ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
This article is part of the Research TopicEvolving Peacebuilding: Power Shifts and Institutional AdaptationView all articles
Pathways to Everyday Peace: A Systems Mapping Approach for Visualizing How People 'See Peace' and 'Think About' Peace Promotion in Mauritania
Provisionally accepted
Catherine Panter-brick1*
Bisa Williams1Aicha Ebnou Abdem2Khadouj Dhehby2Yacoub Coulibaly3Taleb Bilal Eli3- 1Yale University, New Haven, United States
- 2Academie Diplomatique de Mauritanie, Nouakchott, Mauritania
- 3University of Nouakchott, Nouakchott, Mauritania
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Introduction: A critical element of peacebuilding is engaging with how different groups understand pathways to peace, yet comparative insight across social groups remains limited. We conducted research with diverse stakeholder groups in Nouakchott, Mauritania — a socially diverse society negotiating peace within a conflict-affected region — to examine how people reason about pathways to everyday peace. Methods and Results: We used a participatory, systems mapping methodology (fuzzy cognitive mapping) to compare how people across diverse sectors of society 'see peace' and 'think about' pathways to everyday peace. Six focus groups included Mauritanian students, UNHCR-sponsored refugees, university professors, career diplomats, and townspeople (men and women). Each group of respondents defined everyday peace, then visually mapped key factors and perceived interconnections to describe local knowledge about pathways to peace. Three scenarios were run to visualize hypothetical interventions, modeling the relative importance of governance, socioeconomic, and community-level drivers. This study reveals important disconnects in how students, career professionals, and townspeople view pathways to everyday peace and what room exists to deliver system change. Discussion: Mapping everyday peace reveals diverse forms of situated reasoning grounded in lived experience, social responsibility, and political agency. The study identifies not only how everyday peace is framed, but also how stakeholder groups evaluate room for change — what they consider actionable and where they see potential for meaningful intervention. The mapping analysis challenges assumptions of community consensus, highlighting critical blind spots and opportunities for dialogue across generations and social groups. It also offers a practical tool for civil society and state actors to clarify misalignments and develop strategies for inclusive peacebuilding efforts.
Keywords: peace, governance, Participatory Research, systems change, Violence
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Panter-brick, Williams, Ebnou Abdem, Dhehby, Coulibaly and Bilal Eli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Catherine Panter-brick, catherine.panter-brick@yale.edu
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