Building Community Resilience, Peace and Reconciliation as a Response to Global (Dis)Order: the ‘Tangible’ and ‘Intangible’ Aspects of Local Faith Actors’ Contributions

The contributions of ‘local faith actors’ (LFAs) to building community resilience, peace and reconciliation have been marginalised by international peace/development/humanitarian actors. Neither has the role of LFAs in these areas been a strong focus of academic studies, particularly with respect to the ‘intangible’ or ‘spiritual’ dimensions of their engagement. Through ‘participatory action research’ with LFAs in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Burundi this project will aim to:

1) Better understand the ‘tangible’ (or ‘material’) and ‘intangible’ (or ‘spiritual’) aspects of the contribution of LFAs to building resilience, peace and reconciliation as a response to Global (Dis)Order at the local level.

2) Promote broader recognition amongst international peace/development/humanitarian actors of the ‘intangible’ or ‘spiritual’ aspects of the contribution of LFAs to building resilience, peace and reconciliation through co-producing (with LFAs) a conceptual framework that can inform engagement and partnership between LFAs and other stakeholders.

Principal Investigator: Professor Emma Tomalin, University of Leeds