MINELRES: Workshop: Peaceful Transformation of Conflicts, November 23-24,
Manassas, Virginia
MINELRES moderator
[email protected]
Sat Oct 26 11:59:02 2002
Original sender: Dietrich Fischer <[email protected]>
Announcement:
PEACEFUL TRANSFORMATION OF COMPLEX CONFLICTS:
The TRANSCEND Approach
A Workshop with Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and Director,
TRANSCEND: A Peace and Development Network, and Hamid Mowlana, Professor
of International Relations at the School of International Service, The
American University
DATES: Saturday, November 23, 2002, 10:30 am - 10:00 pm
Sunday, November 24, 12:15 - 4:00 pm
PLACE: Manassas, Virginia (half an hour West of Washington, DC;
directions will be sent to those who have registered)
This workshop is recommended for anyone interested in helping parties in
a conflict transform them nonviolently, at the personal, group and
international level. It should be of interest to practitioners,
diplomats, professionals working with NGOs and international
organizations, journalists, psychologists, family therapists, social
workers, as well as teachers and students from a wide range of
disciplines.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW:
This workshop will provide participants with an introduction to the
TRANSCEND method of conflict transformation by peaceful means, based on
40 years of research and practice. Conflicts can rarely be "resolved"
in the sense that they completely disappear, but they can be transformed
from being fought with violent means to being conducted by peaceful
means. In that sense, conflicts can have a constructive function in
helping bring about desirable change.
The workshop format will be highly interactive, with a combination of
lectures, facilitated discussions and exercises in small groups.
Participants are invited to contribute case studies from their own
experience.
OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP:
* Participants will learn to analyze conflicts and design
methods of intervention that help reduce violence.
* Methods of mapping conflict formations are to be discussed.
* Introduction to diagnosis (sources of a conflict),
prognosis (likely trends without intervention) and
therapy (proposed interventions to reduce violence).
* Principles of dialogue and negotiation as methods of conflict
transformation; the psychology of the dialogue process.
* Distinction between direct, structural and cultural violence.
* Sensitivity to cultural differences in conflict transformation.
* Development of empathy with the parties involved, and
creativity to discover mutually acceptable outcomes.
* Conflict work as a profession; a code of ethics.
* Ending the vicious cycle of terrorism and state terrorism. The
US seeks free trade and military protection. The Islamic
fundamentalists' long-term goal seems to be respect for
religious sensitivities. Could trade with basic needs priority,
including religious sensitivities, achieve both simultaneously?
TRANSCEND is a peace and development network of 200 invited
scholars-practitioners in 60 countries doing
action/training/research/dissemination within 20 programs, based on 40
years of experience. Reports on programs and some manuals can be freely
downloaded from www.transcend.org
JOHAN GALTUNG, founder and director of TRANSCEND, a distinguished
professor of Peace Studies, is widely known as the founder of the
academic discipline of peace research. Galtung has served as Professor
of peace studies at the Universities of Hawaii, George Mason,
Witten/Herdecke (Germany), Tromsoe (Norway), American, Granada (Spain),
Ritsumeikan (Japan), Sichuan (China) and the European Peace University
(Austria). He established the world's first Peace Research Institute in
Oslo in 1959 and the Journal of Peace Research in 1964. He has
published over 1500 articles and 106 books, including Gandhi's Political
Ethics (1955), nine volumes of Essays in Peace Research and Methodology
(Ejlers, Copenhagen, 1974-88), The True Worlds (1980), There Are
Alternatives: Four Roads to Peace and Security (1984), Human Rights in
Another Key (1994), Peace By Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict,
Development and Civilization (Sage, 1996) and Searching for Peace: the
Road to TRANSCEND (Pluto Press, London, 2002). He is a consultant to
several UN agencies and a constantly traveling lecturer. He holds
numerous honorary degrees and awards, among them the Right Livelihood
Award (the "Alternative Nobel Prize"). He has played an active role in
helping mediate in over 50 major conflicts around the world over the
past four decades.
HAMID MOWLANA is Professor of International Relations and the founding
director of the International Communication Program at American
University, Washington, D.C. He has served as visiting professor in
Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America and is the recipient
of numerous awards. He has worked for UNESCO and written extensively on
international communication, cultural and psychological aspects of
international relations, and socio-economic development. He is the
author of numerous works, among them Global Information and World
Communication: New Frontiers in International Relations; Global
Communication in Transition: The End of Diversity?; Mass Media in the
Middle East: A Comprehensive Handbook; he has also contributed to
numerous books and anthologies, including International Encyclopedia of
Communication and The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.
REGISTRATION FEE: $200 ($80 for students)
This includes:
- admission to workshops on Saturday and Sunday
- Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (the TRANSCEND Method), A
Manual Prepared for the United Nations Disaster Management Training
Program (192 pages) by Johan Galtung
- certificate for completing the program
- coffee, refreshments and meals on Saturday
FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Prof. Dietrich Fischer, Pace University
<[email protected]>, Tel 609-799-8319
(MONDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY BETWEEN 8 AM AND 4 PM ONLY, PLEASE!)
_________________________________________________________________
TO REGISTER, please send the following information by email, in the body
of a message, not as attachment, to [email protected], by November
17, 2002:
Name:
Occupation:
Organization:
Address:
Tel:
Fax (optional):
Email:
Why you wish to take part in this workshop and how you expect the
training program will benefit your work (about 100-200 words).
_________________________________________________________________
Those who register will receive detailed directions. Please bring the
registration fee to the door, in cash, or a check made out to TRANSCEND.
We regret that we can't process credit cards. Thank you!
JOHAN GALTUNG'S 9 VOLUMES OF COLLECTED ESSAYS IN PEACE RESEARCH AND
METHODOLOGY (almost 4000 pages) will be on sale for $200 per set. If you
cannot attend but wish to order them by mail, please send a $200 check
to Dietrich Fischer, 114 Conover Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550,
USA. This includes postage by surface mail.
The second edition of "Searching for Peace: the Road to TRANSCEND" by
Johan Galtung, Carl G. Jacobsen and Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen (Pluto
Press, May 2002), which includes an analysis of 45 conflicts from around
the world, can be ordered on-line at www.transcend.org
On-line courses offered by the TRANSCEND Peace University start in
January 2003 and will soon be announced at www.transcend.org