Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Transformative and Participative Peace: A Theoretical and Methodological Proposal of Epistemology for Peace and Conflict Studies

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Decolonising Conflicts, Security, Peace, Gender, Environment and Development in the Anthropocene

Part of the book series: The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science ((APESS,volume 30))

  • 722 Accesses

Abstract

Among the most recent theoretical and methodological proposals in peace studies that have transcended the foundational paradigm of a science initially disconnected from social participation, the proposal of ‘Transformative Peace’ epistemologically justifies the need to integrate the population in the processes of research, education and action for peacebuilding and conflict transformation as subjects – and not objects – of study and/or beneficiaries of the actions designed by others. This chapter describes the conceptual evolution that has enabled the development of an epistemological perspective in peace and conflict studies that is concerned with and occupied by participatory action-reflection from a socio-praxical perspective.

Esteban A. Ramos Muslera, Peace Studies Programme Coordinator, Instituto Universitario en Democracia Paz y Seguridad (IUDPAS), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH); Co-Secretary General Consejo Latinoamericano de Investigación para la Paz (CLAIP). Email: esteban.ramos@gmail.com, esteban.ramos@unah.edu.hn. Telephone: +504 97862636. This chapter summarises the work developed by the author (Ramos 2013, 2015, 2019) on the epistemological foundation of the ‘transformative peace’ approach and its participatory method for peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Reality as a permanent inference of sense made on the ongoing flow of experiences (Varela 2002). “We usually believe, naively, that there is a world independent of us. Due to a lack of attention training, we do not realize the co-dependence and dynamics of the inside and the outside, in an original and indissoluble unity in permanent flow” (Montero 2009: 151).

  2. 2.

    The book Pax Crítica: Theoretical Contributions to the Post-Liberal Peace Perspectives, coordinated by K. Pérez de Armiño and Zirion (2019), presents several critical theoretical and methodological approaches to the ‘Liberal Peace’ perspective.

  3. 3.

    The study of action research as a tool for peacebuilding made by Geoff Harris and Sylvia Kaye in their book Building Peace Via Action Research (2017) is a good example of this. The book analyses several case studies of participatory peacebuilding processes made over brief periods of time, involving small populations or restricted geographical areas.

  4. 4.

    Coexistence models for attending to needs (Ramos 2016: 519):

    1. 1.

      Violator coexistence model: articulated from the production, reproduction and imposition of satisfiers that not only annihilate the possibility of addressing the need they seek to meet, but also make it impossible to address other needs (one’s own and those of others);

    2. 2.

      Inhibitor coexistence model: articulated from satisfiers through which coverage is given to a specific need, making it difficult to meet other needs (one’s own and those of others);

    3. 3.

      Pseudo-satisfactory coexistence model: articulated from the construction, reproduction and/or imposition of pseudo-satisfiers that feed the false sensation of addressing a certain need;

    4. 4.

      Singular coexistence model: articulated from attention to a single need without taking into account the rest of one’s own needs or those of others, although not inhibiting or violating possible attention to those other needs.

    5. 5.

      Synergic coexistence model: articulated from the construction and reproduction of satisfiers that propitiate attention to a need, being able, in turn, to contribute to attention to other needs and the needs of others.

  5. 5.

    Social networks are configured from the links (or nodes) existing between a set of elements – persons, actors (Garrido 2001). There are different types of networks or social groups (family networks, production networks, networks that are articulated in leisure time or in the neighbourhood area, personal networks, telematics networks, etc.) and all of them influence the behaviour of their elements, as they are constituted by as well as constituent of each element.

  6. 6.

    This is, indeed, the fundamental problem that has manifested itself recurrently in the so-called ‘peacebuilding operations’ promoted by the United Nations and conducted in accordance with the amalgam of currents of ‘Liberal Peace’ that ends up assimilating peace with governance (peace-as-governance) (Mateos 2011).

  7. 7.

    Neologism coined by Fals Borda; translated as sensing-thinking by Laura Rendón in her book Sentipensante (Sensing/thinking) pedagogy: educating for wholeness, social justice and liberation (2009) and conceived by Eduardo Galeano, a delicious writer, as “the language that speaks the truth, the one able to think by feeling and feel by thinking”.

  8. 8.

    This term is taken from the ornamental technique created by Antonio Gaudí, consisting of the configuration of mosaics from fragments of ceramic tiles. In their likeness, the discursive trencadís is configured from the discursive fragments and the debate on the observed inferred senses that were collected for the configuration of the self-diagnosis.

  9. 9.

    Note that if we only proceeded by means of the configuration of a classic technical diagnosis – based, for example, on surveys – without taking into account the reflections of human beings that give sense to the lived reality, there would be no guarantee that the suggested action proposals would attend to the needs of the population. This is essentially because the configuration of a technical diagnosis based on the distributive method “makes grouped decisions taken by the ones taken by those who have the power to group, be considered as group decisions” (Montañés 2006: 262). In a survey, the answers are implicit in the questions and issues addressed by the questionnaire, preventing even the intermediate positioning between alternatives (Ortí 1986).

  10. 10.

    Linkage with Sustainable Peace proposal is evident, as it refers to the “processes of recovering from environ-mental destruction, reducing the human footprint in nature through less carbon-intensive – and in the long term possibly carbon-free – and increasingly dematerialised production processes that future generations may still be able to decide on their own resources and development strategies” (Brauch/Oswald Spring 2016: 8).

  11. 11.

    However, this does not mean that the process is at the expense of improvisation. The way of proceeding must be organised according to the principles of “complex, dialogic, hologrammatic and recursive logic” (Morin 1994: 106).

  12. 12.

    Depending on the specific context in which the process is carried out, these strategic lines acquire some or other specific contents, and it is advisable to incorporate others if considered pertinent.

References

  • Arenal del, Celestino, 1987: “La Investigación sobre la Paz: Pasado, Presente y Futuro”, in: Congreso Internacional sobre la Paz, Tomo II (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México): 549–586.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertalanffy, Ludwig, 1969: General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (New York: G. Braziller) [1978: Tendencias en la Teoría General de Sistemas (Madrid: Alianza)].

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre; Chamboredon, Jean-Claude; Passeron, Jean-Claude, 1968: Le métier de sociologue (Mouton/EHESS) [1989: El Oficio del Sociólogo (Madrid: Siglo XXI)].

    Google Scholar 

  • Braillard, Philippe, 1977: Théories des relations internationals (París: Presses universitaires de France).

    Google Scholar 

  • Brauch, Hans Günter; Oswald Spring, Úrsula, 2016: “Sustainability Transition and Sustainable Peace: Scientific and Policy Context, Scientific Concepts and Dimensions”, in: Brauch, Hans Günter; Oswald Spring, Úrsula; Grin, John; Scheffran, Jürgen (Eds.): Handbook on Sustainability Transition and Sustainable Peace (Cham: Springer International Publishing): 3–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briones, Guillermo, 1975: Metodología de la Investigación Evaluativa (Bogotá: Centro de Investigaciones de la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional).

    Google Scholar 

  • Castro-Gómez, Santiago; Grosfoguel, Ramón, 2007: El Giro Decolonial: Reflexiones para una Diversidad Epistémica Más Allá del Capitalismo Global (Bogotá: Siglo del Hombre Editores).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dussel, Enrique, 1977: Filosofía de la Liberación (México: Edicol).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fals Borda, Orlando; Brandaö, Carlos, 1987: La Investigación Participativa (Montevideo: Instituto del Hombre).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michael, 1991: Saber y verdad (Madrid: La Piqueta).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fals Borda, Orlando, 1993: “La Investigación Participativa y la Intervención Social”, in: Documentación Social, 92, 9–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foerster, Heinz von, 2003: Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition (New York: Springer). [Spanish edition, 1991: Las Semillas de la Cibernética (Barcelona: Gedisa)].

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, Paolo, 1971: Pedagogía del Oprimido (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI).

    Google Scholar 

  • Galtung, Johan, 1985: Sobre la Paz (Barcelona: Fontamara).

    Google Scholar 

  • Galtung, Johan, 2006: La Transformazione dei Confliti con Mezzi Pacifici (il Método Trascend) (Turín: United Nations Disaster Management Training Programme).

    Google Scholar 

  • Galtung, Johan, 1987: Der Weg ist das Ziel. Gandhi und die Alternativbewegung. Hammer [2008: La Meta Es el Camino: Gandhi Hoy (México: Trascend Peace University)].

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrido, Francisco, 2001: “El Análisis de Redes en el Desarrollo Local”, in: Montañés, Manuel; Villasante, Tomás R.; Martín, Pedro (Eds.): Prácticas Locales de Creatividad Social (Madrid: El Viejo Topo): 67–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geoffrey, Harris; Sylvia, Kaye, 2017: Building Peace via Action Research: African Case Studies (Addis Ababa: University for Peace Africa Programme).

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasersfeld, Ernst von, 1994: “La Construcción del Conocimiento”, in: Schnitman, Dora (Ed.): Nuevos Paradigmas, Cultura y Subjetividad (Buenos Aires: Paidós): 115–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gödel, Kurt, 1962: On formally undecidable propositions of «Principia Mathematica» and related systems (Valencia: Universidad de Valencia).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ibáñez, Jesús, 1986: Más Allá de la Sociología. El Grupo de Discusión (Madrid: Siglo XXI).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez, Francisco, 2009: “Hacia un Paradigma Pacífico: la Paz Neutra”, in: Convergencia Revista de Ciencias Sociales, vol. 16 (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México): 141–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederach, John Paul, 1997: Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation In Divided Societies (Washington DC: USIP Press) [1998: Construyendo la Paz, Reconciliación Sostenible en Sociedades Divididas (Gernika: Catarata-Bakeaz)].

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederach, John Paul, 2000: El Abecé de la Paz y los Conflictos: Educación para la Paz (Madrid: Catarata).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, Kurt, 1946: “Action Research and Minority Problems”, in: Journal of Social Issues, 2,4: 34–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martín, Pedro, 2010: “Elaboración de la Muestra Reticular en un Proceso de Investigación-Planificación Participativa”, Paper for the 10th Spanish Congress of Sociology – Spanish Federation of Sociology, Pamplona, 1–3 July.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mateos, Óscar, 2011: La Construcción de Paz Posbélica: Análisis de los Debates Críticos a través del Caso de Sierra Leona, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, Humberto; Varela, Francisco, 1990: El Árbol del Conocimiento (Madrid: Debate).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauss, Marcel, 1979: Sociología y Antropología (Madrid: Tecnos).

    Google Scholar 

  • Max-Neef, Manfred; Elizalde, Antonio; Hopenhayn, Martín, 1986: Desarrollo a Escala Humana: una Opción para el Futuro (Barcelona: Icaria).

    Google Scholar 

  • Molano, Alfredo, 1978: Crítica y política en ciencias sociales (Bogotá: Punta de Lanza).

    Google Scholar 

  • Montañés, Manuel, 2006: Práxis Participativa Conversacional de la Producción de Conocimiento Sociocultural, doctoral thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montañés, Manuel, 2009: Metodología y Técnica Participativa. Teoría y Práctica de una Estrategia de Investigación Participativa (Barcelona: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya).

    Google Scholar 

  • Montañés, Manuel 2012: “Verdad e Incertidumbre: Una Mirada desde la Perspectiva Sociopráxica”, Prisma Social Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 8, 440–469.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montañés, Manuel; Ramos, Esteban A., 2012: “La Paz Transformadora: Una Propuesta para la Construcción Participada de Paz y la Gestión de Conflictos desde la Perspectiva Sociopráxica”, in: OBETS. Revista de Ciencias Sociales (Universidad de Alicante), 7,2: 241–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montañés, Manuel; Martín, Pedro, 2017: “De la IAP a las Metodologías Sociopráxicas”, in: Hábitat y Sociedad, 10, 35–52; at: http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.12795/HabitatySociedad. 2017.i10.03

  • Montañés, Manuel; Ramos, Esteban A., 2019: “La Participación del Estudiantado en el Diseño Curricular de la Educación para la Paz Transformadora”, in: OBETS. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 14,2: 437–470; doi: https://doi.org/10.14198/OBETS2019.14.2.06.

  • Montero, Jaime 2009: “Enacción, Filosofía de la Mente y el Yo”, in: Franciscanum: Revista de las Ciencias del Espíritu, LI, 152: 133–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moraes, Maria; Torre, Saturnino, 2002: “Sentipensar bajo la Mirada Autopoiética o cómo Reencantar Creativamente la Educación”, in: Revista Creatividad y Sociedad, 2: 41–56; at: https://bit.ly/2JZGu3w (9 October 2018).

  • Morin, Edgar, 1994: Introducción al Pensamiento Complejo (Barcelona: Gedisa).

    Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz, Francisco, 2001: “La Paz Imperfecta ante un Universo en Conflicto”, in: Muñoz, Francisco (Ed.): La Paz Imperfecta (Granada: Instituto de la Paz y los Conflictos Universidad de Granada): 21–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz, Francisco, 2004: Manual de Paz y Conflictos (Granada: Universidad de Granada).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortí, Alfonso, 1986: “La Apertura y el Enfoque Cualitativo o Estructural: la Entrevista Abierta y la Discusión de Grupo”, in: García, Manuel; Ibáñez, Jesús; Alvira, Francisco (Eds.): El Análisis de la Realidad Social: Métodos y Técnicas de Investigación (Madrid: Alianza): 153–186.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oquist, Paul, 1978: Epistemología de la Investigación-Acción (Bogotá: Punta de Lanza).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez de Armiño, Karlos.; Zirión, Iker 2019: Pax Crítica. Aportes Teóricos a las Perspectivas de Paz Posliberal (Madrid: Tecnos)

    Google Scholar 

  • Quijano, Aníbal, 1992: Colonialidad y modernidad/racionalidad, in: Perú Indígena, 13,29: 11–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Esteban A., 2012: “Metodologías Participativas desde la Perspectiva Sociopráxica”, in: Revista Encrucijadas (Universidad de Salamanca USAL), 4: 95–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Esteban A., 2013a: Teoría y Práctica del Conflicto Social y la Paz desde la Perspectiva Sociopráxica: La Construcción Participada de Convivencias Pacíficas en Entornos Socialmente Vulnerables, doctoral thesis, Universidad de Valladolid.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Esteban A., 2013b: El Conflicto Sociopolítico Colombiano y la Construcción de Paz Transformadora y Participativa: Una Mirada desde el Movimiento Social (Cali: PcD-Unverteilen).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Esteban A., 2015: Paz Transformadora (y Participativa): Teoría y Método de la Paz y el Conflicto desde la Perspectiva Sociopráxica (Tegucigalpa: IUDPAS-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Esteban A., 2016: “El Proceso de Construcción de Paz Colombiano Más Allá de la Negociación: una Propuesta desde la Paz Transformadora y Participativa”, in: Revista Ágora, 16,2 (Universidad San Buenaventura): 513–532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Esteban A., 2019: “Práxis Participativa de la Paz Transformadora: Teoría y Método”, in: Pérez de Armiño, K.; Zirión, Iker (Eds.): Pax Crítica. Aportes Teóricos a las Perspectivas de Paz Posliberal (Madrid: Tecnos): 425–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rendón, Laura, 2009: Sentipensante (Sensing/thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation (Sterling: Stylus).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rojas, Fernando, 1977: “El Apego de las Ciencias Sociales a lo Real: Crítica y Política en Ciencias Sociales: El Debate sobre Teoría y Práctica”, paper for the Simposio Mundial sobre Investigación Activa y Análisis Científico, Cartagena, 18–24 April 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanguineti Vargas, Yolanda, 1981: “La Investigación Participativa en los Procesos de Desarrollo de América Latina”, in: Revista de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Psicología Social, 1,1: 221–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, Gene; Finkelstein, Marina, 1973: The politics of nonviolent action, vol. 3 (Boston: P. Sargent Publisher).

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneidewind, Uwe; Singer-Brodowski, Mandy; Augenstein, Karoline; Stelzer, Franziska, 2016a: “Pledge for Transformative Science”, in: Wuppertal Papers, 191: 4–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneidewind, Uwe; Singer-Brodowski, Mandy; Augenstein, Karoline 2016b: “Transformative Science for Sustainability Transitions”, in: Brauch, Hans Günter; Oswald Spring, Úrsula; Grin, John; Scheffran, Jürgen, (Eds.): Handbook on Sustainability Transition and Sustainable Peace (Cham: Springer International Publishing): 123–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, Gene, 1973: The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part 3: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent Publisher).

    Google Scholar 

  • Varela, Fernando, 2002: El Fenómeno de la Vida (Santiago de Chile: Dolmen).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vío Grossi, Francisco, 1981: “Investigación Participativa: Precisiones de Ayacucho”, in: Vio Grossi, Francisco; Gianotten, Vera; Wit, Ton de (Eds.): Investigación Participativa y Praxis Rural: Nuevos Conceptos en Educación y Desarrollo Comunal (Lima: CIPCA): 69–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villasante, Tomás R., 1987: “La Ciudad Más que Dual: Pobrezas y Alteraciones”, in: Documentación Social: Revista de Estudios Sociales y Sociología Aplicada (Barcelona: Icaria), 67: 83–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villasante, Tomás R., 2006: Desbordes Creativos: Estilos y Estrategias para la Transformación Social (Madrid: La Catarata).

    Google Scholar 

  • Villasante Tomás, R.; Montañés, Manuel; Martín, Pedro, 2001: Prácticas Locales de Creatividad Social. Construyendo ciudadanía, 2 (Barcelona: El Viejo Topo).

    Google Scholar 

  • Villasante Tomás, R.; Martín, Pedro; Hernández, Dolores, 2003: “Estilos y coherencias en las metodologías creativas”, in: Villasante Tomás, R.; Garrido, Francisco (Eds.): Metodologías y presupuestos participativos (Madrid: ICARIA-CIMAS): 17–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zapata, María, 2009: Acción sin Daño y Reflexiones sobre Prácticas de Paz. Una Aproximación desde la Experiencia Colombiana. Construcción de paz y transformación de conflictos (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia).

    Google Scholar 

  • Zemelman, Hugo, 2005: Voluntad de Conocer: el Sujeto y su Pensamiento en el Paradigma Crítico (México: Centro de Investigaciones Humanísticas Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitario en Democracia Paz y Seguridad (IUDPAS), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH), Tegucigalpa, Honduras

    Esteban A. Ramos Muslera

Authors
  1. Esteban A. Ramos Muslera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Esteban A. Ramos Muslera .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Regional Multidisciplinary Research (CRIM), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

    Úrsula Oswald Spring

  2. Peace Research and European Security Studies (AFES-PRESS), Mosbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Hans Günter Brauch

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ramos Muslera, E.A. (2021). Transformative and Participative Peace: A Theoretical and Methodological Proposal of Epistemology for Peace and Conflict Studies. In: Oswald Spring, Ú., Brauch, H.G. (eds) Decolonising Conflicts, Security, Peace, Gender, Environment and Development in the Anthropocene . The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62316-6_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation