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A divided discipline? Mapping peace and conflict studies
A divided discipline? Mapping peace and conflict studies
- Source :
- International Studies Perspectives.
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Scholars in the field of “peace and conflict studies” have long worried that their discipline is divided -- between studies of war and warmaking, and studies of peace and peacemaking. However, empirical research into the existence, extent, and nature of such a division is scarce. We remedy this, by addressing two questions: 1) How is work in the field of peace and conflict studies distributed between its two nominal pillars: “peace” and (violent) “conflict”? 2) To what extent is there communication and exchange between the two sets of studies? Making use of a unique combination of methods, we find that studies of violence hold a dominant position in the field, although there is also a sizable body of work that explores topics of peace, understood as conflict prevention and/or response. That said, we find limited evidence of intellectual exchange between studies of war/making and peace/making. We also find evidence of gendered, regional, and methodological divides. We argue that such schisms may be preventing scholars of peace and conflict from collectively realizing the founding ontological goal of their discipline, which was to understand the causes of war in order to contribute to an understanding of how conflict can be managed peacefully.
- Subjects :
- 021110 strategic, defence & security studies
Political science
05 social sciences
Political Science and International Relations
Geography, Planning and Development
050602 political science & public administration
0211 other engineering and technologies
Peace and conflict studies
02 engineering and technology
Criminology
16. Peace & justice
0506 political science
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15283585 and 15283577
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International Studies Perspectives
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....452a016de14758fec5bcb9d6915e0794