Projects & Research
The Everyday Peace Toolkit
What can you do when you are facing a situation of everyday violence? The Everyday Peace Toolkit project is all about researching and publishing practical tools and strategies that people can implement themselves to avoid or respond to everyday violence in their own lives.
Goals
This project aims at helping people respond to everyday forms of violence through nonviolent skills and strategies.
Description
The project starts with a systematic research investigating what people do when they face a situation of everyday violence in order to de-escalate it or avoid it, for example in circumstances such as micro-assession, sexual violence, domestic violence, aggression, institutional violence, and more.
The data is collected and analysed through online surveys and social media monitoring. In this phase, we also create interactive media and create a space where people from different communities can share their knowledges and support one another. Participants will be able to join the Everyday Peace Community and share their stories, connect with people in similar situations, and get access to resources and support.
Outputs
The research findings will be used to produce free digital resources for members of the public. The Toolkit will include practical tools and suggestions in various formats, such as articles, blog posts, infographics and videos.
Status
Current project. December 2019- July 2020
Funding
This project is funded by Peace and Disarmament Education Trust.
Speaking of Violence Programme
The Speaking of Violence Programme involves designing and delivering coaching and support programmes for people who have been experiencing violence to transform those patterns and shift relationships of power in their lives.
Goals
This project aims at helping women develop skills, strategies, tools and mutual support systems to address everyday violence in their own life, family, and community.
Description
This project involves designing and delivering a workshop series for women who are experiencing everyday forms of violence. The workshops will be held in Dunedin, New Zealand. Participant will also be able to support each other through and online platform and have access to one-on-one coaching.
Outputs
The main output for this project is a series of workshops for women facing everyday forms of violence.
Status
Current project
Funding
This project was funded by Quaker NZ ‘Local Peace Grants’ and DCC Community Grants.
Popular Culture & Sexy Violence
What makes violence so attractive in popular culture products like movies and TV shows? What do our kids learn about notions such as conflict resolution, war, injustice, inequality, diversity, and more from their favorite shows?
Goals
The representation of violence is central in the entertainment industry, we see it all the time. While consuming products of popular culture, in a way, the violence we and our kids are exposed to becomes part of our everyday life. The aim of this project is to conduct and analysis of popular culture products from a peace perspective to help the public develop critical skills while consuming these products.
Description
Movies and TV are analysed by looking at the following dimensions:
- Sequences of violence: the act, the agent and the victim, the meaning and emotions it evokes, the group dynamics it involves, and much more.
- Moral categories of good vs evil and how they are associated with violent acts.
- Relationships of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, class.
- Discourses on power & politics.
- Group dynamics and leadership qualities.
- Socio-sentiment: what kind of empathy is displayed? Is it towards a narrow group or the society at large?
- The overall message about peace and violence.
Outputs
Peace reviews of movies and TV shows will be available on the Peace Critic blog. The blog also provides peace education resources for parents and educators to teach and critically reflect together on peace-related themes through movies and shows for the younger public.
Status
Ongoing project
