Call for Research Memos: Urban Violence and the Arts

Dear Friends and Colleagues;

We are writing to enlist your assistance with a timely and important research project exploring the role of municipalities in contributing to, preventing and ameliorating the effects of urban violence. In particular, we are focusing on the arts and culture, including individuals, organizations, institutions, municipal arts agencies, etc. This research is part of a larger project initiated by the Global Institute for Justice in the Hague named City Responsibility: The Role of Municipalities in Conflict Prevention. Looking at the global south and west, it tests the hypothesis that devolved or decentralized power is capable of producing more effective responses in preventing or ameliorating violent conflict. Violent conflict in cities will be a pressing issue in the future. Increasing urbanization can exacerbate poverty, inequality and exclusion. The study is policy oriented and will develop policy frameworks and guidelines that can help municipalities to better understand and address root causes of violent conflict.

Our research will follow two trajectories: case studies of 4 – 5 cities where the arts have played important roles in relation to urban violence; and a collection of 1 – 2 page research memos that describe particular interventions, institutions, or initiatives in urban zones of violent conflict around the world, with relevant links.

We would like to enlist your help in developing this collection of research memos, which will serve as a source of data for our research, helping us decide which cities to focus on for more in-depth case studies. Summaries of the research memos will be attached to our report, and, with authors’ permission, be posted in the resource library of the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at Brandeis.

We are seeking insiders’ understandings and artists’ perspectives about direct and structural violence in cities as well as art-based initiatives that prevent violent conflict and/or ameliorate its effects. It will be highly appreciated if you can draw from your own wealth of knowledge and guide us towards relevant examples from the cities where you live and work: these can be the work of specific artists, collaborations of groups or community initiatives, traditional cultural practices, a project organized by the municipality or local arts council or any other art based initiative that aims to address issues of violence within an urban area.

We have provided questions below to guide your response. Feel free to elaborate or add or skip any, as you need. All your contributions are highly appreciated. We welcome responses ranging from a paragraph to two pages in length. Thank you!

Dr. Cynthia Cohen

Director, Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts

International Center for Ethics, Justice & Public Life

Brandeis University

Questions to guide your response

Please submit your response (one paragraph to two pages in length)

via the following form by August 10:

http://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/peacebuildingarts/news/2015_07_CallForResearchMemos-UrbanViolenceArts.html

If you prefer, email your response to Dr. Nilanjana Premaratna, research assistant, at .

Background on the urban area:

  1. What kinds of violence are prevalent the city where you live or work? Please consider both structural and direct violence.
  2. What circumstances or conditions have contributed to the violence that is most visible currently?

Artistic and Cultural Initiatives:

  1. Have there been any incidents, events or moments in history that have contributed to artistic and cultural initiatives to prevent, respond to, or ameliorate the effects of violence?
  2. Please describe one or more arts initiatives or cultural processes that have addressed the violence or the circumstances that gave rise to it. Where possible, please include details on:

●  When and where these initiatives were conducted

●  Who were the artists or cultural workers providing leadership

●  Issues the art projects aimed to address

●  The art form and the approach

●  How the project was implemented (community based, independent artist, joint work, commissioned by a municipality, funded by a foundation, etc)

  1. Do you think art initiatives have mitigated violent conflict in the city or ameliorated its effects? If so, in what ways? If not, what accounts for the limitations of these efforts?

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