Youth as Architects of Peace? Street Mediation at the Norwegian Red Cross and Other National Red Cross Unions

Abstract

In this chapter, we present and analyze the case of Red Cross Street Mediation as an innovative example of peer-to-peer youth work on capacity building, conflict transformation and self-formation. Street Mediation has developed and spread throughout Norway since 1998 and is furthered by youth delegates from other Red Cross national societies in various contexts such as Colombia, Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Romania, and Denmark. Central questions that we would like to investigate in this chapter are: What are the core elements of the methodology, structure, and knowledge that this program fosters; what sort of enabling environments are needed for Street Mediation (and the like) to be a resource for youth innovation and social change? How do young people appropriate these skills and apply them to their own lives and networks in different sociocultural contexts? Which unintentional effects might arise, and are there any dangers in terms of training youth as conflict mediators and social change agents with relation to societal structures of conflict and violence?