Home Institution

Long Island University

Publication Date

Spring 2008

Program Name

Balkans: Gender, Transformation and Civil Society

Abstract

This paper focus on the experiences of participants in a program called Peace Camp conducted by the Center for Peacebuilding in Sanki Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It, then, analyzes the camps within the context of the field of conflict resolution. The Peace Camps are week-long workshops which analyze the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the personal experiences of the participants. The camps invite Serbs, Bosniaks, Croat, Roma, and others to collectively share their experiences and be trained in conflict resolution. This paper’s analysis looks at who attends the Peace Camps and why and their experiences meeting ‘the other’ and talking about the war. It also looks at how the participants connect their experiences in the Peace Camp with their lives at home. The researcher also looks at critiques of certain conflict resolution and interpersonal contact theories and applies them to the Peace Camps approach along with analyzing the importance and influence of the facilitator of the Peace Camps. This paper aims to raise questions about the approaches used in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina and to explore one manifestation of conflict resolution theories as implemented by a local peacebuilder.

Disciplines

Peace and Conflict Studies

Download

Share

Article Location

 
COinS