As pod, we wanted to understand how actors, activists and practitioners within the (perceived) separate fields of peacebuilding and resistance movements could enhance coordination and collaboration to achieve shared objectives.
What needs to change to begin co-creating alternative worlds?
We want to change the perception that resistance movements (using constructive escalation rather than deescalation) are not a form of peacebuilding. We want to understand where this conception comes from and what can be done to unify these approaches or at least increase cooperation.
We are driven by a desire to build more unity and cohesion in our struggle, and not to allow external forces to silo our work
The process was tough - we spent a lot of time trying to get on the same page about what we were even doing in the first place. We didn’t necessarily have the same starting point in our understanding, and spent time working out how to collaborate effectively different timezones, commitments and availability. Through our exchanges, we were really able to appreciate the relevance to our respective contexts and work and deepened our connection with each other. We decided to use case studies as a point of departure - not as an academic exercise but as a way of starting conversations. The initial phase of 6 months only resulted in a concept note. The experiment time frame would need to be adjusted to accommodate the varying amount of time available for each pod member.
It's hard to set your parameters appropriately - what is really possible in 6 months? We felt future experiments would really benefit from an iterative framework that would help guide the experimental process.
Experiments are difficult! Definitions are hard to agree on and we are bound by academic approaches which we need to depart from creatively. This was hard to do so under pressure and across many different time zones.
We reflected a lot on how we might redesign how pods worked and the overall experimentation process to support our work. We wondered if a smaller pods and fewer participants would help to align schedules and make progress. We also felt that clearer expectations from the whole community would have helped us define our parameters. A member of the Caring for the Whole, who was responsible for monitoring pod progress, could also help keep momentum.
