Empathy Dynamics in Conflict Transformation (EDiCT) is a knowledge exchange project designed to bring academic research into dialogue with conflict transformation experts and practitioners.
Professor Lynne Cameron at the Open University, UK investigated how people construct, negotiate or resist empathy with others through dialogue and interaction. That research has produced a model of the interactional dynamics of empathy, insights into strategies that people use to support and block empathy, and a methodology for analysing the dynamics of empathy in dialogue and interaction. The initial application to post-conflict reconciliation in Northern Ireland and to conflict transformation interventions in Kenya showed the potential of the research to contribute to the field of conflict transformation. This new project aims to concretise that contribution by working further with the project partner, Responding to Conflict (RTC), a conflict transformation and peace building non-governmental organisation.
In its first phase, the project will bring together a network of academics and conflict transformation experts to produce a shared framework that maps models of conflict transformation processes against the research findings about empathy dynamics, to be called the Empathy in Conflict Map (EiC Map). The EiC Map will enable conflict transformation professionals to identify empathy dynamics that might be at play at different stages of conflict transformation and thus to design more effective interventions and training.
Professor Lynne Cameron at the Open University, UK investigated how people construct, negotiate or resist empathy with others through dialogue and interaction. That research has produced a model of the interactional dynamics of empathy, insights into strategies that people use to support and block empathy, and a methodology for analysing the dynamics of empathy in dialogue and interaction. The initial application to post-conflict reconciliation in Northern Ireland and to conflict transformation interventions in Kenya showed the potential of the research to contribute to the field of conflict transformation. This new project aims to concretise that contribution by working further with the project partner, Responding to Conflict (RTC), a conflict transformation and peace building non-governmental organisation.
In its first phase, the project will bring together a network of academics and conflict transformation experts to produce a shared framework that maps models of conflict transformation processes against the research findings about empathy dynamics, to be called the Empathy in Conflict Map (EiC Map). The EiC Map will enable conflict transformation professionals to identify empathy dynamics that might be at play at different stages of conflict transformation and thus to design more effective interventions and training.