Peacebuilding Is Social Work: From Political Science to Social Psychology

For the longest time, peacemaking and peacekeeping were the only post-factum interventions to resolve armed conflicts usually related to a nation-state’s borders or territory. Peacebuilding has its origins in sociology (Galtung, 1969; 1975) and is used today as a preferred concept in matters of conflict. However, this paper explores why peacebuilding, as the Secretary General of the United Nations advocates in A New Agenda for Peace, must become a nonlinear and contextual process that promotes the prevention of conflict and invites a transformative approach to addressing the linkages between peace, security, and climate. Furthermore, this paper advocates that peacebuilding grounded in social psychology and social anthropology will bring about transformative outcomes as it will build relationships at the community level and become a preventive tool to address incipient tensions within the community. Peacebuilding as social work will benefit the community and lay the necessary foundations for a sustainable future. Social workers are equipped to assess, analyze, and solve problems. Their capacity to do ongoing social diagnosis is a critical tool to prevent skirmishes degenerating into conflicts. Social work could be the much-needed resource to further develop theory and practice that contributes to active peacebuilding.

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