Interacting for Peace: Rethinking Peace Through Interactive Digital Platforms

Abstract

Peace is often studied as a lull in war or as a way to make war inconceivable. In this study, I explore the ability of digital culture to promote a new understanding of peace as a communication concept. Specifically, I analyze small digital platforms devoted to making people care about peace by encouraging them to play, explore, listen, or participate in a variety of activities. Since war is centered around the occupation of spaces and places, I use time and temporality as a theoretical framework for understanding how these interactive digital platforms construct peace in a way that is meaningful to people. In this investigation of a popular meaning of peace, I argue that the epistemology of peace offers a promise for a better future while its ethics is a commitment to remembering the past. The ontology of peace is a lived experience found in daily practices in the present.