A Critical Approach to Youth Sector Peacebuilding: Dialogue, Politics, and Power

Using Northern Ireland as a compelling case study, this book offers a critique of peacebuilding approaches with young people in contested societies. In the north of Ireland, the spectre of murderous violence is increasingly distant for peace-agreement generations. However, legacies stemming from the 30 years of protracted conflict are ever-present in young people’s segregated lives.

This book presents four distinctive viewpoints that inform contemporary peacebuilding work with young people, revealing divergent purposes and conflicting aspirations. Offering a new model to understand peacebuilding, the authors urge peacebuilding communities around the globe to embrace an increasingly politicising and participative youth peace praxis.

Andy Hamilton is Research Associate at Ulster University.

Mark Hammond is Senior Lecturer in Community Youth Work at Ulster University.

Eliz McArdle is Lecturer in Community Youth Work at Ulster University.