The five principles of Local Conflict Counselling
Every city, every community is different. The circumstances, conflict issues and dynamics as well as the organisations, groups and individuals involved are just as different. Local Conflict Counselling creates a service for each municipality that is tailored to the specific problems and needs on the ground. Our counselling work is driven by five principles. They ensure the effectiveness and quality of our work.
Focus on local community
Local communities are special places of conflict. In cities, villages and rural districts, diverse (interest) groups come together. Civil society, administration and politics work together to shape communal life. This is why Local Conflict Counselling focuses on local society as a whole.
Focus on conflict
Conflicts indicate changes and a need for adaptation. They indicate that communal life needs to be reorganised. Conflicts often have a negative connotation. But if we take them seriously and approach them constructively, they also harbour an opportunity. One of the tasks of Local Conflict Counselling is to make conflicts and even more complex conflict dynamics visible to all those involved and thus making them processable.
Systemic perspective
Local Conflict Counselling is systemic. It steers the focus away from simplistic attributions of blame and towards the multiple causes and logics behind the conflicts. It involves participants from different areas of the system with their respective perspectives and logics of action and supports them in their search for possible responses. The participants remain the experts for their own situation and the handling of their conflicts.
Process counselling
Local Conflict Counselling does not prescribe solutions. Our counsellors are experts in conflicts and develop tailor-made processes that support local stakeholders in formulating their own solutions.
Polycentric stance
Polycentric stance is a professional attitude in Dealing with conflicts. It is tied to the ability to be equally open to all parties involved in the conflict. The counselling teams acknowledge and value the perspectives, interests and needs of all parties involved and thus open up spaces for negotiation.
We developed the approach of local conflict counselling at Pro Peace and implement it together with our partners at K3B - Kompetenzzentrum Kommunale Konfliktberatung des VFB Salzwedel e.V.. The five principles of Local Conflict Counselling were also developed in the course of this cooperation.
Our activities are implemented as part of the project ‘Kommunen im Fokus: Konflikte nutzen - Integration gestalten’. Information on the funding of the project can be found under ‘Sponsors’.
