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The Cultural Dimensions of Peacebuilding
By Marty Branagan
The Cultural Dimensions of Peacebuilding details aspects of cultures, including language, films, journalism, political economics, museums, education, parenting, gender, artistic activism, and spirituality, which can contribute to either more violent societies or more peaceful ones. Solutions-oriented, it aims to inspire deep understanding and reflection, empowerment, and grassroots action in cultural spheres.
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About This Book
This broad-ranging monograph examines the potential creation, through the arts and culture, of societies that enjoy sustainable, positive peace. It begins with a critique of the pervasive nature of militarism and violence embedded deep in the cultural fabric of many societies, influencing the language and discourses we use, the films we watch, our museums and histories, our journalism, and our education systems. It also examines the roots of violence in our parenting styles, gender roles, and spiritual practices.
It contrasts this with an examination of a number of peaceful societies that already exist, drawing useful lessons from their cultures. It critiques discrepancies in history education with regard to war and peace and examines artistic and cultural processes, institutions, and artifacts designed to create peace, such as peace museums and parks, peace journalism, peace education, and resistance to violence through cultural means, such as film-making, fine arts, satirical theatre, and protest music. It examines the efficacy of these attempts and suggests positive ways forward. It also explores the role of gender in creating cultures of peace and the impacts on peacebuilding of cultivating peace within.
The book commences with an explanation of cultural violence and its underpinning of direct, structural, and ecological violence. Solutions-oriented and optimistic, each chapter begins with a critique of cultural violence in the subject area before moving to examples of positive cultural currents striving to embed sustainable peace deep within societies. It aims to inspire deep understanding, individual reflection, community empowerment, and grassroots action for peace in cultural spheres.
Reviews
‘People want to live in peace, so why can’t they? Marty Branagan draws on his significant experience as an artist, activist and peace researcher to explain this situation and to seek detailed practical remedies. He deconstructs everything from violent cartoons to interpersonal conflict and militarism in this fresh, well-informed and nicely illustrated book. A major contribution to peace studies’. — Michael Allen Fox, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Queen’s University (Canada), author of Understanding Peace: A Comprehensive Introduction
‘Within the field of peace studies, Marty Branagan’s work offers a special and attractive angle: the manifold “dimensions” of peace in everyday, contemporary culture. It covers numerous topics, from art to the mind, with a range of examples not often seen’. — Brian Martin, University of Wollongong
‘As one who understands history as an evolution of cultural practices still unfolding through our global patriarchal-colonial-capitalist system, it is good to see Marty Branagan tease out these entangled violences – in the family, on indigenous lands and through military-industrial profiteering. Moreover, it is a joy to read his grounded and hopeful vignettes on how actions for peace emerge, nurturing life on Earth’. — Ariel Salleh, author of Ecofeminism as Politics (2017) and co-editor of Pluriverse (2019)
Author Information
Dr. Marty Branagan is Senior Lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of New England, Australia, and a long-term artist and activist. He is the author of two novels, two monographs, two co-edited books, and more than forty chapters and articles.
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Table of Contents
Figures; Acknowledgement; 1. Introduction;2. Language, Narratives and Discourses; 3. Film Violence and Peace; 4. Peaceful Cultures Already Exist; 5. Peace History: Museums, Memorials, Parks and Gardens; 6. Peace Journalism and Writing; 7/. Domestic Peace; 8. Peace Education; 9. Gender, Sexuality and Peace; 10. Artistic Activism; 11. Peace Within; Appendix; Index
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