Peace and Peace

Education
Chapter 2: Peace and its definition and
Concepts
 1.
a) Freedom from,or
cessation of world of
hostilities; that
condition of a nation or 2.
community in wgich it Freedom from 3.
is not at war with civil commotion Freedom from
another.
and disorder; disturbance or
b) A ratification or public order and perturbation.
treaty of peace security.
between two
powers previously
at war.
• A negative formulation was first given by Hugo Grotius in 1625
“peace was defined as merely the absences of war or direct violence.

• Peace could simply be described as the opposite of war and conflict. from tha latin
word “pax” which traditionally means as the same as the absence of conflict.
• Beginning in 1960s peace workers have increasingly challenged the conventional
view of peace and have declared that “peace is not simply a lack of war or
nonviolence. A society cannot truly be peaceful if its built on threat and violence.
• it was realized that it was not only war and direct violence that caused death and
disfigurement
Direct Violence
• Represents behaviors that serve to
threaten life itself and/or to diminish
one’s capacity to meet basic human
needs. Examples include killing,
maiming, bullying, sexual assault, and
emotional manipulation.

• All forms of self-directed violence and

interpersonal violence, as well as many
forms of collective violence
Structural Violence
- Represents the systematic
ways in which some groups are
hindered from equal access to
opportunities, goods, and
services that enable the
fulfillment of basic human
needs.
- These can be formal as in
legal structures that enforce
marginalization (such as
apartheid in South Africa) or
they could be culturally
- Refers to the ways in which social
structures or social institutions may
cause harm to individuals or
disadvantage them. Structural
violence includes the use of
political or economic power to
commit violent acts or
constrain/restrict an individual or a
specific group of people. This
includes social problems like
racism, sexism, heterosexism,
* Johan Vincent
Johan Galtung
Galtung (born 24 *The formulation
October 1930) is a “absence of violence “
Norwegian sociologi is not a positively
st who is the
defined condition and
principal founder of
has called “negative
the discipline peace”
of peace and conflict
studies.
* while the formulation
He explains that
“ presence of social
peace is the absence justice” is a positively
of violence, not only defined condition and
personal or direct
called it positive peace
but, also structural or
Negative peace and positive peace
• Negative peace refers to the
absence of war or physical/direct
violence
• Positive peace refers to the
presence of just and non-
exploitataive relationships, as well
as human and ecological well-
being. such that the root causes of
conflict are diminished
POSITIVE PEACE