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Talk for your rights: Societal development through communicative action

Peace- and conflict studies, especially in Europe focuses on the role states and international organisations play, could play and should play, when talking about intra-state and ethnopolitical war and conflict. Far less attention is spent on the role of internal actors. The predominant approach so far, was to think, that results, reached on national or regional level would be communicated down to local and individual level. Even the so called multi-track approaches, which are more oriented towards civil society, emphasise the role of multipliers, but without telling them, how to complete this role appropriatly and target-oriented.
Deeply routed ethnic identity, as well as traumatic war experiences make a professional and widespread conflict transformation necessary, that encompasses every single member of society. Singular approaches to that end are existing, but they lack scientific foundation, thorough evaluation and integration into an overarching concept.
The theory of communicative action from Habermas can provide such an integrative framework, integrating individual, societal and institutional development, based on communication as the foundation of every social interaction. Further theories of intercultural communication, social psychology and interpersonal communication will be included and evaluated for their contribution to a better conflict transformation. The aim of this approach is, to develop a model how actors and organisations from civil society can, through joint action, transform war-torn societies into areas of consensual conflict resolution. This model should further provide connections and visions how such societal activities can be integrated into the national political structures. Further it should focus on such aspects and issues, the are independent of culture and local context and thereby enable an adaptation of the model to wider range of ethnopolitical conflicts.