Building Shared Societies Across Divides

Against the background of increasing political and societal polarization, growing injustice, inequalities, and social tensions, which are amplified in the current COVID-19 pandemic and some of the social responses to it, integrative socio-political strategies are of crucial importance. Due to its focus on divided and polarized societies the Shared Society concept is particularly well-equipped to contribute to the debate on how to meet the challenges societies are facing today. The term “Shared Society” is a promising concept in the field of peacebuilding linking conflict and violence with the processes of social inclusion, diversity management and consensus building among social groups. It describes the vision to see "all individuals and constituent groups hold status as equally contributing participants, free to express their differences while integrating their voices within the broader population is shared" (Club De Madrid). Based on this definition a Shared Society can be understood as one in which individuals share an equal capacity to participate in economic, political and social opportunities regardless of their religion, ethnic or linguistic group, and where as a consequence, relations between groups are sustainable peaceful. Shared Society as an application-oriented and holistic concept lies its focus on the synergies between theory and practice. This is a distinctive approach which goes beyond existing approaches, perhaps by placing them in this broader coherent context. The comprehensive multilevel conceptual framework considers equally approaches of the local, national and global level and interrelates sustainable aspects of the social, environmental and economic dimension to reduce violence and tensions and toward sustainable peaceful societies. The aim of the panel submission is to further advance the understanding of Shared Society building in various areas and contexts. The panel session therefore addresses particular research gaps, and explores the implementation processes of shared society projects and required methodologies. The paper givers present their work on the conceptual framework of Shared Society and the specific potential in the field of governance, city management, regional collaboration and dialogue work.