PEACE

STRATEGIC CONCEPTS FOR PEACE BUILDING

Strategic who. The strategic who analyses conflicted social system in order to identify key agents of change, particularly those with capacity for building vertical and horizontal integration. Two metaphors for thinking strategically about whom we work with are the critical yeast and the siphon.

Critical yeast. The critical yeast uses the metaphor of bread making. Basic ingredients for bread are flour, salt, water, and yeast. These ingredients form the mass, but the mass only grows with the smallest ingredient, the yeast. Critical yeast asks the question, who within this setting, if brought together would have the capacity to make things grow toward the desired end?

The siphon. The physic of a siphon applied to social processes provides another metaphor. The task is how to move liquid from one container to another. The siphon uses a tube inserted in one container, creates a pulling vacuum to lift an initial portion of the liquid against gravity until it begins its descent to the other container, pulling with it the remainder of the liquid in the original. The person using the siphon is not concerned with moving all the liquid. This person is only concerned with getting the initial portion to move against gravity knowing it will pull the rest. Applied to social processes, the metaphor asks this question: Who, if linked together to make the journey against social gravity, would have the capacity to pull the rest of the system/ society along toward a desired change?