Doing Peace! A Framework for Participatory Research in Peace and Security Studies

Abstract

A new paradigm for the relationship between science and society has emerged in recent years. Approaches such as participatory and transdisciplinary research, citizen science or real-world labs, building on well-established methods such as action research or community-based participatory research, emphasise new forms of collaboration between researchers and stakeholders on the local level, identify mechanisms for knowledge co-creation and emphasize the importance of public engagement of science for addressing real-world challenges. In the face of multiple crises and rising societal and political complexities, this report takes this new paradigm to the study of peace and security. Peace researchers have long understood that peace - as a value, practice and condition - cannot be observed at a distance or studied in the abstract. Instead, understanding how peace works requires close engagement with the actors, stakeholders and people in a given setting. Peace research, therefore, has a lot to offer when it comes to understanding how local and embedded practices enable and shape peaceful societal relations and constructive forms of nonviolent conflict in different settings. Yet, participatory or collaborative methods are still rarely used. This is all the more true for the study of security - a field characterized by restricted access, secrecy and strong government interests. In this report, we propose a concept of participatory peace and security research that integrates findings from peace research with insights from critical security studies and broader debates on the merits and pitfalls of transdisciplinary research. Based on the underlying notion of peace and security as practice, our approach of doing peace! sketches out what new forms of knowledge co-creation, participatory research and critical engagement could look like in the study of peace and security and how they can contribute to studying peace and security with local stakeholders. To demonstrate the merits of this approach and to reflect on its ethical as well as practical challenges, we draw on several explorative projects of participatory peace and security research conducted at the IFSH from 2020 to 2025.