Call for papers

Johan Galtung: his life, work, and legacy

Johan Galtung, who recently died, was, as is widely known, a prominent Norwegian scholar, trained as a social scientist and statistician, and a principal founder of Peace Studies as an academic discipline. Galtung was also a prolific author and politically engaged conflict analyst and transformer. He was the main founder of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO) in 1959, the world’s first academic institute with “peace” in its name, and founded the Journal of Peace Research in 1964.

His research spanned a large number of important topics over 60 years, including peace and conflict, violence, peaceful conflict transformation, non-offensive defense, development strategies, a structural theory of imperialism, and a geopolitical theory of civilizations.

This is a call for papers for a special issue focused on the person, contributions, and legacy of Johan Galtung.

This special issue is led by Guest Editor Charles Webel, among the world's most prominent Peace and Conflict Studies scholars and one-time collaborator with Galtung on The Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, and co-edited by Valentina Bartolucci, an acknowledged Peace and Conflict Studies scholar. The guest editors will write an introduction to the special issue outlining how, in line with the aims of the “Rivista Scienza e Pace – Science and Peace (SP)”, this special issue contributes to current debates regarding Johan Galtung and his legacy.

We are looking for academic articles of 20.000-50.000 characters in length (including spaces), in English, adhering to the “Editorial Guidelines” that can be found here, and that focus on one or more of the following themes:

- Galtung's life

- Galtung's theoretical contributions

- Galtung's practical contributions

- Galtung's legacy focused principally on critical examinations of his scholarly contributions

- further developments in peace and conflict studies

Submissions must be the original work of the author that have not been published previously, either in whole or in part, either in print or electronically, or that are soon to be so published. All submissions will be carefully considered, with no guarantee of acceptance. All submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed.

Please submit an abstract of about 300 words no later than June 30, 2024. Upon acceptance, the final version of the paper will have to be sent no later than October 31, 2024 to Charles Webel (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and to Valentina Bartolucci (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).