Grassroots Community Peacebuilding in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Identifying Local Perceptions of the Causes of and Means of Preventing Interpersonal Violence

Abstract

The term ‘global peacelessness’ is used to describe the impact of persistently high rates of interpersonal violence throughout the world, and particularly violence against women (Flaherty, 2010). This violence is epidemic and constitutes a global health problem and pervasive human rights violation. Responses are critiqued as narrow in scope, reactive and lacking in coordination. The research presented in this thesis contributes to addressing this gap by exploring measures community citizens from diverse backgrounds defined as important to ending violence. Specifically, the research question asked ‘What do community members of Lunenburg County say about the structural and cultural influences on interpersonal violence?’ It links the field of peace studies with the interpersonal anti-violence field and the field of addiction. The meta-analysis that frames this dissertation asserts that grassroots community peacebuilding will involve defining and connecting measures at the local level that can lead to defining and challenging broad, oppressive cultural and structural factors linked to the persistence of violence at provincial, national, and international levels. Situating interpersonal violence within a peacebuilding framework provides a critical lens that moves from a narrow focus on individual responsibility to include a wider analysis of the origins of violence to include social, cultural, economic, and political factors and ultimately compel a collective community response. This emancipatory function of peacebuilding must include a focus on promotion of environments where boys and men, girls and women, can live safe and satisfying lives that include the development of skills that promote nonviolence and peace.