Creating a Culture of Peace: Focus of Conference Series

What is required to evolve a culture of peace? How do we effect the transition from a culture of violence to a culture of peace? What examples of success do we have? What obstacles continue to exist? What does it mean to behave cooperatively instead of competitively? How do we support families that create and foster peace? How do we inculcate respect for others? What is involved in developing new ways of thinking, seeing, and acting? What behavior models can we look to? What is necessary for inner reformation? For societal and cultural change?

These are the kinds of questions that drew scholars and activists from a variety of cultures and disciplines to Cambridge in February and March for the Boston Research Center's three-part conference series, "From War Culture to Cultures of Peace: Challenges for Civil Society," with weekend sessions devoted to each of the following topics: Creating Cultures of Peace: Family Life and Education; Cultures of Peace in the Global Marketplace; and Practices of Peace in Religious Communities.

"We are eager this year to explore the concept of a culture of peace," BRC executive director Virginia Straus indicated in her welcoming remarks, "because this idea resonates so well with Buddhist teachings. It provides a good opportunity to integrate Eastern and Western views on peace; for example, the term 'culture' invites a holistic view of peace. Peace is more than just an absence of armed conflict; it also has to do with harmonious relations at many different levels. The idea of peace having to do with how people interact with each other and their environment is consistent with a Buddhist understanding of the interdependence of all life. A cultural approach is also inclusive, opening the way for every single individual to participate by somehow changing their own behavior."

Co-conveners of this important multicultural, interdisciplinary, inter-religious, international series were sociologist and peace scholar Elise Boulding and Tufts University Professor Paul Joseph, who directs the Peace Studies Association in the United States. Central to the organizational structure of the conference was the premise articulated by Dr. Boulding in the 1998 book Abolishing War: "We can't create peace at the state level if we don't have peace in our families, in our neighborhoods, in the way that we handle our problems locally."

Gordon Fellman, chair of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Brandeis University, and the Brandeis students who joined him in planning the conference deserve much of the credit for the success of the series. They experimented with a number of configurations of chairs and podium to ensure an open, egalitarian setting that promoted inclusiveness. They also saw to the successful incorporation of art and music that promoted a sense of community among participants. Their flexibility and insistence on seeing with a fresh eye how we can remove barriers to open communion with each other made each day a richer experience than the one before it.

• That power is defined not in terms of violence, but of active nonviolence, as represented by proven successes in bringing about social change;
• That people can be mobilized for justice not in order to defeat an enemy, but in order to build understanding, tolerance, and solidarity--that is, to liberate the oppressor as well as the oppressed;
• That hierarchical, vertical authorities that characterize the culture of war be replaced by a democratic process that engages people in decision-making at all levels and empowers them by the victories they achieve;
• That secrecy and control of information by the powerful be replaced by participatory democracy, through the sharing of information among everyone involved;
• That a male-dominated culture be transformed into a culture acknowledging and building upon the special skills that women bring to the peace-building process, with women at the center of institutions emerging from it;
• That the exploitation that characterizes the culture of war--slavery, colonialism, economic exploitation--be replaced by cooperation and sustainable development for all.

Several changes to the conference series were effected in response to the initiative of participants at the first conference. To meet the request of those who wanted children included in the weekend peacebuilding activities, the BRC and the Lemberg Children's Center at Brandeis University created a children's Peace Camp to operate in tandem with the second and third parts of the conference series. The artwork of one of the children went a long way toward capturing what the peace culture discussions were all about. At the four corners of her painting she positioned depictions of a plate of food, a dress, a house, and a dollar bill. This little girl provided a synopsis of what she saw as necessary to promote a culture of peace: enough food for everyone and enough clothing, shelter, and money to provide for one's family. There is a clear lesson: all voices, including those of children, need to be heard if we are going to see the world in a new way and re-create it in any significant way.

There was another critical observation made at the first session: The peace movement in the United States is not yet economically and culturally diverse. This limitation was reflected in the demographics of the first peace culture conference where the majority of participants were white, middle- and upper-middle-class individuals. To respond to this concern about the "elephants of racism and classism in our midst," the Center and its co-sponsors developed an intensive--and successful--outreach program so that the second and third parts of the Cultures of Peace conference series would be neither "classist" nor "racist" but would, in every way, be inclusive and would provide a wider range of insights about how to meet the goal of working toward and achieving a genuine culture of peace.

"In my 60 years of participating in conferences on peace issues," co-convener Elise Boulding shared with participants at the end of the series, "this has been the most creative conference I have ever been part of." She praised the quality of analytical thinking and the action orientation but, most of all, she praised the fact that the conferences were focused on being "experiential," on being peace and on doing peace, and that they managed to be interactive at all levels with "no shadow of hierarchy."

Conference facilitator Gordon Fellman elaborated: "Part of what we've learned is that a peace culture includes a suppleness, a being able to be open and responsive to things as they happen." He cited the Children's Peace Camp held during the second and third conferences as a prime example of what can result when one is receptive to fresh ideas.

Everyone seemed to share the goal articulated by BRC director Virginia Straus at the opening of the conference, "We are hoping that somehow, because of your experience at this conference, you will take something away when you leave here--that this experience will change you in a way that you find positive."

--Helen Marie Casey

Click here to read transcripts of all the presentations given at the Cultures of Peace conference series.