The evaluation of storytelling as a peace-building methodology Bush, K., Logue, P., & Burns, S. (2011). The evaluation of storytelling as a peace-building methodology. (Irish Peace Centres Experiential Learning Series; Vol. 5). Irish Peace Centres. Queen's University Belfast - Research Portal: Link to publication record in Queen's University Belfast Research Portal General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Queen's University Belfast Research Portal is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The Research Portal is Queen's institutional repository that provides access to Queen's research output. Every effort has been made to ensure that content in the Research Portal does not infringe any person's rights, or applicable UK laws. If you discover content in the Research Portal that you believe breaches copyright or violates any law, please contact [email protected]. Download date:26. Sep. 2021 The Evaluation of Storytelling as a Peace-building Methodology Experiential Learning Paper No. 5 January 2011 www.irishpeacecentres.org A project supported by PEACE III Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body www.irishpeacecentres.org Contents page no. Foreword 4 Introduction 5 Presentations, Interviews and Discussions 13 Final Plenary Discussion 52 Conclusions: a. What we have learned about storytelling 65 b. What we have learned about the evaluation of storytelling 69 c. What next? 73 Appendix 1: Reflection Notes from Small Discussion Groups 75 Appendix 2: How does storytelling work in violently divided societies? Questioning the link between storytelling and peace-building 112 Appendix 3: Workshop Programme 116 Appendix 4: Speaker Biographies 118 Appendix 5: Storytelling & Peace-building References and Resources 122 3 Foreword While this is the fifth in the Irish Peace Centres’ series of experiential learning papers, it is also the first joint publication with INCORE. We are delighted with this collaboration between our two organisations building on long-standing relationships and common interest. This paper is the record of an international workshop which was held in Derry in September 2010 on the evaluation of storytelling as a peace-building methodology. This was an important and timely initiative because currently there is no generally agreed method of evaluating storytelling despite the significant sums of money invested in it, not least by the EU PEACE Programmes. It was in fact PEACE III funding that enabled this examination of the issue to take place. This support allowed us to match international experts in evaluation with experts in storytelling in a residential setting over two days. This mix proved incredibly rich and produced this report, which we believe is a substantial contribution to the field. It is an example of the reflective practice which is at the heart of IPC’s integrated approach to peace-building and INCORE’s focus on linking research with peace-building practice. Built on this and other initiatives, one of IPC’s specific aims is to create a series of papers that reflect the issues which are being dealt with by practitioners. We want to thank all the staff of both organisations who worked tirelessly on this project from the initial ideas’ stage through to this publication. We wish to extend a special word of thanks to the international speakers who travelled from afar and to the local practitioners, who combined to make this a watershed event. A final word of thanks to Eventful Consultancy who made it all happen. Peter Sheridan OBE Brandon Hamber Chair, Irish Peace Centres Director, INCORE 20th January 2011 4 Introduction Welcome and Introductory Remarks: Paddy Logue (IPC) I want to extend a very warm welcome to all of you: you have been specially selected for your track record in storytelling, or in evaluation, or in both. A special word of welcome to the international experts who have come from afar: they are Judith Thompson, Katy Radford, Rick Davies, Paul Hogan, and Claudia Fontes. It is a great pleasure for me as someone who comes from Derry/Londonderry to welcome you to this city. In recent months, three things have happened which have brought this town to a wider public. And all of them have a connection to storytelling. The first one was the Saville Report into the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972 which was one of the pivotal episodes in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict. The relief in the city was palpable after such a long campaign by the relatives of the dead and wounded finally ended in the closure and the celebration of the truth that the Saville Report brought. The story of the truth was told at last. Secondly, Derry was named as the UK City of Culture for 2013. That is going to be a huge event here. And culture, as the anthropologist Clifford Geertz described it, is simply “the ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves”. The year 2013 promises to be a year of unprecedented (and unpredictable) storytelling. The third important thing – which is about to happen - is this soon-to-be-famous workshop. We really do think that it has the potential to be groundbreaking. We have reviewed the literature and we cannot find a universally agreed methodology for evaluating storytelling as a peace-building tool. And, this despite the enormous levels of funding invested in it by development and conflict transformation agencies all over the world. The purpose of this two day international workshop is to explore together this anomaly and to see if we can make some progress on it. It’s important for me that you all understand that this is a joint initiative between INCORE, the International Conflict Research Institute at the University of Ulster in Magee College in Derry, and Irish Peace Centres a consortium of peace centres in Ireland comprising Corrymeela, Co-operation Ireland and Glencree peace projects. We have been joined in this partnership by the Derry-based Towards Understanding and Healing project. INCORE is represented by Dr. Kenneth Bush and Towards Understanding and Healing by Maureen Hetherington, both of whom will chair the various sessions of this workshop. We attach great importance on the added value of working in partnership as we believe that no one organisation has all the answers. Creative partnership is greater than the sum of its parts. 5 Every word in the plenary sessions will be recorded and transcribed later. The conversations of the four working groups will be recorded and transcribed by a team of very capable note-takers. The resulting transcriptions will be published in book form and launched at a seminar later in the year. The workshop facilitators are Gerard Deane, Owen Donnelly, Seamus Heaney and Susan McEwen. The note-takers are Stephanie Burns, Kenneth Houston, Padraig O’Tuama and Laura Stewart. I also want to name and thank the organising committee which met regularly during 2010 and planned in great detail the international workshop. They are: Laura Stewart, Maureen Hetherington, Paddy Logue, Kenneth Bush, Stephanie Burns, Owen Donnelly, Eamonn Baker, Susan McEwen, Danielle Bonner and Wilhelm Verwoerd. My final task is to introduce Shaun Henry from the Special EU Programmes Body. If there is someone who knows what the Peace III programme is about, it is surely Shaun Henry. It’s a pleasure to have him here. Evaluation and Storytelling: Shaun Henry (SEUPB) Thank you, Paddy. I speak here with the caveat that I am not an expert in peace- building, I am not an expert in evaluating, but what I can bring to the discussion is the view of the funder. We in the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) are tasked with being the managing authority, which is EU-speak for being the authority that manages all aspects of the Peace III programme, and we also had a similar role in Peace II, and we also had a role in Peace I, somewhat lesser, as we were only formed towards the end of that programming period. So that is what I am bringing to the discussions this afternoon. I appreciate that there are many in the audience here who are getting funding from the Peace Programme; others maybe have less knowledge or background of the programme. We have had a role in managing the peace programmes which started back in 1995 and runs up to 2013. I think that is an issue we should be thinking about, reflecting on, during the course of this afternoon’s discussions: that we have now been at this business of post-conflict peace-building in Northern Ireland for fifteen 6 years or so, and the question is, how do our interventions change, or should they change, over time? And I think that is something I would like you to keep in the back of your minds as we make some other comments. The current peace programme runs from 2007 to 2013, to the value of £333 million, which I think you will agree is a significant level of investment, and is in addition to a level of investment which is in excess of a billion Euros that happened in the previous programming period. The objective of the peace programme, a very broadly framed objective, is to reinforce progress towards a peaceful and stable society and promote reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the six Border counties of Ireland. So the programme by its very nature is cross border, and all the funding for it is cross border. That is a very brief overview of the programme, and the four main themes of the programme are: building positive relations at a local level; acknowledging and dealing with the past; creating shared public spaces; and building key institutional capacities.