1st Edition

Friendship, Peace and Social Justice

Edited By Heather Devere Copyright 2023

    A just peaceful world. How can that be achieved? What sorts of relationships might be needed? Could the concept of friendship assist? Assembling the work of twenty scholars, this book creates a resource for those aiming to deal with conflict non-violently and promotes peaceful attitudes and outcomes in a troubled world.

    The book posits that making the connections between Friendship, Peace and Social Justice is vital for living in a functioning and sustainable world. Firstly, it makes connections between scholars of peace and conflict studies, friendship studies, ethics, and social justice. Secondly, it explores the connections between the ethical concepts and practices of friendship, peace, and social justice. Thirdly, it links academic researchers who use a variety of methodological approaches. Fourthly, it provides different academic perspectives of scholars from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The topics covered include civic, social and virtue friendship, peace and psycho-social development, the role of social media and friendship, cultures of peace activism, resistance, justice movements, environmental campaigns, community building, art collectives, dialogue, facilitative listening, Ubuntu, reconciliation, healing and relationship building.

    This book will be of great interest to researchers and scholars in Politics, Sociology, Social Justice and Peace and Conflict Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Peace Review.

    Introduction: Exploring Friendship, Peace and Social Justice

    Heather Devere

    PART 1: Social Justice and Political/Social/Civic/Adaptive Friendship

    1. Social Justice, Social Friendship, and the Role of Trust as an Other-Oriented Emotion

    Ana Romero-Iribas and Andrea Oelsner

    2. Civic Friendship as a Remedy for the Cult of Mediocrity

    Komlan Agbedahin

    3. Friends with Benefits (and Sometimes Costs)

    Tom H. Hastings

    4. Chinese-Tanzanian Friendship and Friendship Treaties

    Amy E. Stambach

    PART II: Friendship as a Peace Practice

    5. Building Peace through Facebook Friendship Groups

    Lisa Gibson

    6. Inquiry as Practice: Building Relationships through Listening in Participatory Action Peace Research

    Raymond Hyma and Le Sen

    7. The Art of Friendship: Solidifying Resettled Communities in Philadelphia

    Katie L. Price and Yaroub Al-Obaidi

    PART III: Friendship, Ethics and Justice

    8. Solidarity without Borders: Friendship, the Arts, and Social Movements

    Shelly Clay-Robison

    9. Cultivating Virtuous Friendship as a Model for Teaching Peace Positively

    Josu Ahedo

    10. Toward an Ethic of Friendship in Academic Research: A Reflection on Rwanda and Survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi

    Noam Schimmel

    PART IV: The Psychology of Friendship for Peace

    11. First Friendships: Foundations for Peace

    Darcia Narvaez

    12. Neurobiology of Social Capacities: The Building Blocks of Friendship

    Mary S. Tarsha

    PART V: Economic Justice and Friendship

    13. The Cost of Political Differences to the Peace of Friendship

    Zaldy C. Collado

    14. The Market as a Space for Building a Peaceful Society

    Christopher J. Coyne, Michael R. Romero and Virgil Henry Storr

    Conclusion: Connecting Friendship, Peace and Social Justice

    Heather Devere

    Biography

    Heather Devere is Former Director of Practice of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The politics of friendship has been the thread connecting her work on peace and gender studies, social justice and ethics. She is founding co-editor of AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies.