The practice of humanitarian interventions in crisis prevention and post-crisis recovery
One of the focus area’s main achievements in 2005-2006 has been the establishment of an international consortium coordinated by the Globalization Program/Department of Geography, which has as its goal to establish a larger international project on reconstruction. The goal is to enhance knowledge for the study and practice of humanitarian interventions in crisis prevention and post-crisis recovery. The overreaching questions are: How can local/national capabilities be understood, developed and deployed to support or lead effective and sustainable recovery? How can third-party interventions be designed and deployed to provide effective crisis mitigation or lead effective recovery assistance?
The project consists of the following five key research areas and objectives: (1) Effective strategies for crisis mitigation. (2) Poverty-vulnerability reduction through pro-poor recovery. (3) Integrated post-crisis planning of settlement and housing reconstruction. (4) Socially sensitive health recovery. (5) Good governance through international assistance for post-crisis recovery.
Turning Points in Conflict Transformation Processes: Conditions for Peace
A new initiative in the War, Conflict and Migration focus area is a project called “Turning Points in Conflict Transformation Processes: Conditions for Peace”. The project idea emerged from discussions around certain concrete experiences in peace work. In difficult conflict transformation processes, certain crucial moments emerged as particularly significant: turning points where patterns of thought and feeling changed from conflict-escalating to conflict- transformation and peace-building. How can one nurture such turning points? The broad objective of the project is to increase our knowledge about such turning points, and to answer questions such as: What are important preconditions for turning points? How do we overcome impediments? What is involved in terms of intellectual and emotional factors? These and similar questions will be pursued according to already established fields, theories and concepts in geography, musicology, architectural science and psychology. An important aspect of the work will be the development of innovative participatory methodologies, guidelines and procedures aimed at improving conflict transformation processes.
