Abstract
This chapter describes the interdisciplinary field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) as a distinct and emerging arena of academic and practitioner pursuits. This field learns from fields and contributes new knowledge through identifying conflict and working to transform conflict nonviolently. This means recognizing violence as a form of conflict that is intentional but unnecessary. PACS perceives violence as a barrier to full humanity and seeks to both learn about conflict and share tools and techniques that ameliorate or eradicate violence using intervention methods. By presenting the diverse and divergent global concentrations of work that is included in the field of PACS, this section seeks to present the field as a locus of human investigation and manifestations and to collapse and collect various streams of inquiry and endeavour into a definition that provides a useful categorization of the interdisciplinary work of PACS. The terminology of PACS will be introduced in this section including the question of the moral rationale of intervention, which in relation to suicide and acts of violence is ordinarily termed ‘prevention’. In addition to an encapsulation of the field of PACS, this section presents a substantiated rationale for suggesting that PACS, as a locus of inquiry, needs to pay more attention to suicide.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adams, David. 1989. “The Seville Statement on Violence: A Progress Report.” Journal of Peace Research 26 (2): 113–121.
Bartolucci, Valentina, and Giorgio Gallo. 2011. “Beyond Interdisciplinarity in Peace Studies: The Role of System Thinking.” SSRN Electronic Journal: 1–34, viewed August 20, 2018. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256009105_Beyond_Interdisciplinarity_in_Peace_Studies_The_Role_of_System_Thinking.
Bernard, Thomas, and Robin Engel. 2001. “Conceptualizing Criminal Justice Theory.” Justice Quarterly 18 (1): 1–30.
Boulding, Elise. 2000. Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Byrne, Sean. 2015. “Foreword: Peace and Conflict Studies—The Cutting Edge.” In Transformative Change: An Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Laura Reimer, Cathryne Schmitz, Emily Janke, Ali Askerov, Barbara Strahl, and Thomas Matyók, vii–ix. London: Lexington Books.
Christie, Daniel. 1999. “Peace Studies: The Multidisciplinary Foundations of Peace Psychology.” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 5 (1): 95–99.
Cohrs, J. Christopher, Daniel J. Christie, Mathew P. White, and Chaitali Das. 2013. “Contributions of Positive Psychology to Peace Towards Global Wellbeing and Resilience.” American Psychologist 68 (7): 590–600.
Drago, Antonino. 2012. “Peace Studies and the Peace Movement.” Peace Research 44 (2): 163–191.
Galtung, Johan. 1969. “Violence, Peace and Peace Research.” Journal of Peace Research 6 (3): 167–191.
Galtung, Johan. 1985. “Twenty-Five Years of Peace Research: Ten Challenges and Some Responses.” Journal of Peace Research 22 (2): 141–158.
Galtung, Johan. 1990. “Cultural Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 27 (3): 291–305.
Galtung, Johan. 2007. “Introduction: Peace by Peaceful Conflict Transformation—The TRANSCEND Approach.” In Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Charles Webel and Johan Galtung, 14–23. New York: Routledge.
Galtung, Johan. 2010. “Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution: The Need for Transdisciplinarity.” Transcultural Psychiatry 47 (1): 20–32.
Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Jonas Nordkvelle, and Håvard Stran. 2014. “Peace Research: Just the Study of War?” Journal of Peace Research 51 (2): 145–158.
Graf, Wilfried, Gudrun Kramer, and Augustin Nicolescou. 2007. “Counselling and Training for Conflict Transformation and Peace-Building: The TRANSCEND Approach.” In Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Charles Webel and Johan Galtung, 123–142. New York: Routledge.
Harris, Ian. 2004. “Peace Education Theory.” Journal of Peace Education 1 (1): 5–20.
Hydle, Ida. 2006. “An Anthropological Contribution to Peace and Conflict Research.” Contemporary Justice Review 9 (3): 257–267.
Jeong, Ho-Won. 2000. Peace and Conflict Studies: An Introduction. New York: Ashgate.
Kafula, Chilala S. 2016. “The Role of Social Work in Peace, Human Rights and Development in Africa.” Journal of Education and Social Policy (5): 115–121.
Lederach, John Paul. 2005. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lee, Bandy. 2016. “Causes and Cures V: The Sociology and Anthropology of Violence.” Aggression and Violent Behaviour 27: 158–163.
Mack, Andrew. 1985. Peace Research in the 1980s. Canberra: Australian National University.
MacQueen, Graeme, and Joanna Santa-Barbara. 2000. “Peace Building Through Health Initiatives.” British Medical Journal 321 (7256): 293–296.
Reimer, Laura, Cathryne Schmitz, Emily Janke, Ali Askerov, Barbara Strahl, and Thomas Matyók. 2015. “Introduction to the Field of Peace and Conflict Studies.” In Transformative Change: An Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Laura Reimer, Cathryne Schmitz, Emily Janke, Ali Askerov, Barbara Strahl, and Thomas Matyók, 1–18. London: Lexington Books.
Robben, Antonius, and Francisco Ferrándiz. 2007. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Peace and Conflict Research. Spain: University of Deusto.
Ryan, Stephen. 2003. “Peace and Conflict Studies Today.” The Global Review of Ethnopolitics 2 (2): 75–82.
Santa-Barbara, Joanna. 2006. “Medicine, Peace and Public Policy.” Croation Medical Journal 47 (2): 352–355.
Sharp, Gene. 2005. Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential. Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, Inc.
Stack, Steven. 2000. “Suicide: A 15-Year Review of the Sociological Literature Part I: Cultural and Economic Factors.” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 30 (2): 145–162.
Standish, Katerina, Heather Devere, Adan Suazo, and Rachel Rafferty. Forthcoming. The Springer Handbook of Positive Peace. Singapore: Springer.
Stephenson, Carolyn. 1999. “Peace Studies, Overview.” In The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict, edited by L. Kurtz and J. Turpin, 2809–2820. San Diego: Academic Press.
Webel, Charles. 2007. “Introduction: Toward a Philosophy and Metapsychology of Peace.” In Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Charles Weber and Johan Galtung, 3–13. New York: Routledge.
World Health Organization. 2014. Preventing Suicide: A Global Imperative. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Standish, K. (2020). Why Peace and Conflict Studies?. In: Suicide through a Peacebuilding Lens . Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9737-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9737-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-9736-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-9737-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)