Promoting Dialogue Against Violence
Can Getting People Talking Improve Crime Statistics?
Many people in "civilised" societies worry about the possibility of violence--for example, being attacked in the street or in their homes. According to Dennis H. Wrong in The Problem of Order (New York: The Free Press, 1994), "a sense of the precariousness of peace and good will...seems to be widely present in the consciousness of men and women".
Some approaches to preventing violence rely on attempting to build empathy and understanding between people. These approaches may have other benefits, such as alleviating social isolation, but are they likely to contribute to reducing physical conflict?
Challenging Prejudice and Stereotypes
The Living Library movement is one initiative that aims to link people who might not otherwise have contact. Conceived in 2000 by Danish youth organisation Stop the Violence, Living Library or Book sessions allow a "reader" to "borrow" a person for a 30-minute discussion. Many of the "books" on offer face negative stereotypes in the community: for example, a recent session in Wellington, New Zealand made available a refugee and "books" from non-Christian faith communities.
Another example of an attempt to prevent violence through building empathy was the instruction of then-mayor Antanas Mockus in 1990s Bogota, Colombia to have a star painted at the location of every street murder.The Mockus initiative is an illustration of approaches that tackle complex social problems, such as crime, through a blend of science (technology) and art.
Political Philosophy and Social Order Breakdown
Whether you believe that empathy-based initiatives will help to address the problem of urban violence depends on what you consider its causes to be. Wrong links violence to a lack of order (although he observes that people can live relatively aloof from the social order without being violent). Sociologist Emile Durkheim ascribed the lack of order to a breakdown of consensus on the norms of society, leading to "anomie" or people without moral boundaries.
Wrong devotes significant attention to contract theorists Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. None of their ideas on how to create order had much to do with increasing human understanding. Hobbes, for example, saw conflict arising as a consequence of scarcity, which nurtures a desire for gain, security and reputation.
In the Marxian tradition, other philosophers have emphasized the opposed values and interests of classes, religions, ethnic groups and political parties. Wrong observes that "group conflict in overt or covert form is endemic to societies characterised by social heterogeneity, a high degree of internal differentiation, and social inequalities among large groups".
Walk a Mile in My Shoes
Initiatives such as Living Libraries would seem to receive more support from cognition theorists such as G.H. Mead and Alfred Schutz, who see disorder as "a lack of subjective understanding". Wrong notes that these writers emphasize the need to "take the role of the other" and achieve some "reciprocity of perspective".
Regardless of one's views on the potential of the movement to make a significant difference in reducing violence, the worldwide success of Living Libraries suggests it is meeting some human or community need. In Wellington, many readers spent an entire afternoon circulating between books, competing even for portions of the half-hour time slots. "Books" too have benefited from the opportunity to talk with each other. As one observed, there must be positives in promoting the idea that everyone, even a "stranger", has a story to tell.
Promoting human contact
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