and Abkhazia
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