Negotiating Local, Organizational, and State-Level Systems to Develop Peacebuilding Systems

This manuscript utilizes case studies from two justice-related peacebuilding efforts in the central United States to explore from a systems perspectives factors that influence the process of constructing conflict transformation systems. In general, conflict transformation is a multi-level phenomenon, addressing individual, relational, structural, and systemic factors that give rise to and perpetuate conflict (Lederach, 2003). More than arriving at a settlement, transformation aims to develop systems of meaning-making and behavior that foster sustainable peace and life-giving relationships (Lederach, 2003). Yet, transformative peacebuilding efforts run into a complex question: how do you work within and outside conventional systems to change those systems toward a more transformative, restorative orientation? This submission reports on the themes of two peacebuilding efforts and the processes used in those efforts to explore systems-level characteristics that influence conflict transformation work pursued by both practitioners and engaged scholars.