Inspired by a common methodology, we each experimented by bringing together communities that share both similarities and differences, to reflect on their journeys, achievements and challenges.
What needs to change to begin co-creating alternative worlds?
We wanted to test what might open up if we are able to bring community organizations outside of their standardised project mode, and open up space instead for more free form sharing and learning, and to allow whatever needs to emerge to emerge.
Our experiment was really driven by the belief that community building and relationships are at the heart of peacebuilding - and curious what might open up in spending time together without needing to achieve anything. We also wanted to provide the opportunity for community to community exchange - to really honour the expertise gained through each of our lived experiences.
Our approach really embraced emergence. We intentionally had no agenda - just a journey to meet people, to get to know them and share experiences.
We experienced first hand the pressure of the system and the struggle to prioritise activities that weren’t connected to an outcome. Sometimes, participants struggled to understand and see the value of a no agenda meeting, without any specific commitment for follow up. As convenors, we also experienced discomfort in asking for people’s time without being able to offer anything tangible in return. It was clearly difficult to fully relax and share in a context where competition for funding meant those meeting were often forced to compete for funds.
We deliberately avoided having a specific hypothesis or something we wanted to prove or disprove. Despite the absence of an agenda, something interesting began to come forward in the meetings, with a suprising level of honesty and genuineness in some of the exchanges. In Mali, participants leaned into the potential of these encounters to bridge experience from youth and women’s groups and expressed their desire to repeat the encounter at least every year to share experiences. In Mexico, an outbreak of violence and drug-related killings in the Sinaloa region since August/September 2024, have meant that encounter is still to take place. Through this example, we learnt once again that an absence of violence (negative peace) is fragile and can easily unravel, and we need to continue to work on the underlying conditions that allow peace to be sustained (positive peace).
This initial experiment left us curious about what could open up if we were able to launch similar encounter across borders, for a genuine translocal encounter and hope we’re able to launch this initiative as part of the next phase of our experimentation. We hope that we’ll find a way to ensuring that any encounters can be sustained over time rather than simply a one off meeting.
