Article review, by Johan Galtung

Johan Galtung is one of the renowned physicians of 20th CE, with his eminent work in Peace Studies. He
was the principle founder of Peace and conflict studies, publishing his journal of Peace Research in 1964.
He was the director founder of PRIO in Norway. I read his article on Violence, Peace and Peace Research,
which enlightened me with the brief concepts of Peace.

The writer states that in order to understand peace, one should be well aware of the fact, that this term
is not just associated with war, violence or conflict, rather it is much broader in its definition and
perspective. Or we can also say, that the definition of violence could be expanded on the other hand to
gain the deeper insight of Peace.

The definition and the dimensions of Violence are categorized into 6 main divisions; as violence can be
defined as the situation/condition when the mental & somatic realization of human beings is below their
potential realization:

I. The distinction between Physical and Psychological violence, reducing the somatic and mental
capabilities of individuals respectively.
II. The distinction between Latent and Manifest violence, which is more probably referred to as
structural and personal violence in a society respectively.
III. The distinction between positive and negative violence. This is mostly a consequence of any
action in the form of positive sanction or any sort of punishment.
IV. The Intended and Unintended violence, which is more related to the manifest and latent
injustice according to my understanding.
V. Violence in the absence of object. It is more precisely the kind of violence where no specific
object/individual is targeted, but the violence still leaves a large scale impact over the social
factor.
VI. The last one is the distinction of violence based on the absence of Subject, where no prominent
actor is present that in involved in manifest disturbance of social structure, but still violence is
present in the social fabric.

Means of Structural and Personal Violence:

Initially limiting our foci on personal violence which is emerged as a result of decrease in actual
somatic realization of an individual. The writer J.Galtung elaborated the previous mentioned
terminology in the form of a Typology that focuses on two main targets of human beings; i.e.
the ANATOMY (the structural capacity) & the PHYSIOLOGY (the functional capacity). The human
capacities can be destroyed by the Denial of Input and the Denial of Output, which are more
probably interlinked with each other.
However, before understanding the Structural violence, we shall clear some important concepts
of our like, Actors, system, Structure, Rank, and Level; which as a whole comprises the Society.
J.Galtung mentioned 6 prominent factors that contribute to the Structural inegalitarian
distribution;
 Linear ranking order in the society.
 Acyclic pattern of interaction among the Actors.
 Monopoly of Rank of an Actor in the interaction networking.
 Structurally similar interaction networks among the Systems.
 Concordance between the Ranks of the social Actors.
 Higher Rank coupling among the Levels of Actors.

The Relationship between Personal and Structural Violence:

The writer was not clear enough at this point, as it left me still with a number of obstacles in
understanding the connection among both kinds of violence. By mentioning the example of
Feudalism as a kind of structural violence, the writer further extends the link between
personal instincts of violent control over others, with the structure egalitarianism.

Structural oppression can be avoided via personal sanctions, and vice versa; as it is already
mentioned in the article that the Static societies considers structural violence as a Natural
element of society & personal violence as stigma to social order, comparatively, the
Dynamic Societies perceive structural violence as social barrier in the pathways of
development & personal violence as somehow congruent with the order of things.

There are different arguments whether one type of violence is necessary or sufficient to
obtain or sustain the other kind of violence. I.e. maybe structural violence is
sufficient/necessary for abolishing the Personal violence and, of course, vice versa.

Peace and Peace Research:

Johan Galtung further elaborates the concept of Peace by exemplifying it with the two sides
of Coin, stating, that Peace can be in the form of absence of personal violence or absence of
structural violence (the presence of social order), which connects the concept with both
Conflict theory and Developmental theory.

However, Peace research is the extensive study of all above mentioned conditions with
scientific lenses of analysis, data collection, and its proper interpretation. It helps the
Researcher figure out strategies that tends to keep the society or/and individual at Peace.

I personally recommend this master piece as a basic insight provider about Peace and
Violence and their broader perspectives and dimensions. It helped me expand my lenses to
view the conflicts around me, separating the Positive and Negative concepts of Peace,
diverting my attention from the only definition of Peace, i.e. The interwar period.

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