The seventh Build Peace conference took place online from November 6 – 8, 2020, with partners and performances from the originally intended location of Cape Town. The conference theme was “Social Justice: Pandemic in the Digital Age”.

Digital technologies are already having an effect on how identities are lived, on the shape of the urban realm, and on the use of surveillance to express and sustain socio-economic inequality. The pandemic is amplifying these inequities. The externalities associated with the pandemic (such as misinformation) and the associated response (such as increased surveillance) are likely to be long-lasting. The pandemic happening in the digital age is raising a set of particular social justice issues.

Build Peace 2020 hosted 400 global peacebuilders who came together to discuss social justice and the coronavirus pandemic in the digital age as it plays out across three relevant sub-themes: identity polarization, urban space, and surveillance capitalism. We explored the effects of digital technologies on social landscapes that have been affected by the pandemic and a variety of social justice issues. We also shared initiatives that use digital technologies, creative solutions, and social innovations to address these same social justice dynamics.

All conference presentations can be watched on our YouTube playlist and the full conference program is available here. Build Up opening remarks are available here.

Build Peace 2020 is brought to you by Build Up and the Bertha Centre at the UCT Graduate School of Business
Build Peace 2020 is made possible thanks to our hosting partner.

Build Peace 2020 is made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors.