Identity-based conflict is a complex and pervasive form of contemporary war. These conflicts are macro-social and involve two or more groups that are organized around aspects of religious, ethnic or political identity. This dissertation focuses on the role of “conflict narratives” in the creation of identity and seeks to uncover this process of meaning-making in generating, sustaining and transforming identity-based conflict.
Using an action research methodology and ethnographic data from Israel/Palestine, Nigeria and South Africa, the dissertation inquires into the question “How can theory be adapted or enhanced to bring our understanding of identity-based conflict into closer alignment with the lived experience of participants and practitioners?” Having lived 24 years in the extraordinarily struggle to end apartheid and an additional 10 years as a conflict resolution practitioner, the author, through personal depth reflection, brings both personal and practitioner insights into the academic discourse to produce a theoretical construction that brings together ideas and action aimed at transforming the human condition for the better.