Elicitive Conflict Transformation And The Transrational Shift In Peace Politics

This book considers elicitive conflict transformation and its interrelation with humanistic psychology. It discusses the transrational turn in the fields of diplomacy, military, development cooperation and political economy, presenting a new model of conflict analysis with practical implications for peace work.

This book considers elicitive conflict transformation and its interrelation with humanistic psychology. It discusses the transrational turn in the fields of diplomacy, military, development cooperation and political economy, presenting a new model of conflict analysis with practical implications for peace work.

This book comprehensively gathers the current academic literature, field expertise and artistic developments on Wolfgang Dietrich’s Many Peaces theory, in the ways it has been conceptualized and practiced by peace and conflict workers around the world. Both scholars and practitioners challenge and creatively explore the field of transrational peace philosophy, contributing their insights on elicitive methods and conflict mapping. The book is further enriched by artistic perspectives on integrative approaches to theatre for living and intercultural soundscapes. The articles collected here respond with innovative strength and vigor to the worldwide need for further research on peace and for practical approaches to conflict transformation. This book therefore equally appeals to scholars, peacebuilders and practitioners as well as artists engaged in conflict transformation.

This book completes Wolfgang Dietrich’s path-breaking trilogy of the Many Peaces; the foundation of the highly innovative approach to peace and conflict as taught and applied at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Where Volume 1 elaborated the transrational philosophy of the many peaces and Volume 2 discussed the curricular and didactic aspects of elicitive conflict transformation (ECM), Volume 3 provides principles and examples of ECM’s practical application. The author drafts the easy use of ECM as a brand new method of conflict work that can be applied from both intra and interpersonal conflicts to the highest political and diplomatic level. This book would form an excellent basis for leadership and relationship training of future peace workers within the frame of elicitive conflict transformation.

This book sheds new light on transrational approaches to peace research and highlights elicitive approaches to facilitation. Rather than encouraging researchers, teachers and practitioners to control and suppress their own positionality, the book argues that they can see themselves as a potential (re)source that can be creatively tapped for their work. Using dance as a central metaphor, it seeks to reposition research and facilitation as a truly experiential process where the entirety of human experiences and epistemologies can be brought into interplay, opening up new sources of knowledge. Providing a cutting-edge theoretical framework and based on his practical experience, the author demonstrates that facilitation and research are not just cognitive, but can also be(come) embodied, emotional, intuitive, relational and spiritual. By proposing a systematic, methodological framework for research and facilitation, the book offers practical guidance for peace practitioners, facilitators and researchers interested in working through all dimensions of their being and engaging with conflict transformation in a holistic way.

This volume investigates how peace education can contribute to unfold collective and individual potentials for peace and conflict transformation. It explores how to cultivate a relational process that honours the interconnectedness of educators, students, researchers and participants in all their human faculties. This includes acknowledging not only the rational, but also the embodied, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions, in their complexity and in their ongoing, dynamic transformations. Motivated by the possibilities and challenges involved in this process, this book explores the nexus between transrational peace philosophy, elicitive approaches to conflict transformation and peace education. The first part discusses the transrational peace philosophy and locates it within a broader field of peace education, while the second part reflects on how transrational perspectives are tapped into within peace education approaches. In total, eight researchers and practitioners engage productive tensions that unfold in different geographical spaces, in the classrooms, and within and between us through embodied, affective, societal and transpersonal lenses. Transrational Perspectives in Peace Education encourages both researchers and practitioners to experiment with and engage the multifaceted potentials that are involved in transrational perspectives within peace education. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Peace Education.

Nonviolent Political Economy offers a set of theoretical solutions and practical guidelines to build an economy of nonviolence which implies a social state of peacefulness, involving minimal violence and minimal destruction of nature. The book provides renewed reflections on heterodox economics, ecological economics, anthropology, Buddhism, Gandhianism, disarmament, and business ethics, as well as innovative initiatives such as Blue Frontiers. It also sets out feasible solutions to rebuild countries that have suffered prolonged conflicts such as Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan. Bringing together authors from around the world, this collection includes new perspectives on the abolition of profit; disarmament; obliteration of the consumer society; expansion of collective property; Buddhist and Gandhian economies; small-scale and artisanal production, the increasing use of clean energies; a gradual reduction in the human population; political processes closer to direct and radical democracy, and anarchy. Discussing cutting-edge developments, this book provides valuable tools to build alternatives to the prevailing models of (violent) political economy. It will be of great interest to a public of critical citizens, students and researchers from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, and all those seeking to understand the fundamental concepts of nonviolent political economy.

The purpose of this text is to elicit discussion, reflection, and action specific to pedagogy within education, especially higher education, and circles of experiential learning, community organizing, conflict resolution and youth empowerment work. Vulnerability itself is not a new term within education; however the pedagogical imperatives of vulnerability are both undertheorized in educational discourse and underexplored in practice. This work builds on that of Edward Brantmeier in Re-Envisioning Higher Education: Embodied Pathways to Wisdom and Transformation (Lin, Oxford, & Brantmeier, 2013). In his chapter, “Pedagogy of vulnerability: Definitions, assumptions, and application,” he outlines a set of assumptions about the term, clarifying for his readers the complicated, risky, reciprocal, and purposeful nature of vulnerability, particularly within educational settings. Creating spaces of risk taking, and consistent mutual, critical engagement are challenging at a moment in history where neoliberal forces impact so many realms of formal teaching and learning. Within this context, the divide between what educators, be they in a classroom or a community, imagine as possible and their ability to implement these kinds of pedagogical possibilities is an urgent conundrum worth exploring. We must consider how to address these disconnects; advocating and envisioning a more holistic, healthy, forward thinking model of teaching and learning. How do we create cultures of engaged inquiry, framed in vulnerability, where educators and students are compelled to ask questions just beyond their grasp? How can we all be better equipped to ask and answer big, beautiful, bold, even uncomfortable questions that fuel the heart of inquiry and perhaps, just maybe, lead to a more peaceful and just world? A collection of reflections, case studies, and research focused on the pedagogy of vulnerability is a starting point for this work. The book itself is meant to be an example of pedagogical vulnerability, wherein the authors work to explicate the most intimate and delicate aspects of the varied pedagogical journeys, understandings rooted in vulnerability, and those of their students, colleagues, clients, even adversaries. It is a work that “holds space.”