Conclusion: An ‘Alternative Community’ as Positive Peace-Building?

Abstract

Drawing on Johan Galtung’s terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative peace’ from the field of peace studies, this chapter proposes understanding the Peace Community’s collective identity as that of an ‘alternative community’. It proposes that this identity logic has evolved from a grassroots analytical and lived process which corresponds to the analytical agenda set out by Galtung: that a broad conception of peace stems from a broad conception of violence, and builds on it to propose ‘alternatives’ that aim at structural transformations to promote dignity and equality of life. It tentatively suggests the term ‘alternative community’ to describe the interpenetration of the radical and organic narratives, and asks what ‘peace’ might mean to the ‘Peace Community’, suggesting it comprises values such as solidarity economics, a community work ethic, communal living, self-organisation, autonomy, and an ‘organic’ relationship with nature, as well as keeping alive a historical narrative to remember and immortalise the tragedies and injustices.