Building community resilience, peace and reconciliation: the ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ aspects of local faith actors’ contributions

Our CRPL seminar presentation on Thursday 7 March 2024 is by our very own, wonderful Professor Emma Tomalin

In this presentation Professor Emma Tomalin will provide an introduction to an ongoing project funded by the British Academy that explores the contributions of ‘local faith actors’ (LFAs) to building community resilience, peace and reconciliation. To date, these contributions have been marginalised by international peace/development/humanitarian actors. Neither has the role of LFAs in these areas been a strong focus of academic studies, particularly with respect to the ‘intangible’ or ‘spiritual’  dimensions of their engagement. Through ‘participatory action research’ with LFAs in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Burundi the aims of the project are: 

1. To better understand the ‘tangible’ (or ‘material’) and ‘intangible’ (or ‘spiritual’) aspects of the  contribution of LFAs to building resilience, peace and reconciliation. 

2. To promote broader recognition amongst international peace/development/humanitarian actors of the ‘intangible’ or ‘spiritual’ aspects of the contribution of LFAs to building resilience, peace and reconciliation through co-producing (with LFAs) a conceptual framework that can inform engagement and partnership between LFAs and other stakeholders.