Programme for a Peaceful City
PPC Background
The Programme for a Peaceful City (PPC) is a knowledge exchange network, building thinking and practice about public conversations. Established two months before the July 2001 riots we learnt much from hosting conversations that aimed to facilitate safe but challenging spaces for discussing the difficult issues which might divide people. See Systematising an Experience report. In recent years we have also became interested in deepening our understanding of talking processes.
PPC Events
For many years the PPC hosted large public conversations against a backdrop of local riots, September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and July 7th London bombings and the subsequent policy responses to these events from the Cohesion agenda to foreign policy. We found that these large public conversations created space to air but not necessarily understand disagreement. The PPC still works in partnership with the ICPS and other academics in SSIS and external organisations to facilitate public conversations such as pre and post Copenhagen climate change reflection, forthcoming 2011 conferences on Religious Belief and practice, Hate Crimes and ICPS seminars.
PPC Dialogue Practice
Our desire to think more about conversations that offer the opportunity for increased understanding led to the Community Associate (Lisa Cumming) developing a field of practice in intergroup dialogue with external partners Huw Illingworth (Peace Studies graduate, voluntary sector youth worker and dialogue facilitator) and Tariq Bashir (a dialogue facilitator working with organisations such as International Alert, JRF, Leeds Together for Peace and the British Council).
We have facilitated conversations about the complexity of identity, place and values for a diverse range of participants funded by organisations such as the British Council, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Intercultural Communication and Leadership School. The Community Associate, already trained in mediation, found facilitation training from the Kinharvie Institute of Facilitation particularly useful in developing this practice.
PPC Knowledge Exchange
The PPC facilitates a knowledge exchange Thinkspace with practitioners & academics and built a range of connections with practitioners developing their own practice in UK peacebuilding and facilitating conversations. In 2011 we will be exploring group decisions making, building relationships and facilitating conversations/peacebuilding in the current context of austerity cuts and uncertainty.
PPC Teaching
The Community Associate, along with Dr Ute Kelly from the ICPS, has contributed to a new module in dialogue and deliberation starting from January 2011. The module includes block teaching days for students to participate in and reflect on dialogue and deliberation exercises, develop analytical skills in matching process to purpose, alongside online discussion about the value and limitation of talking processes. The Module, at Master level, has value both for people new to dialogue and deliberation, experienced practitioners and anyone who wants to reflect on how we can facilitate spaces to understand each other better.
PPC Research
Dr Ute Kelly with a contribution from the Community Associate contributed to Carnegie UK Trust’s independent Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland and its report: Making good society Civil society supporting dialogue and deliberation (Note: large file, 3MB).
PPC Peacebuilding
We found that we were able to utilise our connections to contribute towards a range of locally rooted peacebuilding interventions when Bradford faced the threat of an English Defence League (EDL) protest with the possibility of violence in the summer of 2010. Our response was to help keep open channels of communication between various actors, co-host some workshops with Bradford Council and to act as a communication conduit on the day based at Bradford Cathedral, alongside both strategic and grassroots attempts to prevent violence. We had guidance and support from a range of organisations including the Centre for Good Relations, Mediation Northern Ireland, Turning the Tides and Northern Friends Peace Board. Our small contribution was one of many. Our learning from making a small intervention indicates that relationships of trust are absolutely crucial and that sustainable work that builds connections is vitally important.
We are currently looking at how to build on the learning in terms of developing capacities for nonviolence (in the widest sense) and contributing to an emerging field of practice in the UK of what could loosely be described as peacebuilding.
Support for the PPC
In 2011 PPC activities are being very kindly supported by the Quaker Peace Studies Trust. Whilst the Community Associate works across the School of Social and International Studies, the work of the PPC is intellectually supported by Professor Jenny Pearce and the International Centre of Participation Studies based within Peace Studies.
For more information about the PPC please contact:
Lisa Cumming
Community Associate
Programme for a Peaceful City
Peace Studies, School of Social and International Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford
BD7 1DP
Telephone: 01274 234173
Email: l.f.cumming@bradford.ac.uk
