Journal of Social Development in Africa (1998), 13,1, 3-5 
Editorial 
Managing conflict through community development 
The JSDA and the Community Development Journal have both featured special 
issues previously on the question of conflict, refugees and civil disorder. With this 
issue, we return to the question of conflict in local communities and between 
nations, and the place that community development has in preventing conflict, 
managing it when it occurs and ameliorating its consequences. 
In May 1997, the International Association for Community Development held 
its biennial colloquium in Pretoria, South Africa, on the highly appropriate theme 
of "conflict management and peace-building through community development." 
Although the majority of delegates attending the conference were from South 
Africa itself, searching for ways to use community development as a tool for 
reconciliation and nation-building, there were also many delegates from other 
parts of the world drawn to discuss their own experience of conflict management 
within very different national contexts. The CDJ and the Journal of Social 
Development in Africa, were invited to organise an afternoon panel discussion on 
the theme of the conference and some of the papers included within this CDJ/JSDA 
Special Issue were first presented as part of that panel. The author of one further 
paper, from Afghanistan, was prevented from attending by precisely the issue on 
which the conference focused: the impact of local conflicts. The remaining papers 
and case studies in this special issue are based on presentations made by participants 
at the conference, in some cases revised for publication after the conference. 
The JSDA and CDJ have sought ways of collaborating over the past few years 
which would be of benefit to both our readerships and this represents another such 
collaboration. The total pool of papers made available after the conference have 
formed the basis for parallel special issues of each Journal, published as close 
together in time as respective publication cycles will allow. Some papers appear 
in both special issues, some (for reasons of space or for local considerations) in one 
journal only. However, the parallel publication venture indicates both the 
importance each journal attaches to the substantive issues discussed in the papers, 
and also the collaborative approach which each journal is keen to foster and will 
continue to do so. This is a joint editorial and the editors in particular wish to thank 
those participants who quickly provided revised versions of their papers and case 
studies, often in difficult circumstances, to enable us to produce these issues very 
rapidly. 
The CDJ last produced a special issue on conflict in communities four years ago, 
while the JSDA produced a special issue on conflict and refugees five years ago. 
Neither journal makes an apology for returning to the question so soon. In one
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week in 1996, thirty-seven civil wars and five cross-border conflicts were being 
fought. Conflict is becoming a "fact of life" for increasing numbers of communities 
and, as pressure on the world's resources grows, is likely to become more so. 
It is therefore an increasingly urgent task to examine the role that community 
development, based on values of co-operation, on democratic involvement and on 
a needs-led approach to working with people, can play in addressing the growth of 
conflict 
The CDJ panel set the context for exploring such an approach to working with 
conflict. Conflicts within and between communities can be conceptualised (and 
typically are conceptualised within the dominant development paradigm) in 
relatively limited ways, as problems which need to be managed. Within this 
dominant development paradigm, focusing as it does upon the promotion of 
market-led development, on a global scale, conflicts may be viewed, then, in terms 
of their potentially disruptive effects on development. From this perspective, 
community conflicts need to be contained. Otherwise, investment may be 
discouraged in the local context - not to mention the additional risk that conflicts 
may spill over into neighbouring areas and beyond. 
The CDJ panel fully recognised the importance of working to manage and 
contain divisive conflicts within and between communities, where these conflicts 
were damaging the development process. But the panel went on to raise a series 
of further questions about the importance of analysing the structural reasons for 
such communal divisions. Community conflicts could be and all too often were 
indicatives of deeper underlying causes. Community conflicts may be symptomatic 
of long-standing structural inequalities and oppression (as in the case of 
community conflicts in Northern Ireland, the local UK example which was 
explored in the previous CDJ special issue). Conflict and violence may be the result 
of state policies to contain opposition (as the article on Zimbabwe in this issue 
demonstrates). And community conflicts may be caused and/or exacerbated by 
external interventions, as in the case of British, Russian and more recently 
American interventions in Afghanistan. In the current development context, the 
economic, political and ideological interests of these external forces become more 
relevant than ever. 
The JSDA Board also recognised the value of this collaboration with CDJ and 
considered the topic of conflict resolution to be of such relevance to the African 
context that a special issue should again be devoted to it. The many-faceted 
structural roots of conflict are well-known within Africa and the legacy of 
colonialism, marginalisation, exploitation and underdevelopmcnt of the continent 
are testimony to this.
Editorial 5 
From this alternative perspective, the question cannot simply be how to manage 
and contain community conflicts. On the contrary, community conflicts neither 
can nor should be effectively resolved, without addressing the underlying structural 
factors, as well as the presenting causes. Community development has a vital 
role to play here, empowering individuals and communities to analyse the roots as 
well as the immediate symptoms of thcirdifferences, promoting critical consciousness 
(or "conscientisation" to use Freire's terminology) to enable communities to 
develop their own strategics within a more transformative development paradigm. 
In contrast with the dominant, market-led developmentparadigm, this transformative 
model rests upon alternative values - values which have particular relevance for 
community development- emphasising needs-based approaches to development, 
aimed at promoting solidarity and social justice. 
The CDJ panel also raised questions about the potential implications for the role 
of the journal itself. As an international forum, over more than thirty years, CDJ 
has provided the space to exchange experiences and to reflect upon these experiences 
critically, across national boundaries and between NGOs in First and Third 
Worlds, in both North and South. This special issue provides a range of such 
reflections, from the specific experiences of particular community-based projects 
to manage conflicts and build peace, through to the experiences of communitybased 
initiatives to heal the wounds of violence and trauma. Correspondingly the 
JSDA, with twelve years focusing on social development and social work within 
Africa, is particularly interested in exploring critical areas relating to peace, 
development and community participation. 
In addition, too, this special issue raises further questions about the role of 
international journals such as the CDJ and JSDA, in stimulating debate about the 
global dimensions of conflicts within and between communities. A number of the 
articles raise questions about the types of external factors which can cause and/or 
exacerbate community conflicts. And between them, the articles raise questions 
about the wider failures to manage, let alone to resolve, community conflicts. As 
the article from Rwanda reflected, it was, "with great difficulty that we forgive the 
international community for remaining silent and turning a blind eye to the 
genocide which threw Rwanda into mourning. But we blame it more for not having 
helped us to reconstruct our country." Lasting peace, this article argues, requires 
taking care of the victims, the widows and orphans lacking food and shelter, whilst 
tackling the underlying structural causes of past conflicts, working for development 
based upon social justice. 
Gary Craig, Nigel Hall and Marjorie Mayo 
December 1997