The Conflict Family: Storytelling as an Activity and a Method for Locally Led, Community‐Based Peacebuilding

• Author: Jasmine R. Linabary,Stacey L. Connaughton,Arunima Krishna
• Date: 01 June 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21189
• Published date: 01 June 2017

C R Q, vol. 34, no. 4, Summer 2017 431

© 2016 Association for Confl ict Resolution and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21189

T h e C o n  ict Family: Storytelling as an Activity

and a Method for Locally Led, Community-Based

Peacebuilding

Ja smine R. Linabary

Arunima Krishna

Stacey L. Connaughton

Researchers and practitioners are beginning to look to community-based

participatory research ( CBPR ) approaches in their eff orts to address

social problems with those directly aff ected by them. Yet additional

methods and tools are needed. In this article, we propose storytelling as

a participatory method in the context of peacebuilding. Drawing on

the Confl ict Family, an example of cultural storytelling from a locally

led peacebuilding initiative in Ghana, we illustrate the ways in which

storytelling emerged as a co-constructed, culturally relevant, collabora-

tive, refl exive, and memorable participatory strategy that functioned as

a catalyst for action. Storytelling helped create a dialogic space for par-

ticipants to discuss land disputes in their communities.  is study con-

tributes to what is known about storytelling by showcasing how cultural

storytelling can promote local citizens’ ownership for CBPR approaches.

It also reveals the ways storytelling can serve as a CBPR method that

encourages a relational orientation and the co-construction of meaning,

as well as inspire transformation among local citizens, particularly in

confl ict situations and peacebuilding contexts.

 is article was submitted to the 2015 conference of the National Communication Associa-

tion, where it received a top paper award in the Peace & Confl ict Division. We thank Milton

Lauenstein for his support of the Purdue Peace Project. For more information on the Purdue

Peace Project, contact Stacey Connaughton, Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue

University: sconnaug@purdue.edu .

432 LINABARY, KRISHNA, CONNAUGHTON

C R Q • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21189

S cholars face a growing call to address social problems ranging from

the specifi c challenges of individual communities to broader health,

economic, social, and political issues (Dempsey and Barge 2014 ; Flyv-

bjerg 2001 ). One response to such calls has been a burgeoning inter-

est in engaged scholarship, defi ned as “a diff use fi eld of logics, practices,

and projects brought together by a concern with fostering participative

modes of scholarly inquiry that meaningfully address practical concerns”

(Dempsey and Barge 2014 , 667). In seeking approaches for engaged

praxis, some scholars have turned to community-based participatory

research (CBPR), a research approach that lends itself to helping to

address social problems that matter to communities with those commu-

nities rather than for them.

One engaged research area that would benefi t from the application of

CBPR approaches is peacebuilding—specifi cally, political violence preven-

tion. For decades, peacebuilding and confl ict resolution scholars have called

for a multilevel (Lederach 1995 ), “peacebuilding from below” approach to

confl ict resolution, following the failure of “elite-led negotiations” in con-

fl ict situations (Pearce 2005 , 42). Part of that argument is that community

members’ knowledge and experience play an integral role in informing

why confl ict and violence are likely to occur and the ways in which con-

fl ict and violence may be prevented. It would seem, then, that applying a

CBPR approach to peacebuilding and political violence prevention would

be a natural and synergistic extension for the fi eld.

Although we advance this general argument here, we believe that

CBPR scholars need to address some concerns, including those related to

a genuine focus on culture and cultural relevance (Dutta 2007 ) and the

ownership of project processes and outcomes (Peterson 2010 ). Lack of

both cultural relevance and ownership from local citizens is problematic

for CBPR approaches as they may result in communities’ lack of accep-

tance or outright rejection of strategies that emerge from the collaboration

between community and researcher.

Accordingly, in this article, we propose the use of storytelling, specifi -

cally cultural storytelling, as an activity for addressing these issues in the

CBPR process and as a method for co-constructing meaning and encour-

aging dialogue that could lead to productive action toward social change.

In doing so, we explicate storytelling as a CBPR method to encour-

age co-construction of meaning and transformation among community

members, particularly in confl ict situations and peacebuilding contexts.

Although CBPR scholars have discussed storytelling to achieve similar goals