A Fresh Look at the Field of Peace and Conflict Studies: A Review of Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy

摘要

The task of reviewing Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice and Pedagogy was a welcome one for me as I was interested to see a current overview of the field and some of the contemporary issues it addresses. My doctoral dissertation, written in the 1980s, asked some of the same questions posed in this book: What is the nature of the field, its key components and aims? What is its core? How can theory be linked to practice and what kind of pedagogy is most appropriate for education about and for peace? I was pleased to see that equal weight was given to theory, practice, and pedagogy and I gained new insights from the chapters in each of these sections. The book was framed by "book-ends"-the first chapter being by one of the founders of the field, Johan Galtung, providing a meta-analysis of global patterns of conflict, while the second to the last chapter, written by another veteran of the field, Neil Katz, gave an autobiographical reflection on how he has put his evolving understanding of peace and conflict dynamics into practice in his work.