Dr Hen Wilkinson
MSc Conflict and Mediation Studies, MSc Social Research Methods, PhD Security Conflict and Justice
Expertise
After decades of work in urban communities in the UK skilling local people to manage everyday confllicts they experience, my focus now is on a critical engagements with peacetech - where peacebuilding meets technology.
Current positions
Honorary Research Fellow
Jean Golding Institute
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
I came to academia very late - in my 50s - to build on decades of community development work.
Before that I worked as a chef (London and Paris) and a writer and editor before training as a community mediator in the 1990s. That training was the start of 25 years of working with conflict as a mediator, coach, facilitator and founder of Community Resolve - an influential Bristol-based NGO with an unusually diverse and highly trained staff team from across age, faith, gender, ethnicity and other backgrounds. That project foregrounded local knowledge and skillsets as essential ingredients in successful community development work, moving away from the dominance of 'expertise' and encouraging collaborative working across organisations and spheres.
My ESRC funded PhD explored the dynamics and challenges of community development projects that I experienced during that time, and focussed on Conflict, power and collaboration in community-facing projects. A suprising outcome from the PhD was the visualisation of energy shifts in groups, a linking of technology and peacebuilding interests that have led directly to my current work with peacetech.
Before that I worked as a chef (London and Paris) and a writer and editor before training as a community mediator in the 1990s. That training was the start of 25 years of working with conflict as a mediator, coach, facilitator and founder of Community Resolve - an influential Bristol-based NGO with an unusually diverse and highly trained staff team from across age, faith, gender, ethnicity and other backgrounds. That project foregrounded local knowledge and skillsets as essential ingredients in successful community development work, moving away from the dominance of 'expertise' and encouraging collaborative working across organisations and spheres.
My ESRC funded PhD explored the dynamics and challenges of community development projects that I experienced during that time, and focussed on Conflict, power and collaboration in community-facing projects. A suprising outcome from the PhD was the visualisation of energy shifts in groups, a linking of technology and peacebuilding interests that have led directly to my current work with peacetech.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
REPHRAIN researcher-in-residence PeaceTech
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/10/2022 to 31/05/2023
Re-imagining conflict: navigating fields of tension as 'working in the space between'
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Anthropology and ArchaeologyDates
01/10/2020 to 30/09/2022
The Interdisciplinary PeaceTech Group
Principal Investigator
Description
Links between technology, practitioners and researchers working in the field of social cohesion and peacebuilding.Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/09/2019
From conflict to collaboration: visualizing shifts in group energy to support creativity
Principal Investigator
Role
Principal Investigator
Description
The team are working on a new way of visualizing group interaction and discussion. Funding from JGI allows the team to complete initial design and software approaches and to present…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/01/2019 to 30/06/2019
Publications
Recent publications
01/11/2020Bold leadership, radical action
Bold leadership, radical action
Dealing with the complexity of community: embedding conflict management skills in local UK communities
Fairness and the Politics of Resentment
Journal of Social Policy
Thesis
Through conflict to sustainability
Supervisors
Award date
23/01/2020
