50 Years - 25 Intellectual Landscapes Explored

Introduction

Fifty years ago, in 1958, Galtung gave the first course in Conflict and Peace Studies at Columbia University, New York. But the decision to develop peace studies was taken in 1951 when applying for status as conscientious objector in his native Norway. Since then there has been many courses, more than 100 books, more than 1,000 articles covering many topics in conflict and peace studies.

This book - a study in the philosophy of social sciences - is a report from the efforts to prepare the ground for peace studies, in five parts:

Trans is about trans-nationality, -disciplinarity and -level;

Epistemes is about expanding the horizon for scientific studies;

Pillars is about the basics, deep nature, culture and structure;

Peace is about violence-war-conflict-peace studies and practice;

Globalism is about implications for some social sciences;

and then an
Epilogue for social sciences in general.

Author:
Johan V. Galtung, born 1930 in Oslo, Norway. Lives in Spain, France, Japan and the USA and is mainly engaged in mediation and research. He founded TRANSCEND: A network for Peace and Development, in 1993, and was a rector of TRANSCEND Peace University 2003-2007.