Our research project aims at strengthening civil society at a general level, by studying the development of new participatory methods for local democracy and welfare. Specifically the project aims at looking into conflict work to prevent violence, crime and delinquency with young people at the cultural and economic margins in the Barents region. Through a concerted effort by the Human Security Programme (HSP) and Visual Culture Studies (VKS) at the University of Tromsø and the Red Cross in Troms, researchers and mediators/facilitators will work with two Restorative Justice approaches: street mediation (i.e. youth peer conflict work) and prison mediation (i.e. conflict work with prison inmates) in different urban areas in the Norwegian and Russian northern outskirts: Northern Norway and Murmansk.