By Melanie Hussak

The outbreak and spread of the novel Covid-19 virus has clearly shown us that in our current global social system, we are as interconnected as we are interdependent and therefore vulnerable on a physical and social level. Peace and conflict research, and peace education in particular, are now called upon to identify the associated conflicts and potential for peace and to support people in their current adaptation processes. The process-oriented conflict management method Worldwork takes equal account of individual and social dynamics and offers a conceptual basis for analyzing and dealing with current conflict constellations.

Many voices - many processes

What began as a health crisis at the start of the year has had a massive social, political, economic, ecological and cultural impact in recent weeks due to the lockdown and contact restrictions imposed in many places. The (forced) situation caused by external factors has suddenly and involuntarily led many people into a process of reflection and reflection: They are faced with the question of what the situation means for them in concrete terms. What is the crisis doing to me, to us? What transformation processes are being triggered by the pandemic?

In addition to these consequences caused by Covid-19, it is often personal and specific challenges and insights during the pandemic that have a lasting impact on us. This is because a variety of positive and negative feelings and emotions are triggered due to different life realities, and many people perceive a need for change.

Some are longing for individual retreat and time for the essentials, not just for what is important in everyday life. The Queen also spoke of the opportunity to 'slow down' and to pause and reflect in prayer or mediation. Others feel a new sense of connection and solidarity with their fellow human beings.

For many people, this privilege of slowing down is out of the question; they are feeling the full force of the negative consequences of the pandemic. This includes, for example, real fears for their economic existence due to massively increased unemployment rates and the risk of a prolonged global recession, as well as loneliness and the risk of an increase in psychosocial illnesses as a result of isolation. In many regions of the world, on the other hand, people simply cannot afford to stay at home as they literally live from 'hand to mouth'.

An equally great diversity can currently be observed at the macro level. This ranges from a lack of solidarity on the part of states with regard to health goods and financial reconstruction aid, a conscious exploitation of the emergency situation for repressive purposes in autocratically governed countries and for the implementation of unpopular (infrastructure) projects that go hand in hand with the destruction of nature, to calls for a more prudent approach to our planet and a greater awareness of the well-being of all in the form of a sustainable, solidarity-based way of life and economy.

The global dimension of the Covid-19 crisis now offers an unprecedented opportunity to give space to all the voices arising from a single "event". Peace and conflict research in particular should seize this opportunity.

New, old conflict dynamics: Tasks for peace research

The Covid-19 crisis has far-reaching implications for core topics of peace research: overcoming multiple forms of violence, analyzing current conflict lines and dynamics at different system levels and identifying and outlining peace potentials.

In the current situation, this means drawing attention to less visible and marginalized conflicts - such as the massive impact of the pandemic on vulnerable groups in humanitarian crises,people on the run and in war and disaster zones - but also naming peace potentials and accompanying people in their current adaptation processes.

In the following, I would like to emphasize two points that seem essential to me in the current situation due to the unpredictability of the pandemic and the interconnectedness of global processes: Accelerated in deceleration (I) and localization (II).

(I) On the one hand, it can be observed that conflicts are not necessarily re-forming at present, but can accelerate due to the deceleration caused by exit and contact restrictions. This means that, in particular, those conflicts that were already inherent in their basic structures and have become more acute and perceptible due to the effects of the pandemic are breaking out or intensifying. Stress and pressure situations such as financial hardship or cramped living space can strongly drive dynamics and situations that were already out of kilter. Also because conflict reactions such as escaping from a situation due to short-term spatial separation were not available for some time.

On a personal level, for some, slowing down gives them "more time" and therefore more potential space to perceive their own needs and emotions and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. For others, however, this deceleration and restrictions in many areas of life create a dynamic, almost exponential acceleration. This is particularly true for people in challenging professional situations who are also carers. Both of these trends can lead to a greater perception of the need for change and exacerbate conflicts.

The observation of a dynamic intensification of existing conflicts is related to my second point on localization.

(II) By localization, I mean both a spatial-geographical assignment and a personal one with reference to one's own position in life, as well as in the world and social system. It is based on biographical, familial, social, professional, economic and/or health-related conditions and experiences. Localization plays a central role in the question of how and to what extent a person is affected by the crisis and what scope for action they have to react to it. This also applies to states and other social formations. As Janpeter Schilling emphasizes : "There is a risk that the coronavirus pandemic will bring vulnerable countries closer to a social tipping point, on the other side of which violence, war and collapse will occur."

Personal and social localizations are closely linked to the violent mechanisms of structural andepistemic violence that are deeply inscribed in our social and world system. Structural and epistemic violence are internalized forms of violence that maintain existing orders based on social power relations. The former include, for example, social and economic inequalities, which are also reflected in the essential area of healthcare, as well as discrimination and racism. Epistemic violence refers to the violence that emanates from knowledge and science itself. In the current situation, this raises questions such as: Who has the power of interpretation in the current situation? In other words, which voices are being heard and can prevail in the crisis?

Because on a physical level, Covid-19 initially affects everyone, but it does not affect them to the same extent. As cultural scientist Susan Arndt emphasizes, it is not the viruses that make the difference, "but the human responses adapt to the capitalist grammar of social inequality. [...] The causes are solely man-made orders of social inequality".

Based on these observations, peace education is now called upon to make a contribution. The process-oriented conflict transformation method Worldwork can use its field concept to reduce complexity in current (conflict) situations and outline ways of dealing with the aforementioned lines of conflict.

Process-oriented conflict work

Worldwork, founded by Arnold Mindell, presents the interweaving of individual and social dynamics as a conceptual foundation for dealing with social areas of tension and thus also for current conflict situations. When facilitating groups, both the internal dimension of individuals and the external events to which they belong and which surround them are taken into account. The theoretical concept of worldwork is based on the assumption that individual, dyadic and collective processes are interrelated and intertwined to such an extent that the structures are manifested or repeated on different levels.

This idea becomes clearer through the concept of an imaginary field. In this field, individuals are connected to other individuals and groups, interact with each other and are also moved and structured by them. The field "includes the subjective experience of the 'living space' and thus all factors that determine behavior, thinking, acting and feeling." [1]

People's lives and experiences are characterized by primary and secondary processes. According to Mindell, the primary process is the habitual identity and way of thinking. A secondary process is understood to be unconscious parts that 'send' signals and messages to the individual, which often have little room to unfold in everyday routines or are sometimes perceived as conflictual and disruptive. [ 2] These parts are processed in process work, i.e. an attempt is made to unfold the signals and information that originate from interconnected channels and are perceived, to connect them with each other and finally to process them.

These processes on an individual level are characterized by so-called channels, which comprise our perceptual capacities. In addition to the basic channels of seeing (visual), hearing (auditory), feeling (proprioceptive) and moving (kinaesthetic), these are the mixed channels of relationship (the encounter and reference to another person based on the basic channels) and world (reference to the social environment, events in the world, etc. based on the basic channels and the relationship channel). [3]

The two channels relationship and world are the connecting line of individual and society in the field, through which the mutual entanglements flow into our collective experiences.

Similar to other concepts of conflict transformation, Worldwork assumes that conflict as a natural interpersonal event indicates a need for change in relationships and takes this as an opportunity and starting point for reshaping relationships, structures and frameworks of social reality. Thus, all behavior, different attitudes and structures can be seen as phenomena that arise through (inter)action processes of people (groups), but - and this is also the key point in the current crisis situation - can also be shaped together through appropriate processing and support.

Conclusion

The Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences can open up a new and broader perspective on many aspects of our own lives and in relation to immediate social and world events. If we want to use the experience of the crisis to reshape society for the benefit of all, it is important to start now. An inclusive and participatory learning process helps us to find a goal and direction for positive ways of shaping human coexistence when old perspectives and conflictual structures no longer work. In times of great uncertainty and overload, however, people need the opportunity for forums for guidance and support.

In the phase of returning from isolation, this means offering spaces for communication and relationships: in schools, at work and in circles of friends. These resonance spaces, which open up for reorientation during the crisis, offer opportunities for communal growth and for working through lived experiences through dialog.

The process-oriented field perspective reveals further potential for insight and peace for the current crisis and in particular for the aforementioned conflict dynamics:

Firstly, the perspective sharpens the conceptual awareness of everything that is at work in the field and thereby helps to shape the current processes of change. This includes not only the interweaving of individuals, collectives and external events. It also takes into account that immediately occurring external events encounter pre-existing experiences and sensations that can sometimes break through habitual ways of living and thinking (primary processes) and trigger very deep processes.

Secondly , this interconnectedness shows that individual and collective processes harbor transformation potential for social systems of order. A stronger global awareness can be a common basic attitude in times of the pandemic. This is characterized by the fact that not only one's own processes are perceived, but also that individuals' own shares in world events are processed and reflected upon by paying attention to the channels of relationship and world. It therefore has the potential for a global rethink that can also have an impact on the levels of structural and epistemic constellations of violence.

Even if the crisis is having various effects, both individually and socially, and even if it is currently only possible to identify trends as to where 'the world' is heading after the crisis has passed, one thing is certain: the world is in a state of progressive change. The only open question is whether we as individuals and as a society will allow the process to happen or take it into our own hands with courage.