OpenEdge Transforming Conflict developed from the collaborations and visions of two scholar-practitioners with extensive experience in non-violent conflict transformation, peace building, reconciliation, and Nonviolent Communication in the UK and internationally. They felt increasingly bound by the restrictions of traditional approaches to conflict and development thinking, and wanted to create their own vehicle to fund and run conflict transformation projects. 

Charitable Objects:
For the public benefit, OpenEdge – Transforming Conflict will work to advance the prevention, reduction and transformation of violence and violent conflict in any part of the world with:

• Anyone affected by direct and/or structural violence (in the community or workplace)
• Individuals and groups who work with those affected by violence and/or violent conflict (e.g. staff of NGO’s, government agencies or organisations)
• Those whose activities impact and/or influence violence and violent conflict (e.g. academics, policy makers, policy implementers, armed actors)

​Through a combination of scholarship, research, practical expertise, fund-raising, project funding and management, OpenEdge Transforming Conflict will guide, train, coach, facilitate, and support participants, colleagues and partners in developing their understanding, choices and actions regarding violence and violent conflict both in the UK and internationally.

Getting to the roots...
For OpenEdge, why we do what we do is fundamental to what we do and how we do it. When we understand that there are reasons why violence and violent conflict happen we can relate to them as a form of (tragic) feedback about what is not working. In this way, we need to go down, underneath what we see happening, to reach the layers of 'why is it happening?' 

OpenEdge understands that if we do not go down deep enough, we are in danger of individualising the causes of violence while still not addressing the often unconscious rationale that justifies violent choices and systems. OpenEdge seeks to go to the bottom, asking multiple 'why?'s, so we can get all the information that any given conflict is presenting us with.

Without sophisticated understanding of all feedback being offered by a conflict, and without integrating this wisdom, temporary and negative 'peace' may be found (i.e. end in direct hostilities), however, divisions and separation based relationships and violence in other forms continue or recur.

A transformative agenda....
All OpenEdge offerings seek to support the transformation not only of direct violent conflict behaviours, but also the normalised conditions, practices and structures of societies or groups, that make such individual behaviours possible. Crucially, this means transforming the underlying beliefs and ideas about human experience which underpin and justify existing accepted systems, practices and behaviours.

OpenEdge understands that existing ways of thinking and organising in our personal lives, organisations and local and global communities, inherently leads to the different types of violences which we experience in the world today. As such, we understand that violence is never a single moment, action or event, and is never ‘senseless’. We understand that the violences we see in daily life, at all levels, are part of continuums of violence which both reproduce and are products of unquestioned assumptions about human experiences. 

OpenEdge engages in many different activities and projects (the ‘what’ of our work), but whatever we do, it is with the overall purpose of transforming behaviours, structures, and underlying assumptions.