Abstract
Personal peacebuilding is a form of nonviolent learning and action associated with self-knowledge, wellness, and positive encounter with others and the nonhuman world. In personal peacebuilding, the “peacebuilder” is the work. This chapter introduces the four facets of personal peacebuilding as complementary avenues or approaches where the act of being-with results in nonviolence. Following a brief exploration of the breadth of peacebuilding and an encapsulation of Encounter Theory, this chapter theorizes personal peacebuilding as physiological, interpersonal, immanent/transcendent/biotic, and social. These four facets generate eight principles of personal peacebuilding including: care, patience, understanding, compassion, inquiry, alignment, reflection, and action. After describing personal peacebuilding, this chapter encapsulates life stresses under COVID-19 including domestic violence, child abuse, gendered inequality of labor, and suicide and then establishes how to actuate the eight principles of personal peacebuilding using the novel coronavirus pandemic as a fulcrum of intervention.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alon, T. M., Doepke, M., Olmstead-Rumsey, J., & Tertilt, M. (2020). The Impact of COVID-19 on gender equality (NBER working paper no. 26947 April 2020 JEL No. D10,E24,J16,J22). https://www.nber.org/papers/w26947.pdf
Bolliger, L., & Wang, H. (2013). Pedagogy of Nonviolence. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 10(2), 112–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2013.849626
Boulding, E. (2000). Cultures of peace: The hidden side of history. New York: Syracuse University Press.
Bradbury-Jones, C., & Isham, L. (2020). The pandemic paradox: The consequences of COVID-19 on domestic violence. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29, 2047–2049. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15296
Byrd, R. P., Cole, J. B., & Guy-Sheftall, B. (Eds.). (2009). I am your sister; Collected and unpublished writings of Audre Lorde. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cheung, Y. T., Chau, P. H., & Yip, P. S. (2008). A revisit on older adults suicides and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Hong Kong. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23, 1231–1238.
Council on Foreign Relations. (2020, May 21). Challenges of global governance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.cfr.org/report/challenges-global-governance-amid-covid-19-pandemic
Finklestein, N. G. (2012). What Gandhi says about nonviolence, resistance and courage. New York: OR Books.
Freire, P. (2003). The pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Furceri, D., Loungani, P., Ostry, J. D., & Pizzuto, P. (2020). Will Covid-19 affect inequality? Evidence from past pandemics. Covid Economics, 12, 138–157. https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/news/CovidEconomics12.pdf
Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace, and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167–191.
Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), 291–305.
Gunnell, D., et al. (2020). Suicide risk and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(6), 468–471.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress. New York: Routledge.
Kawohl, W., & Nordt, C. (2020). COVID-19, unemployment, and suicide. Lancet Psychiatry, 7(5), 389–390.
Lederach, J. P. (1997). Building peace: Sustainable reconciliation in divided societies. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.
Lennon, J. C. (2020). What lies ahead: Elevated concerns for the ongoing suicide pandemic. Psychological Trauma: Theory Research, Practice, and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000741
McLaren, H. J., Wong, K. R., Nguyen, K. N., & Mahamadachchi, K. N. D. (2020). Covid-19 and women’s triple burden: Vignettes from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia. Social Science, 9, 87.
Noggle, J. J., Steiner, N. J., Minami, T., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2012). Benefits of yoga for psychosocial well-being in a US high school curriculum: A preliminary randomized controlled trial. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 33(3), 193–201. https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0b013e31824afdc4
Power, K. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. Sustainability: Science Practice and Policy, 16(1), 67–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561
Power, T., Wilson, D., Best, O., Brockie, T., Bourque Bearskin, L., Millender, E., & Lowe, J. (2020). COVID-19 and indigenous peoples: An imperative for action. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29, 2737–2741. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15320
Ruiz, X. M. (2018). The alignment argument: At the crossroads between mindfulness and metacognition. Learning: Research and Practice, 4(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/23735082.2018.1428096
Sharifi, F., Larki, M., & Roudsari, R. L. (2020). COVID-19 outbreak as threat of violence against women. Journal of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, 8(3), 2376–2379. https://doi.org/10.22038/jmrh.2020.16036
Sokol, M., & Pataccini, L. (2020). Winners and losers in coronavirus times: Financialisation, financial chains and emerging economic geographies of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 111, 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12433
Standish, K. (2019). Innovations: Critical peace education and yogic peace (Chapter 30). In S. Byrne, T. Matyok, I. M. Scott, & J. Senehi (Eds.), Routledge companion to peace and conflict studies. London: Routledge.
Standish, K. (2020a). Suicide through a peacebuilding lens. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.
Standish, K. (2020b). Encounter theory. Peacebuilding. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21647259.2020.1811192
Standish, K. (2020c). A coming wave: Suicide and gender after COVID-19. Journal of Gender Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1796608
Standish, K., & Joyce, J. (2018). Yogic peace education: Theory and practice. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.
Standish, K., & Weil, S. (2021). Gendered pandemics: Suicide, femicide and COVID-19. Journal of Gender Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2021.1880883
Tai, D. B. G., Shah, A., Doubeni, C. A., Sia, I. G., & Wieland, M. L. (2020). The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa815
Usher, K., Bhullar, N., Durkin, J., Gyamfi, N., & Jackson, D. (2020). Family violence and COVID-19: Increased vulnerability and reduced options for support. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 29, 549–552. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12735
van Dorn, A., Cooney, R. E., & Sabin, M. L. (2020). COVID-19 exacerbating inequalities in the US. Lancet, 395, 1243–1244.
Wasserman, I. M. (1992). The impact of epidemic, war, prohibition and media on suicide: United States, 1910–1920. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 22, 240–254.
Wenham, C., Smith, J., & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: The gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet Journal, 395, 846–848.
Williamson, V., Murphy, D., & Greenberg, N. (2020). COVID-19 and experiences of moral injury in front-line key workers. Occupational Medicine, 70(5), 317–319. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqaa052
Zhan, M., Qin, Y., Xue, X., & Zhu, S. (2020). Death from Covid-19 of 23 health care workers in China. The New England Journal of Medicine, 382, 2267–2268. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2005696
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Standish, K. (2022). Personal Peacebuilding and COVID-19. In: Standish, K., Devere, H., Suazo, A., Rafferty, R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0969-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0969-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-0968-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-0969-5
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences