Abstract
The Forgiveness Project is an organisation whose peace activism is devoted to the collection and curation of testimonies that bear witness to the transformative power of nonviolent, restorative responses to (violent) conflict, crime, and injustice. To the ‘Testify’ feature for International Politics Reviews, this conversational piece contributes a discussion of The Forgiveness Project, and its understanding of, reliance upon, and use of stories in the pursuit of peace. A conversation between Christopher Peys and Marina Cantacuzino, MBE, this dialogue aims to highlight how this award-winning advocacy organisation is doing global politics in a grassroots, bottom-up manner through its use of storytelling. This dialogue between Peys and Cantacuzino not only explores the non-prescriptive, narratively-driven theory of activism that informs the work of The Forgiveness Project, but it also uses affect theory to theorise forgiveness as a deeply divisive ethico-political value and form of practice.
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Notes
It is worth noting here that Cantacuzino wrote the forward to Partington’s text.
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Peys, C., Cantacuzino, M. The Forgiveness Project: a conversation about peace activism and the transformative power of story. Int Polit 60, 506–536 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-023-00432-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-023-00432-0