Building social cohesion through culture in conflict and post-conflict contexts

Explorative roundtable Amsterdam , 13 – 14 June 2013
A joint initiative of the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, and the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, with the collaboration of the Prins Claus Fund and UNESCO Nederland.

Journalists , cultural leaders, activists, writers, teachers, social and public cultural workers, academics and film makers, working in the Philippines, Cambodia, Pakistan, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Macedonia, gathered for a two-day roundtable at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam on 13 and 14 June. Topic of debate was the role of culture in peace-building in conflict and post-conflict situations. Almost all participants were working in countries with a violent past. Drawing on different contexts, they shared inspiring and exciting experiences, knowledge and understanding, commonalities, differences, best-practices, and experienced boundaries. Recurring interrelated themes were issues of creating spaces for expression, sustainability, resources and funding, cultural policy models, and dissemination of a culture of peace.

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