The considerations on the Public Policy Model as a Methodology for Building Sustainable Peace in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

The actions undertaken by higher education institutions in the field of peacebuilding are the result of their perspectives on conflict and the strategies adopted to address it. The ways in which peace is promoted respond to the manner in which political power is administered within the institution, as well as to the methodology used to address the social problems affecting the university community.

Likewise, the role, relationships, and participation mechanisms established with the community throughout the processes of identifying needs and problems, making decisions, implementing measures and actions, and monitoring their results are shaped by the rationality underlying the institution’s governance style. The institutional approach to violence and conflict in higher education institutions is therefore closely related to the style of institutional administration and the exercise of power.

The social problems affecting the university community, together with the institutional mechanisms designed to address them, invite reflection on the process by which a need becomes defined as a social problem, as well as on the institutional channels and mechanisms through which it is addressed and responded to, the decisions and actions implemented, and the results achieved.

The culture of peace in universities and other higher education institutions displays different characteristics depending on their institutional trajectories, available resources, and organizational structures, which shape the ways in which peace is maintained, established, or built.

This paper seeks to promote reflection on the use of the public policy model as a methodology for addressing social problems, particularly social conflict and violence, with the aim of generating alternatives for creating the conditions necessary for sustainable peacebuilding in higher education institutions.