Language is a fundamental building block for peacebuilding, peaceful communication, and coexistence. Language itself is often also a political tool, adding another layer of complexity to an already dense and difficult process such as peacebuilding. But the politics, aesthetics, and inherent value of language can aid in the peacebuilding process just as much as they can hinder it, when used tactfully and purposefully everywhere from high-level negotiation rooms to local radio programs to social media.
Two Visualising Peace students, Aimee Capraro and Ekin Cotuk, focus their research on language and its ability to aid the peace process. Here, Aimee reports on the politics and unifying elements of the Irish language and its potential to facilitate reconciliation. Here, Ekin writes a series of blogs on peace linguistics and its application in peacebuilding across the globe.