Lederach (2005) argues that peacebuilding approaches to social change have become too linear, “too cookie-cutter-like, too reliant on what proper technique suggests as a frame of reference” (p. 73). This is where the moral imagination can supply a possible remedy:
What if reconciliation were more like a creative artistic process than a linear formula of cumulative activities aimed at producing a result? (ibid., p. 159)
Capacity to imagine a web of relationships, one that includes the
'other' Capacity to embrace complexity without reliance on dualistic polarity Capacity to believe in and pursue creative acts Capacity to accept the inherent risk that comes with walking into the unknown
72
This idea is founded on the belief that sustainable peace arises from a capacity “to imagine and generate constructive responses and initiatives that, while rooted in the day-to-day challenges of violence, transcend and ultimately break the grips of the destructive patterns and cycles” (ibid., p. 29). New opportunities and unexpected potentialities require “a creative act, which at its core is more art than technique” (ibid., p. 73). Lederach argues for an “integration of skill and aesthetics” that creates genuine connections between observation, lived experience and intuition as part of the art of building peace in divided societies (ibid., p. 70). The theatre- centric projects studied in chapters 5 and 6 represent one avenue of a cultural intervention offering insight into why he regards peacebuilding as an art rather than a purely technical endeavour:
The artistic process cannot be understood as something that mostly deals with the head. Intellectual rationality is but one element of the human experience that most wishes to control the others. The artistic process initially breaks beyond what can be rationally understood and then returns to a place of understanding that may analyse, think it through, and attach meaning to it. (ibid., p. 160)
Lederach is not suggesting that peacebuilders become professional artists. It is about rediscovering the sense of art – intuition, imagination and
creativity – that exists beyond the “intellectual journey, the cognitive processes of getting the analysis right and developing the technique that facilitates the management of the change process” (ibid., p. 162; also Smithey, 2007). This will help them think beyond the repetition of what already exists and open a space for “a critically important alternative lens through which one might more clearly visualise the scope and essence of a conflict” (Benjamin, 2005, para. 6; also Arai, 2013).
Moral imagination is about the messiness inherent in the pursuit of innovative ideas about and ways of generating constructive change as shown in the decision “to take a risk with what was considered a delicate addition” to a conference’s agenda (Lederach, 2005, p. 152). Lederach (2005) recalls the Remember and Change conference that he attended in October 1996 at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland (pp. 152-154). This hotel was the site of a bombing in July of that year which “set off fears that intensifying reprisals might soon kill the peace effort and
73
return Northern Ireland's 1.6 million people to the dead end of full-fledged
strife”(Darnton, 1996, para. 4). The organisers presented a performance
involving a cross-community Catholic–Protestant group of young women dancing to a 1985 song called The Island by Irish musician Paul Brady (1986/1999). This song was considered controversial during the conflict as it raised questions about the motives behind and logic of escalating violence and those who justified it on all sides of the conflict (see Bailie, 2012). During the performance, photos of the conflict appeared on a large screen without comments or captions. Police officers, politicians and others from different sides of the divide in Northern Ireland were reduced to tears: it was as if “the whole of the Irish conflict was held in a public space, captured in a moment that lasted fewer than five minutes” (Lederach, 2005, p. 153). The effect of this creative act within the long, slow process of moving from destructive to constructive engagement should not be underestimated:
The artistic five minutes, I have found rather consistently, when it is given space and acknowledged as something far beyond entertainment, accomplishes what most of politics has been unable to attain: it helps us return to our
humanity, a transcendent journey that, like the moral imagination, can build a sense that we are, after all, a human community. (emphasis in original; ibid., pp. 153- 154)
This example suggests that if change is to be sustained it must “bring into relationship sets of people, processes and activities that are not like-
situated nor of similar persuasion” (ibid, p. 86).
As noted above, Lederach suggests there are four disciplines
necessary to realising the moral imagination – seeing conflict and change as relational webs, embracing complexity over dualisms, exploring creativity, and acceptance of risks. What each of these disciplines entails and how they contribute to peacebuilding are examined in the sections below.
3.2.1.1 Imagining Relational Webs that Include the ‘Other’
The purpose of the idea of the moral imagination is “to envision the canvas that makes visible the relational spaces and web of life where social change is located” (Lederach, 2005, p. 86). Exercising moral imagination asks peacebuilders and those who form the fabric of divided societies to
74
examine relationships “through the lenses of social crossroads, connections, and interdependence” (ibid., p. 78 & pp. 101-111). People are invited to imagine themselves in relational webs that include their enemies in order to break patterns of self-perpetuating violence (ibid., p. 34). This calls for the capacity to imagine “a relationship with the other that transcends the cycle of violence while the other and the patterns of violence are still present” and the capacity of people to understand that they are part of that “historic and ever-evolving web” (ibid., pp. 62 & 35). For Lederach (2005) the key to constructive change is to link people “who are not of common mind” and not like-situated socially, politically or economically (p. 84). This can be done by looking for social spaces that already exist like coffee shops and youth clubs and those created like performance and discussion tours (ibid., pp. 86 & 96). The aim is to create a quality of relationship across the lines of conflict that will support transformation of the society as a whole.
Moving away from fear, division and violence toward new modes of social interaction requires “awareness, action, and broad processes of change” that refuse to frame “life’s challenges, problems and issues as dualistic polarities” (ibid., p. 89 & 62).
3.2.1.2 Practicing Paradoxical Curiosity
Patterns and cycles of violence in protracted conflict settings are often driven by requirements “to reduce complex history into dualistic polarities that attempt to both describe and contain social reality in artificial ways” (Lederach, 2005, p. 35). Choices about how to respond to situations are forced into either-or categories, for example: you are either with us or against us. The practice of paradoxical curiosity, the second discipline of the moral imagination, requires people to rise above these polarisations and “to develop and live with a high degree of ambiguity” (ibid., p. 37). It refers to people’s ability to exhibit the type of curiosity that respects complexity and facilitates a permanent state of inquisitiveness extending “beyond the immediate arguments and narrow definitions of reality” and yet capable of co-existing with different and often opposing viewpoints (ibid.). For Lederach (2005) this involves accepting people at face value and
suspending judgment in order to explore contradictions that arise, for example as they witness overlooked stories through fictional dramas, and
75
uncover new angles and unexpected windows of opportunity: It is built on a capacity to imagine that it is possible to hold multiple realities and world views simultaneously as parts of a greater whole without losing one’s identity and viewpoint and without needing to impose or force one’s view on the other. (ibid., p. 62; also pp. 36-37)
Insights on how this practice can manifest itself in a society in transition are offered in the case study analyses presented in chapters 5 and 6. Building and sustaining processes of change also calls for creativity, constant
innovation, and flexibility. It is essential to “adapt to, respond to, and take advantage of emerging and context-based challenges” such as the search for creative ways of dealing with the past (ibid., p. 85).
3.2.1.3 Providing Space for the Creative Act
Making space for creative human action is the third discipline of the moral imagination. Lederach (2005) argues that:
The moral imagination takes form and expression through an act. While we might initially think of the space where moral and imagination meet as a conceptual exercise, in reality we cannot know this kind of imagination outside of concrete human action. (emphasis in original; p. 38)
He contends that creativity is permanently within human reach and always accessible, “even in settings where violence dominates and through its oppressive swath creates its greatest lie: that the lands it inhabits are barren. Artists shatter this lie” (ibid.; also Cohen et al., 2011a; Thompson et al., 2009). Lederach cites the Petals of Hope, Rays of Light project
undertaken in the aftermath of the Real IRA (dissident cell) car bomb in
Omagh on August 15, 1998 that killed thirty one people less than three months after the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement (2005, pp. 157- 158). To address the issue of what to do with the floral tributes left at the scene of the bombing, artist Carole Kane transformed them into paper and art work with the help of over one hundred and fifty schoolchildren and volunteers from the local community to honour the trauma endured
(O’Doherty, 2014, n.p.). The arts for peace project recognised the need to create space for hope and transformation to emerge, as C. Kane noted to people gathered for a lunch time talk in Derry-Londonderry in 2014:
76
I had [previously] done a few peace and reconciliation workshops and I was able to see how the creative process was very much a tool or a medium for people to come to terms with different things over a period of time. And just … giving the brain – the mind – space to be able to be silent sometimes or to be able to enquire also helped them with other things they were working with. (City Centre Garden of Reflection, 2014, 5:04:00 min)
This speaks to the potential for transformation that can be achieved through the practice of the imagination of risk, the fourth discipline of the moral imagination (see Lederach, 2005, pp. 157-158).
3.2.1.4 Exhibiting a Willingness to Risk
The fourth discipline of the moral imagination asks people to enter “the mystery of risk that takes the step beyond violence and into the
unchartered geography of relationship with the enemy” (Lederach, 2005, p. 169). The capacity to generate and sustain the moral imagination requires individuals, organisations and communities to both think and live outside the box by exhibiting the willingness to risk (ibid., p. 62). Brewer (cited in Lederach, 2003b) explains what this means in the Northern Ireland context:
In our context of thirty plus years of the Troubles, violence, fear and division are known. Peace is the mystery! … Peace asks you to share memory. It asks you to share space, territory, specific concrete places. It asks you to share a future. And all this you are asked to do with and in the presence of your enemy. (p. 265)
The act of stepping outside the “far too familiar landscape of violence” is quite demanding as it asks individuals and communities “to venture into lands that are not controlled or charted” (Lederach, 2005, pp. 5 & 39). Those who practice this kind of imagination must “understand the deeper implications of risk” (ibid. p. 39). On the use of drama and theatre as catalysts for discussion of challenging post-conflict issues, P. McFetridge (cited in Thompson, 2014) talks about being aware of her responsibility as an artist: “there is a time to tell a story; a time to challenge; a time to simply give a voice” (n.p.). Taking risks entails great vulnerability and awareness that stepping outside “known cartography” carries no guarantee of success or safety (Lederach, 2005, pp. 163). Figure 3.2 illustrates how risk-taking forms part of each discipline of the moral imagination.
77
Figure 3.2 Four types of risk associated with the practice of moral imagination
Source. Adapted from Lederach (2005, pp. 5, 31-40, 62-63, 149, 152-154 163-165, 169). As stated in the introductory chapter the research questions at the heart of this thesis concern assessing the potential that lies in creative, theatre-centric approaches to conflict transformation (including emerging digital elements in this practice) especially in relation to dealing with the contested historical legacies of the past in a society in transition. Within the broad field of conflict transformation which emphasises the centrality of human relationships to peacebuilding, Lederach’s theory of the moral imagination and its component disciplines, provide a clear framework for exploring and answering these questions. The framework offers a way of understanding and analysing the peacebuilding potential in creative work. However, the moral imagination framework has drawn criticism from other scholars and it is important to acknowledge and consider these critiques before bringing this chapter to a close.
3.2.2 Central Critiques of Lederach’s Moral Imagination Framework