Published in the Dutch conflict transformation magazine Tijdschrift Conflicthantering, volume 2024/4, Dr Maria-Adriana Deiana, Institute Fellow: Religion, Arts and Peacebuilding and Heidi Riley (University College Dublin), write about the use of visual recording and graphic facilitation in mediation practice, drawing on their collaboration  with Graphic Recorder and Visual Facilitator, Stéphanie Heckman on the Talk4Peace project.

Their reflections stem from research carried out as part of the Talk4Peace project: a collaborative research programme carried out across the island of Ireland that examines transformative mediation and inclusive dialogue in peacebuilding.  Informed by feminist and other critical scholarship in peace and conflict studies, the project is grounded in the position that we must broaden understandings of whose knowledges, skills, and experiences matter in mediation and conflict transformation.  Not only does this mean creating the necessary conditions for the meaningful participation of women and other groups that have historically been made invisible in mediation, but also acknowledging a wider array of approaches, such as visual facilitation and graphic recording, that can facilitate inclusive dialogue in peacebuilding contexts.

Visual facilitation and graphic recording are creative tools used to support mediated dialogue between individuals with diverse, and sometimes opposing, narratives and perspectives.  As tools that engage visual and auditory senses, they can contribute to clearer imaging of participant perspectives and promote a more creative and reflective environment.

Visual facilitation is a method that is particularly useful in civil society dialogue processes as it creates a greater opportunity to visualise the multiple narratives that stem from people's everyday experiences of conflict and insecurity.  It can also be used as a tool for two-party shared dialogue or mediation where visuals become a replacement for standard ‘notes’ on a flipchart.  This can trigger alternative ways of reflecting on key issues and visuals representing possible solutions can facilitate a deeper understanding of what those solutions could entail.

Read the article here.