This is from February 4th, 2021, when Simon Fisher, Bridget Walker, and Vesna Matovic, with support from Peace Direct, led the M&E Thursday Talk discussion on “Why do we need another Working With Conflict?”
Since the original Working With Conflictwas first published in 2000, the global pandemic, debates around institutional racism, changes in NGOs and funding, and many more factors have significantly altered the fields of peacebuilding and development. So much so that the authors have updated and reworked the book to reflect how our world, and the work we do in it, has changed. Most of us feel overworked and overwhelmed by all the resources available, so why should we spend our time revisiting Working With Conflict?
Led by the book’s authors, our discussion reflected on the book’s key themes, giving insight to the wisdom of over 3,000 peacebuilding practitioners from 70 countries. Simon, Bridget, and Vesna talked through several of the new topics covered in the 2021 edition, such as utilizing different learning methods, recognizing what unlearning might be needed, pinpointing where the sources of power currently lie and how they can be transformed for peace, and exploring why healing is a vital component of peacebuilding.