One of the markers of a deeply polarized society is an inability to talk with those outside one's political or social groups. There's a heightening of the "us versus them" dynamics that make any intergroup interactions undesirable or even impossible. This breakdown in communication contributes to the iterative nature of polarization; we spend more time sequestered in our in-groups and develop stronger animosities towards our out-groups. How, then, do we break this cycle?

Restorative Justice may have an answer to that.

Restorative Justice principles are used throughout the world as an alternative to punitive forms of justice and remediation. It brings victim and perpetrator together to communicate why the harm was committed and encourages all parties involved to participate in repairing the damage caused by said harm. In other words, these principles offer a framework for building lines of communication between polarized communities.

Jennifer Llewellyn is the Director of the Restorative Research, Innovation, and Education Lab, and Professor of Law at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Jennifer explains how Restorative Justice shapes one's relationship to the community around them and reminds listeners of the agency they have in actively pursuing a less divisive relationship with those around them. We also talk about how punitive justice reproduces systems of inequality and the organizations that are bringing theory into practice in small and large ways.

How do you repair polarized relationships? Many political depolarization strategies emphasize the value of common interests and elevating similarities to drown out our differences - contact theory, for short. Such strategies certainly have their place, but there is something to be said about learning skills that allow you to co-exist with someone whose worldview stands in firm contrast with your own, absent of any consideration of any shared traits.

Byron Bland is a peacemaker who's worked in some of the world's most highly polarized conflict zones - Northern Ireland, Israel-Palestine, and South Africa. Over the years, he's made critical observations about what it takes to co-exist with your enemy. Peace is complex. It does not guarantee harmony, nor does it grant either side exactly the outcomes that they desire. At its core, however, it ensures we can all live and share space.

Byron talks with us about what peace and justice in conflict looks like. He elaborates on the difference between "a vision for a shared future" and "a shared vision of the future". His insights offer an honest, realistic take on what depolarization can and must look like to have meaningful, sustained impact.

What happens when a polarized society turns violent? In Rwanda, decades of tension between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups came to a head in a Civil War that, seemingly overnight, devolved into one of the bloodiest genocides of the 20th century. With concerns about a potential civil war in the United States, it's worth examining what exactly was happening in Rwanda that led to the mass slaughter of Tutsi men, women, and children at the hands of their Hutu neighbours. What, or who, were the main drivers of division between Hutu and Tutsi Rwandans? What were the differences in lived experiences between the two groups? What was going on in the social, political, and cultural institutions in the years leading up to the genocide?

Omar McDoom - takes through a brief yet insightful history of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial Rwanda, and of the relationship between the Hutu and Tutsi. We learn how those ethnic groups interacted with each other before the European Imperialist period, the impact of Belgian colonization on codifying those ethnic divisions, and what happened after independence that set Rwanda on its tragic course.

There are a lot of parallels to draw between Rwanda just before the start of the genocide and the most perniciously polarized democracies of today. Without establishing false equivalencies, it is essential to take what lessons we can from Rwanda to avoid an overwhelming outbreak of violence to occur elsewhere.

You can find Omar's writings on present-day conflicts here.

Writings and Writers mentioned:

The Origins of Violence: Approaches to the Study of Conflict by Anatol Rapoport

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Phillip Gourevitch