Starting From Peace with Young People : Youth Work, Dialogue and the Sociology of Everyday Life

This book offers a bold new way of understanding peace: not as something limited to conflict zones or moments of crisis, but as a lived, everyday practice shaped through relationships, choices, and community life.

Starting From Peace with Young People: Youth Work, Dialogue and the Sociology of Everyday Life (SoPiEL) offers a bold new way of understanding peace: not as something limited to conflict zones or moments of crisis, but as a lived, everyday practice shaped through relationships, choices, and community life. Challenging the ways both young people and peace are often overlooked in policy and practice, the author brings together critical theory, participatory action research, and frontline youth work to show how peace is enacted, resisted, and reimagined in ordinary settings. At the heart of the book is the innovative SoPiEL framework, developed through evidence-based research and methods including Dialogic Photovoice. Placing young people’s voices and lived realities at the centre, Ogunnusi explores how they learn, cope, connect, and turn personal concerns into collective action. Combining conceptual insight with practical tools and grounded examples, the book demonstrates how peace can be nurtured through dialogue, reflection, and community-led action. Timely, original, and deeply rooted in practice, this is an essential resource for scholars and students of youth and community work, education, peace studies, and applied sociology, as well as practitioners seeking fresh ways to think about peace in everyday life.