Toward a contemplative cyberspace: a transdisciplinary inquiry into contemplation, social media and peace-building

The emerging practice of using social media in peacebuilding has generated a growing interest from practitioners and academia. However, most attention focuses on the technological aspect of social media rather than the engagement of individuals at grassroots.

The question this research seeks to address is how sharing the effect of contemplation in cyberspace can initiate and change the formation of new cyber networks for peacebuilding. Through experimental study, this thesis combines a transdisciplinary approach with action research. Utilising an integrated methodology, it begins with a first-person inquiry: examining my own practices of inner peace through contemplation. This examination is then expanded to a spiritual co-operative inquiry with six participants with similar experiences; of sacred and inner peace. It concludes with a cyber inquiry, expanding the experiment to netizens using digital tools. It embraces the logic of the Included Middle, the Hidden Third and the levels of Reality introduced by Nicolescu, and explores the constructive contributions of our contemplation non-violent selves situated at the core of peacebuilding.

Whilst Nicolescu claims that the Real is veiled forever, this study suggests the existence of an independent space the Third Space where the experience of the Real and inner peace is possible. This approach highlights the importance of a liminal aspect of the process of inner peacebuilding prior to expanding the phenomenon to outer life, thus; providing a nuanced understanding of the emergent properties of peacebuilding, and a more comprehensive account of the interactions of self, the sacred and technology, in creating network for peacebuilding in cyberspace. Finally, it suggests that sharing the effect of contemplation can result in the formation of supple networks when diversity and inclusivity that are two important elements of peacebuilding on the ground are chosen as preferences. In this way nascent networks show more elasticity, so that nodes in these networks can respond to change gracefully whilst maintaining their original characteristics; should the main node be removed or attacked the network survives. However, the study does not consider the degree of decay over time and other preferences for network formation.