Building Relationships

Abstract

The quality of our relationships determines, to a large extent, the quality of our life and the life of our community. This chapter offers a discussion that elucidates the centrality of relationships and of relationship building in processes of social transformation. In this discussion, the authors shed light on the ways trust between community stakeholders is built over time and the highly sophisticated embedded processes of collaboration. Rapport, as shown in this book, is pivotal to co-create systemic and long-term processes of social transformation, and this section of the book is devoted to this discussion. Conceptually, this chapter draws from Coleman's understanding on dynamical systems and the implication of networks in peacebuilding, and on Lederach's concept of the moral imagination and the effects of collective power.