Social Cohesion through Cooperative Contact: A Theoretical Perspective

TY - JOUR

T1 - Social Cohesion through Cooperative Contact: A Theoretical Perspective

AU - Sentama, Ezechiel

N1 - The Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author for non-commercial purposes. Nonetheless, reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein requires credit to the original publication source with a link to both the article and the license.

PY - 2017/6

Y1 - 2017/6

N2 - This paper aims to contribute to the theoretical debate when it comes to how to successfully achieve social cohesion after violent conflicts. Using the premises of contact hypothesis, and qualitative approach, the paper’s theoretical conclusions are drawn from the experience of the relational effects of contact, in the cooperative organization, between antagonistic groups in post-genocide Rwanda—genocide survivors and genocide perpetrators, as well as their respective family members. The paper discusses the nature, the form and the degree of the relational effects resulting from contact, in the cooperative organization, between post-genocide sides and suggests that, by virtue of its guiding values and principles, the cooperative contact stands as an alternative method for social cohesion after violence. The cooperative method has both a backward and forward-looking degree whereby its form departs from individual-to-individual process and extends to individual- group level. Unlike other processes of social cohesion that are public and involve a third party, the cooperative way is natural, intimate, private, and does not involve a third party, which makes cooperation, in the cooperative, an alternative approach to social cohesion.

AB - This paper aims to contribute to the theoretical debate when it comes to how to successfully achieve social cohesion after violent conflicts. Using the premises of contact hypothesis, and qualitative approach, the paper’s theoretical conclusions are drawn from the experience of the relational effects of contact, in the cooperative organization, between antagonistic groups in post-genocide Rwanda—genocide survivors and genocide perpetrators, as well as their respective family members. The paper discusses the nature, the form and the degree of the relational effects resulting from contact, in the cooperative organization, between post-genocide sides and suggests that, by virtue of its guiding values and principles, the cooperative contact stands as an alternative method for social cohesion after violence. The cooperative method has both a backward and forward-looking degree whereby its form departs from individual-to-individual process and extends to individual- group level. Unlike other processes of social cohesion that are public and involve a third party, the cooperative way is natural, intimate, private, and does not involve a third party, which makes cooperation, in the cooperative, an alternative approach to social cohesion.

U2 - 10.5038/2325-484X.3.2.1091

DO - 10.5038/2325-484X.3.2.1091

M3 - Article

VL - 3

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

JF - Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

SN - 1996-3157

IS - 2

M1 - 1

ER -