Social justice at the intersection of education and the arts in post-conflict contexts

Global violent conflict is on the rise. Conflict both affects and is affected by education, and the role that education can play for peacebuilding and social justice is recognised in international resolutions and declarations. However, formal education remains an under-used resource in peacebuilding, and only a limited body of literature explores the role of non-formal education (NFE) for social justice in conflict-affected settings, despite the wide and diverse range of NFE programmes running with young people. There has similarly been a proliferation of arts-based programmes working with young people in these settings. However, there is strikingly little dialogue between the disciplinary fields of education and the arts in conflict-affected contexts. This thesis argues that, theoretically, these educations - formal, non-formal, and arts-based - are deeply interconnected and demonstrates their potential when understood as such.

I examine social justice at the intersection of education and the arts in post-conflict contexts. This approach reveals the importance of theorising affect to understand mechanisms of social justice and bridge these two disciplinary fields. Having argued that this is a missing link, I draw on qualitative empirical data, generated with participants in Cambodia and Kosovo, to develop the conceptualisation of ‘affective recognition’. I show that in these contexts, affective recognition has economies that work towards transformative social justice. I argue that affective recognition can disrupt structures that exclude certain groups from participating in society; and can politically empower young people, working to mediate their relationship with their past, present and future. Contrastingly, these economies also have the potential to promote social injustice. I conclude, therefore, that recognising, conceptualising and articulating affective recognition makes a much-needed contribution to scholarly discourses by helping to develop and refine notions of social justice, peacebuilding, post-memorial work, and reconciliation in educational and arts-based programmes with young people in conflict-affected contexts.