Joseph Bock talking to peaceworkers of the Foundation for CoExistence in Colombo. Photo: Photo: Sue Lyke.
Two faces of conflict resolution
Judy Kirby reviews a new book by Joseph Bock and considers where new technology has made a difference
‘Violence prevention initiatives at a local level, combined with the support of middle and top level leaders, using various combinations of technology, have saved and can save lives.’ Joseph Bock, humanitarian aid worker
Joseph Bock inhabits a technocratic world that seems a universe away from the conflict resolution work most familiar to Quakers in community settings. He studies collective intelligence gained from extraordinary innovations in computer science such as digital mapping, events data, crowdsourcing and mathematical pattern recognition. Social networks have played a big part in the popular uprisings of recent years, but behind the mobile phone armies of protesters keeping track of violence are more sophisticated tracking technologies set to transform the whole peace-making movement.
Joseph Bock heralds these developments in his new book The Technology of Nonviolence, yet he still sees the human being as central to peacemaking. He is inspired by the ‘violence prevention practitioners who rely on their webs of relationships when they walk into danger without a gun in their hands.’ In a recent interview with New Scientist magazine he called them ‘modern day heroes’.
In giving those working in conflict zones the accurate and up to date information that they need, the best results are achieved when the latest tracking technology is combined with human induction – machine and human working together.
He is also a firm advocate of local conflict resolution efforts. He says ‘There is a sense in which those dedicated to building peace are making advances locally that can have far more success than those focused on violence at a macro level’ (such as during a separatist revolt or other widespread insurgency).
In the UK, the Newcastle Conflict Resolution Network (NCRN) has been successfully working with communities in the city who have experienced conflict. NCRN was set up by Newcastle Quakers and funded by them and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. It has worked with the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), which has run workshops for families in Walker, Newcastle. NCRN has produced its first three-year report and would like Meetings to see it.
‘We wrote the NCRN story to enthuse and support those in other Quaker Meetings led to try to work for greater peace and harmony in their communities,’ says Beryl Balls, the NCRN convenor. ‘We hope that our story will help to raise the profile of peace work in Meetings and act as an explanation, for those who are uncertain, of activities that can be undertaken. This is a time of great need for such work.’
Joseph Bock would certainly endorse that.
The Technology of Nonviolence: Social Media and Violence Prevention by Joseph Bock, ISBN: 9780262017623. MIT Press £22.95
You can download the NCRN report, Newcastle Conflict Resolution Network – story and learning so far from: http://bit.ly/ncrnreport
Virtual reality in Chicago
Second Life is a web-based social media system in which users develop ‘avatars’ of themselves. Avatars are graphical representations of the user’s character utilised in games on screen. The concept comes from Hinduism, where deities transform themselves into worldly form.
Joseph Bock was looking at virtual reality (VR) as an educational tool and discovered that a department of the University of Illinois’ School of Public Health was using Second Life in this way to train people in intervention to prevent violence. Trainees used their avatars during role-playing exercises as part of a Chicago project for violence prevention called CeaseFire, which is now being copied in other countries.
Gang violence is endemic in Chicago: there were 229 gang-related murders in 2008 and police made 8,035 arrests involving narcotics in 2009. The failure of public housing projects in the city is blamed for much of the violence as residents were scattered and new turf battles over drug markets erupted.
CeaseFire is basically a community organising enterprise that employs field monitors and ‘violence interrupters’ in Chicago hot spots. Its director describes the successful use of VR in training: ‘VR is removed from the face-to-face interactions, which has several benefits… even though one can “experience” high-risk situations, there is no real danger in a virtual environment… you can brandish a virtual weapon without the real danger of getting shot… it allows one to take advantage of the Virtual World to unpack violent choices and violent behaviour.’
Because violence interrupters are usually ex-prisoners and ex-gang members themselves, they cannot be observed ‘in the field’ without harming the intervention, so VR can provide an observable scene for discussion at any time.
An evaluation of CeaseFire, which had the backing of the US Department of Justice, has shown distinct declines in shootings and retaliation murders in Chicago.
Early warning in post-election Kenya
On 31 December 2008 the main-stream media in Kenya was shut down following eruption of post-election violence. Journalists trying to keep updated on the situation joined with ‘techies’ in creating a map of where violence was occurring and posting it on an online site where people could send their stories. Thus Ushahidi was created, now a leading technology provider around the world, which helps to alert communities to potential outbreaks of violence. The word is Swahili for ‘testimony.’
Ushahidi uses open-source software and is free for people to remix and create personal ‘platforms.’ It is a nonprofit organisation with the goal ‘to create a platform to enable volunteers and staff members to contribute to information flow related to … a disaster or potential riot.’ Such platforms have been used to map violence and disasters in Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, the Haitian earthquake and the radiation spread after Japanese earthquake.
Paradise in tears in Sri Lanka
Joseph Bock evaluated the work of the Foundation for Co-Existence (FCE) in 2004. ‘I had the privilege of seeing this group of dedicated people grapple with the use of technology to prevent bloodshed in an extremely challenging conflict environment,’ he writes. He recalls an exhibition he saw of a photojournalist’s work illustrating the violent years on a beautiful island called ‘Paradise in Tears.’
Was the work of FCE successful during the bitter twenty-six-year separatist revolt? During its start up in 2003-2004 it intervened successfully to prevent violence once a month and later 2.1 times per month.
In his statistical analysis Joseph concluded that the work of FCE, along with its Co-Existence Committees and collaborating with police and religious leaders, reduced deadly violence between different religious groups by about twenty-three per cent.
What is…
- Crowdsourcing: A form of events data collection that allows volunteer observers to identify and report events (as used in ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings).
- Crowd seeding: Distributing mobile phones to people who agree to be field monitors.
- Spoilers: Those who disrupt peace processes out of boredom, thrill seeking, feeling left out, or another self-serving purpose.
- Pattern recognition: A way of identifying something based on what we can discern now, involving movements, mathematics and graphs. Bock likens it to waiting for a friend in a cafe and discerning them walking towards you in a crowd by their walk and posture, before identifying them clearly.
- Events data: Information about events of cooperation and conflict that are categorised.
