Abstract
The identification and mobilisation of factors that promote peace is central to peace promotion. Through a community-based participatory research project, SCRATCHMAPS (Spiritual Capacity and Religious Assets for Transforming Community Health through mobilising Males for Peace and Safety), a grounded-theoretical study in a low-income community in South Africa, including both quantitative and qualitative methods and forms of analysis, was conducted to explore community members’ perceptions of factors that promote peace. The findings presented in this chapter reveal a major emphasis on ‘intangible’ factors, many of them linked to a new concept of ‘spiritual capacity’, that the community believe play a central role in promoting peace. In line with initiatives that combine research and action in efforts to promote peace, the authors briefly describe how these findings were used to direct a community intervention aimed at mobilising religious assets and enabling spiritual capacity to promote peace. Structural factors such as employment and economic security are centrally important in any attempts to promote peace, but the authors argue that more attention should be focused on understanding and mobilising factors such as compassion, respect, and hope, at different levels of the social system. This raises a number of challenges to those involved in peace psychology.
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Notes
- 1.
While Apartheid racial categories are used in this analysis, the use of these terms does not indicate endorsement of these classifications.
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Acknowledgements
We dedicate this chapter to Cathy Hendricks, one of the local community researchers who participated in the research from 2011 to 2015, who has sadly passed on. Her contribution to her community is recognised by us all.
This research would not have been possible without the financial support of the South African National Research Foundation (Grant No. 103705 is recognised in particular), and the University of South Africa’s Community Engagement grants. We are also extremely grateful to our VIPRU and IRHAP partners, and the local research team and wider community of Erijaville, for their invaluable contributions to the knowledge and actions emerging from this research. Finally, special thanks are due to Douglas McGaughey of Willamette University, Oregon, also Corresponding Member of the Research Institute on Political Philosophy, University of Tübingen, Germany, for his critical contributions to the notion of spiritual capacity.
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Lazarus, S., Cochrane, J.R., Taliep, N., Simmons, C., Seedat, M. (2017). Identifying and Mobilising Factors That Promote Community Peace. In: Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Christie, D. (eds) Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45289-0_8
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