Building Community Resilience to Violent Extremism through Community-Based Youth Organizations: A Case of Post-Conflict North Waziristan, Pakistan

Abstract

This paper presents the case of endogenously generated community resilience to violent extremism by discussing the formation and functioning of community-based youth organizations (CBYOs) in post-conflict North Waziristan. In doing so, the paper deciphers a micro-sociological phenomenon underlining the community (re)organization through their new mode of interaction and connectedness, sustaining a resilient social change in the post-conflict setting. The research employed a qualitative research design using the ‘mini-ethnographic’ case study method. For the purpose, twelve CBYOs and members of the local youth were interviewed, allowing for a subjective assessment of the emergence and sustenance of (community) resilience to violent extremism. Offering unique sociological perspectives on a post-conflict context, the study uncovers the community resilience generated through the formation of CBYOs by educated youth in North Waziristan. The social activities and engagement by youth, through education and awareness campaigns, are instilling a social change (by replacing the old ideas and customs with new ones) that aims at creating a peaceful society.