Beyond Conflict

Democracy is under threat in the United States and abroad. With support rising for political violence and authoritarian leadership and policies, communities around the world are struggling against the backsliding of democratic norms and their protections. To meaningfully strengthen democracy, we need to address the psychology undergirding the deepening divisions, and how to transform these dynamics. At Beyond Conflict, we design innovative science-informed approaches to advance democratic norms, strengthen movements for social change, and address identity-based polarization. Today on #InternationalDemocracyDay, we think it's a great time to revisit our 2022 report entitled “Renewing American Democracy: Navigating a Changing Nation”. By investigating the psychology behind social divisions in the US, the report reveals how identity threat, competitive victimhood, and feelings of exclusion combine to interfere with healthy democratic practice. The report offers interventions designed around four primary identity-related drivers of social division in the US: (1) Factionalism and Partisan Sorting (2) Residential Segregation and Declining Social Trust (3) Information Echo Chambers (4) Divergent Racial Attitudes and Support for Racial Equity. The interventions are intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive in the hopes that they stimulate creative innovation and application by the many policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and philanthropists dedicated to reinvigorating American democracy. Check out the full report at the link below, and let us know what ideas it sparks for you. #democracymatters https://lnkd.in/e5Bn2A27

Yesterday, in Beyond Conflict and Humanity United's second webinar in the "Sustaining for the Road Ahead" series focusing on inner and outer skills for transformative change, an interesting and important question was asked: What gets in the way of leaders embracing the work of integrating trauma and returning to compassion, empathy, and "humanity"? The problem(s), according to the three panelists: 1. Pressure to always have the right answer, right now. - Haley Sparks, PhD Not knowing right away is seen as weakness, and moments of weakness are opportunities for adversaries or critics to strike. Some leaders have had to separate from their humanity to accept how they achieved their position and then become the antithesis of what we assume leaders to be. 2. These are traditionally feminine traits, and we've been living in a masculine world for thousands of years. - John Kania The individual barriers are greater than the cultural and systemic barriers [...] you cannot convince someone, cognitively, to do this work. They have to personally experience the value and the benefits before they'll make the commitment to getting better. 3. Our individual wellbeing is not seen as a priority to the work that gets done. - Maggie Ainley People struggle to articulate who they are when they are not working or sleeping--it touches a nerve on the difference between what we do and who we are. People are afraid to look inward and face themselves, but we cannot resolve outer conflict without resolving inner conflict. The solutions: 🤔 Help leaders understand that leadership is taking risks and trying something "new" -- even if that "new" thing is really just a return to our true nature of relying on one another. 🦾 There is strength in modeling something more in alignment with humanity. Challenge our leaders to rise to that occasion. 🫂 We tend to think about the inner work as important to our personal wellbeing, and that's great. But actually DOING the inner work allows us to have more impact externally. It's more than your own wellbeing--it's everybody else's as well. ❤️🩹 Check in on one another. It's not that no one cares, it's that we're all pretending not to. Another phenomenal webinar from two fantastic organizations. It's invigorating to see the hope for humanity that still exists around the world while media rhetoric skews so negative. There is light. There is passion. There is common ground. We can still save the world.

‼️Join us in ONE HOUR for ‘Inner and Outer Skills for Transformative Change’‼️ Register here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eGXBP-Xn In the second session of our new webinar series 'Sustaining the Road Ahead: Rethinking Resilience for a New Era of Peacebuilding and Democracy', co-hosted by our partners at Humanity United, we will highlight a future rooted in collective psychosocial strength, relational infrastructure, and regenerative practice. The conversation will explore real-world models and mindsets for integrating social healing, systems thinking, and psychological safety into the work of movements and institutions. Featuring: Melanie Greenberg, Moderator (Managing Director of Programs at Humanity United) Haley Sparks (Psychologist and Emotional Fitness Facilitator, UCLA) John Kania (Executive Director, Collective Change Lab) Maggie Ainley (Executive Director, Unyoke Foundation) We can’t wait to see you today at 11am ET!

🪴 What does it look like to grow new systems while the old ones are collapsing? Join us next Thursday 9/4 at 11am ET for the second session of the new webinar series 'Sustaining the Road Ahead: Rethinking Resilience for a New Era of Peacebuilding and Democracy', co-hosted by our partners at Humanity United. The session, Inner and Outer Skills for Transformative Change, will explore strategies that peacebuilders, social change actors, democracy practitioners, and institutions can utilize in order to: 📈 Sustain momentum 🧯 Honor urgency while reducing burnout 💪 Encourage the cultivation of courage and shared responsibility that this era demands Through dialogue with experienced practitioners, we will highlight a future rooted in collective psychosocial strength, relational infrastructure, and regenerative practice. We know what’s breaking. But how do we build a better alternative as we outgrow outdated structures and approaches? This conversation explores real-world models and mindsets for integrating social healing, systems thinking, and psychological safety into the work of movements and institutions. Featuring: Melanie Greenberg, Moderator (Managing Director of Programs at Humanity United) Haley Sparks (Psychologist and Emotional Fitness Facilitator, UCLA) John Kania (Executive Director, Collective Change Lab) Maggie Ainley (Executive Director, Unyoke Foundation) Register at the following link: https://lnkd.in/eGXBP-Xn We can't wait to see you there!

We hope you can join us today at 12pm ET as we dive into the behind-the-scenes of our newest resource, Minds and Movements: A Brain Science Guide to Social Change Messaging. Come ask us your questions, share your feedback, and hear from some of the team that made it possible. Thanks for spreading the word, Democracy Notes! cc Jasmine Ramsey Summer Heidish Opeyemi Adeojo Dante Garcia Haya Halaw

This is a constructive overview of our Minds and Movements guide. Thanks, Marc!

This is a great roundup of resources related to social change and navigating our way through a period of emboldened authoritarian practices, leadership and policies globally. We're grateful to have our Minds and Movements guide included! And it's a good reminder to mark your calendars for our upcoming webinar on Friday, 8/15 at 12pm EST, when we'll be exploring many of these themes as we dig into the practices and strategies included in it. 🔗 to register in the comments - looking forward to seeing you there!

We couldn't have summarized our webinar, "Sustaining the Road Ahead: Rooting in Relationship" with Humanity United better than this. Leave a comment in the chat if you'd like the recording of this webinar sent to you when it's available.

‼️ Happening now ‼️ We hope to see you here: Wednesday, August 13 | 11:00 am ET 🪴 Rooting in Relationship: Session 1 of the "Sustaining the Road Ahead" joint webinar series from Beyond Conflict & Humanity United Let's talk about how trust, cultural memory, and connective listening form the infrastructure for cohesive, long-term social change — even across deep differences and historical harms. Featuring: Zoe Newcomb Donahoe, Claude Gatebuke, Avila Kilmurray, and Beyond Conflict's Jasmine Ramsey 🔗 Registration Link in the Chat