Paradox Navigation Across Field Positions: A Case of Environmental Peacebuilding in Israel-Palestine

Abstract: Organizations working across deep societal divides face a challenge: diverse partnerships needed for shared problems bring power differentials that complicate collaboration. Paradox theory has not adequately theorized how field positions shape actors' capacity to navigate tensions under structural asymmetries. Integrating Bourdieu's field theory with paradox theory, we examine how actors hold different forms of capital in varying social fields, creating asymmetric but reciprocal dependencies. Through five years of ethnographic research in an environmental peacebuilding organization operating across Israel and Palestine, we identify three position-conscious practices enabling cooperation: recognition (creating protected spaces for articulating power asymmetries), multiplicity (enabling divergent interpretations through parallel structures), and distancing (legitimizing temporary withdrawal). These findings advance paradox theory by demonstrating how power operates through field-specific forms of capital rather than unidirectional dominance, revealing the limits of universal both/and prescriptions in contexts of structural inequality.

Keywords: aradox theory, Bourdieu, power relations, organizational practices, environmental peacebuilding, conflict contexts, cooperation