CREATIVE TENSIONS AND THE ELICITIVE: A REFLECTION ON THE IMPACT OF PAULO FREIRE’S WORK ON THE FIELD OF PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES
uma reflexão sobre o impacto da obra de Paulo Freire no campo dos estudos de paz e conflito
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2318-7344.2021v9n18p227-269Keywords:
Paulo Freire, Peace and Conflict Studies, Transrationality, Elicitive Conflict Transformation, Nonviolence, ConscientizationAbstract
The present work intends to look at the influence of Paulo Freire’s work on the field of Peace and Conflict Studies. Mainly through some literature reviews, as well as based on the authors life experiences as an educator and facilitator on conflict transformation methodologies, the essay historically contextualizes the initial unfold of Paulo Freire’s elaboration of his method at the same time that Peace and Conflict Studies was giving its first steps as an academic field on its own right. Resonances between selected Freire’s epistemes and the themes of transrationality, elicitive conflict transformation and nonviolence are highlighted, building up on findings by authors referenced along the text regarding the fruitful importance of some Freirean concepts on the development of tools for conflict work and peace(s)building. By way of conclusion, the author shares brief insights from his professional experience, as an educator and facilitator, emphasizing, from his own perspective, the pedagogical and transformative potential of attitudes that encourage the exchange of ideas, at the same time it harbors tension amongst different worldviews, toward efforts dedicated to the construction of meanings through dialogical spaces.