Innsbruck School of Peace Studies

Research and Publications

The Innsbruck School of Peace and Conflict Studies became famous for its unique approach to peace research with the key phrase “transrational peaces” and with its specific and tough training method in the sense of John Paul Lederach's elicitive conflict transformation”. Both principles are applied in practice and developed further in the frame of the MA Program for Peace Studies. The UNESCO Chair promotes further research in these fields and the publication of the respective results, in the following book series:

Furthermore a series of edited Volumes has emerged in the framework of the Innsbruck School: Key Texts of Peace Studies (Die Kommende Demokratie Series, LIT) Palgrave Handbook of Peace Studies (Palgrave)

Norbert Koppensteiner, a Dietrich-student and program coordinator at the MA Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation, is another important representative of the Innsbruck School of Peace and Conflict Studies. In his book The Art of the Transpersonal Self he draws on findings of humanistic and transpersonal psychology. His work can be seen as a critique of some of Modernity’s founding principles like truth. Koppensteiner argues that the autonomous and self grounded subject, morals or solvability of conflicts have become sites of contestation and debate. He suggests to re-think some of those categories being debated in (post)modernity by invoking transpersonal and transrational transpositions. Asking about the continued possibilities for subjectivation, Koppensteiner sketches the outlines of an art of living for a subjectivity perceived as constantly emergent and in transformation, a subjectivity that dares to embrace conflict as part of its transpersonal relational becoming and that emerges through an ongoing transformation of the self understood as an aesthetic (Apollonian) and energetic (Dionysian) practice. The strictly relational understanding of peaces and conflict that Koppensteiner proposes is one of the central ontological assumptions of the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies.

Other important representatives of the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies are Josefina Echavarría (Research and Publications Coordinator), Daniela Ingruber (Coordinator MA Program), Jennifer Murphy and Andreas Oberprantacher. Each academic year leading international scholars of Peace and Conflict Studies visit the UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies and its MA Program at the University of Innsbruck.

Transrational Peace Philosophy

The Innsbruck School of Peace Studies is based on Wolfgang Dietrich's transrational approach to Peace Studies and is outlined in his Many Peaces Trilogy. Spanning continents as well as disciplines, Dietrich presents a panorama of diverse interpretations of peace in world history and culture. In a journey through time and space, Dietrich outlines the so-called five families of peace - energetic, moral, modern, post-modern and trans-rational. He stresses the importance of combining rationality and reason with human properties such as emotion and spirituality in applied peace work. This ontological assumption indicates a paradigm shift and proposes a new epistemological understanding of peace, which is at the heart of the Innsbruck School's peace philosophy.

Elicitive Conflict Transformation

Elicitive Conflict Transformation was first introduced to the field by John Paul Lederach in 1995 and is the applied method of transrational peace philosophy. Drawing on the debate on multi-track diplomacy, Lederach initially distinguished between three levels of conflict:

1. Top Leaders
2. Middle-Range Leaders
3. Grassroots

Wolfgang Dietrich draws on Lederach's systemic approach to conflict and developed a multi-layered model of conflict analysis. Furthermore he systematizes elective conflict transformation techniques in three main groups:

1. Voice Oriented Approaches to Conflict Transformation; e.g. non-violent communication after Marshall Rosenberg and Theme-Centered Interaction after Ruth Cohn.
2. Body-oriented approaches to conflict transformation; e.g. Theatre for Living after David Diamond, Butho- and Five Rhythms Dance, after Gabrielle Roth
3. breath oriented approaches to conflict transformation; e.g. Holotropic Breathwork after Stanislav Grof and Sylvester Walch.

All three types of approaches to conflict share a strong reference to systems theory and hence a strictly relational understanding of conflicts.

Elicitive Conflict Mapping

Elicitive Conflict Mapping is a brand-new tool that has been developed at the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies. By bringing together the theoretical and academic building blocks of the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies in a didactical format, with special emphasis on the graphic components, ECM aims to support those in search of:

The MA Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Studies

Founded in 2002, the MA Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation has become a leading Masters Program, training the next generation of Peace and Conflict Studies scholars and Conflict Workers. In its didactical approach the program follows a relational approach to conflict of elective conflict transformation, which is conveyed to the students in theory and practice. After the successful completion of an MA thesis students are awarded the academic title Master of Arts (120 ECTS Credit Points). The first UNESCO Chairholder Professor Wolfgang Dietrich is the third academic director of the MA Program, following Prof. Anton Pelinka and Prof. Alan Scott in this function.

Alumni Network

Established in 2008, a vast amount of alumni initiatives have emerged within the active network of graduates from the MA Program in Peace and Conflict Studies. Amongst others this includes the Innsbruck Academic Festival of Many Peaces, the Many Peaces Magazine, the Peace Fund and the Many Peaces e.V..

Many Peaces Festival

The Innsbruck Academic Festival of Many Peaces is an international peace and conflict studies conference, facilitating a dialogue amongst scholars engaged within the field of transrational peace philosophy, as well as practitioners, within the field of elective conflict transformation. The 1st Innsbruck Academic Festival took place between August 9th and 14th 2015 at the Grillhof Seminar Center in Innsbruck, Austria.

Many Peaces Magazine

The Many Peaces Magazine is a bi-anual outlet, committed to research communication. Organized in several editorial sections related to the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies' research and conflict transformation activities, the magazine focuses on a different topic in each volume.

List of Volumes

1. A Magazine for Many Peaces (1/2015)
2. The Art of Living Sideways: Skateboarding and Peaces (2/2015)
3. Joking for Peaces: Theatre in Conflict Transformation (1/2016)
4. Revolutionary Moments (2/2016)
5. Gender and Peace Building (1/2017)

Many Peaces Fund

An alumni run initiative raising funds for scholarships for peace and conflict studies scholars from the Global South.

Many Peaces e.V.

An alumni run initiative organizing workshops on applied methods of elicitive conflict transformation, as developed at the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies.