Description
Scholarship in International Studies has increasingly called for research methods that acknowledge the fragmented, super-diverse, and fragile nature of post-colonial spaces. Yet the discipline still offers few tools for contextually-responsive research like dialogue in settings marked by intractable conflict and mistrust. This paper presents a new methodology of intercultural dialogue that was designed and successfully tested in one of the world’s most politically sensitive and understudied cases: Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The study utilised the diaspora from J&K as an alternative dialogic space, bringing together participants with varied religious, ethnic, linguistic, and geographic identities from both Pakistan-administered J&K and Indian-administered J&K - groups with no precedent for dialogue since the division of erstwhile J&K in 1947.
Grounded in a conflict transformation framework inspired by Lederach, the methodology operationalised trust as a measurable outcome, allowing dialogue to be assessed in a context where conventional metrics are neither sufficient nor safe. Findings show that diasporic spaces can be used to mend ruptured relationships and challenge the assumptions that dialogue depends on rigid borders or the suspension of conflict. The paper theoretically extends conflict transformation into the diaspora and methodologically proposes a context-informed methodological map that is both responsive and responsible to fragile environments.
Beyond its empirical focus, the study offers a scalable model for facilitating dialogue in precarious settings. By foregrounding trust, conflict transformation, and intercultural dialogue, it adds innovation to the analytical toolkit for International Studies by utilising de-territorialised human spaces to reimagine futures.
