Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP)

The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus (CUSP N+) addresses the call "Preventing Conflict, Building Sustainable and Inclusive Peace". It draws together non-academic partners from Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine and Zimbabwe) who work with young people in different artistic and cultural settings (e.g. dance, theatre, literature, music). CUSP's main aim is to strengthen arts and cultural institutions/organisations in LMIC, so they can become a reference point for the identification and transformation of social conflict. Through original research with core partners (strand 1), the commissioning of research to new partners (strand 2) and the synthesis of insights and knowledge exchange/sharing (strand 3), CUSP will focus on key issues identified as desirable for the N+ research agenda by each partner and context. These are: (a) fragile, and presently resilient cultural work in communities of the Global South; (b) the arts and cultural work in southern contexts as means to explore and share relevant strategies for conflict prevention and conflict transformation; (c) the arts and cultural work for the promotion of individual wellbeing and sustainable employment; and (d) South-South and South-North partnership building and networking towards the sharing of sustainable cultural and governance practices to maximise the reach and usability of digital technologies for artistic sustainability and peaceful cultural change. During strand 1, CUSP N+ partners will work with artistic and cultural organisations in each location to identify, explore and disseminate culturally- and age-appropriate conflict transformation strategies to achieve positive change in relation to challenges experienced by women and girls. CUSP N+ partners will reflect on and share insights on processes and outcomes. The portfolio of activities thus developed will be expanded and refined through the commissioning of new research to explore further emerging themes, open questions and 'translatability' of practices to different contexts. CUSP will also engage in ongoing critical reflection on the internal dynamics of the network as it employs conflict transformation strategies also to work collaboratively. The synthesis of findings, and divergence of approaches, will offer innovative insights in relation to theoretical, methodological and policy-oriented questions. Drawing together expertise from a range of disciplines (i.e. theatre studies; arts practice; languages, literature and cultural studies; gender studies; anthropology; sociology; postcolonial studies) CUSP builds on and expands established academic and non-academic collaborations with a range of partners based in fragile contexts and contexts of conflict and protracted crisis. In Ghana we work with young performers to whom dance can offer a way to survive disadvantaged backgrounds, deprivation, marginalisation and, in some cases, domestic violence. In the Gaza Strip, we work with educators and artists who respond creatively to lack of employment prospects in a collapsing economy and under constant threat of military violence; in Zimbabwe, we work with artists and writers who find strength in theatre and literature in what is an extremely fragile and volatile political, economic and material environment; in Mexico we support mediators and other professionals who, through books and the arts, work with children and young people displaced by poverty and violence; in Morocco, we work with cultural actors to revitalise civic values and democratic engagement through the production, dissemination and consumption of arts for all. Young people dealing with challenging situations in the UK with whom we have established partnerships, such as those seeking asylum and refuge, will also be engaged as consultants and in the work of synthesis and dissemination, and to explore potential for learning that flows South-to-South and South-to-North