Speaker
Description
The article is intended as a contribution to the ongoing conceptual development and practice of transboundary community-based cooperation initiatives in the context of ongoing, chronic conflict. The current unprecedented escalation of climate and political instability, coupled with multiple human-made and natural crises, underscore the need for transboundary communities to seek novel approaches to fostering cooperation and mitigating conflict. Based on a sustainability conceptual framework, this article seeks to to pursue innovative pathways to jointly strengthening their preparedness and adaptability, especially when national governments fail to provide needed leadership and assistance.
In this article we adopt a sustainability lens as an interpretive theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics of integrating economic, ecological and social dimensions of transboundary community-based cooperation. Following Elkington (1997; 2024), we characterize a sustainable community enterprise as the successful realization of three interconnected dimensions: social (people), environmental (planet), and economic (profit) through enterprise. This approach, described as the ‘triple bottom line’ concept of sustainability, aims to seek synergies, rather than perceived trade-offs, between the economic, social, and environmental impacts generated by an enterprise. A single-minded focus on, for example, economic sustainability may succeed in the short run; however, in the long run sustainable enterprise requires all three dimensions to be satisfied simultaneously.
This sustainability framework is applied as an interpretive lens to case studies of transboundary community-based cooperation projects involving Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian communities that strive to transcend political divisions through joint entrepreneurial initiatives. and presenting lessons that could inform novel approaches to transboundary cooperation through community based entrepreneurial initiatives. These case studies highlight the complex tensions that need to be negotiated in the context of transboundary community-based environmental entrepreneurial initiatives in conflict-affected contexts. Recent times have witnessed an increase in initiatives that seek to find strategies that can successfully respond to challenges of climate change and perhaps help prevent and potentially further prospects for conflict prevention and peacebuilding in regions of ongoing conflict (Ben-Shmuel & Halle, 2023). Each of these projects aimed to further what has been described as environmental peacebuilding through context-specific initiatives that ultimately seek to, “…contribute to conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution, and recovery to build resilience in communities affected by conflict” (EnPAx, 2023).
Based on the insights gained from these case studies, this article discusses how the concept of sustainable transboundary community-based environmental cooperation development can be applied to contexts of ongoing conflict in ways that can further community wellbeing and potentially further peacebuilding. In particular, we argue that the core requisite for sustainable development of transboundary community-based projects is the creation of authentic, shared cultures of understanding, empathy, trust, and meaningful person-to-person relationships between community members. Implications for both future research and the practice of transboundary community-based environmental cooperation initiatives are considered.
References:
Ben-Shmuel, Ambreen Tour, and Silja Halle. “Beyond greenwashing: Prioritizing environmental justice in conflict-affected settings.” Environment and Security, vol. 1, no. 3–4, 26 July 2023, pp. 209–218, https://doi.org/10.1177/27538796231186697.
Elkington J. (1997). Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Capstone: Oxford.
EnPAx. (2023). Environmental Peacebuilding Association. Retrieved May 2, 2024, from https:// www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/
