The role of Culture in Conflicts

Call for participants from
We are happy to announce a call for participants for the international Open Space Conference "The role of Culture in Conflicts" in the frames of long-term project "Educational and Peace Training on Cultural Conflicts".
The conference will take place in Dilijan Armenia.
Culture and conflict are inextricably linked. When problems surface, between or within cultures, it is often a response to difficulties in dealing with differences. whether this pertains to racial, religious, political, social, or economic matters difference is often a source of fear and misunderstanding.
For any conflict that touches us where we're vulnerable, where we make meaning or influence our identities, there is always a cultural component. The Armenian-Azeri or Transnistria-Moldova, as well as nowadays exploded Ukrainian-Russian conflict for example, are not just about land - it's also about identity. Conflicts between teenagers and parents are shaped by generational culture and conflicts between spouses are influenced by gender culture. Cultures shared by dominant groups often seem to be "normal" -- "the way things are done" to the dominant group, but are less obvious to other minority groups. We only notice the effect of cultures that are different from our own.
The initiated project is a set of activities aiming at raising young peoples’ and societies awareness on cultural aspects of different conflicts, at the same time by passing Intercultural Learning and Non Violent communication competences to youngsters to prevent and/or lower the possibilities of future conflicts.

The objective:
• Create a platform (time and space) for young people and civil society organizations to share their expertise and experience about cultural aspects of conflicts,
• To foster partnership and networking between young people from different cultures and countries
• To develop participants leadership skills
• To declare the willingness of new generation of dealing with conflicts in a peaceful ways
• To improve intercultural competences
• To develop non- violent communication skills
• To raise awareness and/or change attitude towards “otherness”
• To increase CSO’s expertise on dealing with different type of conflicts in a Non Violent way
The project has 4 phases.

1. Training Course for Leaders/Multipliers on Intercultural Learning, Non Violent Communication/Peace Education and Conflicts in Ukraine
2. International Exchange Universal Youth Villages in Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.
3. Open Space Conference 4-8 October in Armenia – self-organized conference on the topic of “Cultural Aspects of Conflicts”:
3.1. Implementation of local activities/projects planned during the Open Space
4. Publication (online/CD) of the results of Open Space Conference – Book of Proceedings and inputs from participating CSOs and Experts

Open Space, the third phase of the project, is open both to those who already took part in the multiplier training or a youth village, but is also open for new people: It is a large group method and is especially found supportive and being frequently used in self-organised projects, in youth participation projects and in the phase of future actions' planning. During open space meetings participants themselves create the agenda, which consists of concrete topics and issues. Later they work in self-organized small working-groups to concrete topics and put down the results of the process inside the group. The results of all working-groups are copied in form of a “Book of proceedings”.

Organisers of the project:

Contact Organizations: SCI Germany, AVI Moldova, ArmActive –youth center Armenia, SVIT Ukraine

Countries eligible to participate:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Russian Federation, Serbia

Recruitment of participants
We expect to meet around 35 young people - youth workers, youth leaders and volunteers directly working in the field of Peace Education, Conflicts and Non Violent Actions who already have or would like to have an experience of an international peace project.

All participants selected for this project must meet the following criteria:
• be minimum 18 years – 35 years of age;
• be able to communicate well in English language;
• be strongly motivated to act as a multiplier in the field of “promoting peace & intercultural learning”
• commit to implement the learned knowledge and skills in practice back home;
• commit to actively participate from the beginning to the end of the training and the following stages of the project;
• be youth workers, volunteers, youth leaders working with partner organizations;
• come from one of the countries listed as partner of the project.

How to apply?
Applications should be sent by e-mail to trainings.armactive@gmail.com
Applicants will be informed if they are accepted or not within one week.