Practitioners and researchers in the wider sector of peacebuilding tirelessly refer to the need for contextualised interventions. To this effect peacebuilding organizations establish knowledge networks and learning units and in general, they invest in an increased knowledge production in order to improve the design and implementation of their interventions, standardise their approaches, to gain or maintain credibility and to show impact. However, the accumulation of explicit and standardised knowledge which rather disciplines “local” context into narrow templates does not render policies and practices within the peacebuilding sector more context-sensitive and suitable to support change processes.
In the suggested paper I would like to focus on “knowledges” for peace and how the interaction of different knowledge communities and the exchange of their “knowledges” could lead to an understanding of knowledge for peace that is more dynamic, process-oriented, interaction-based and able to integrate the complexity of conflict realities. In the first part of the paper, different “knowledges for peace” as well as “knowledge communities for peace” are discussed based on the existing literature. In the second part, the exchange and interaction between these “knowledges” are described based on a case study. The analysis of these interactions and their potential contributions to improving peacebuilding policy and practice will conclude the paper.
