Peace Knowledge Press is a publishing imprint of the International Institute on Peace Education in partnership with the Global Campaign for Peace Education. All net proceeds benefit these two global peace education initiatives.
Peace knowledge is the foundation upon which all education and action pursuing peace is based. Awareness of a broad knowledge base of peace is essential for designing the learning, research, strategies, and institutions essential for overcoming violence, in all its forms, and for nurturing global civic responsibility, and the development of a culture of peace.
Betty Reardon, whose life work is the inspiration for launching Peace Knowledge Press, identified 4 components of the field of peace knowledge: peace research, peace studies, peace education and peace action. We consider these 4 components to be holistically interrelated, with each offering a distinct contribution to the knowledge base.
Peace research is the primary source of knowledge about the causes of war and the conditions of peace and justice. Peace research emerged in the 1950s out of the work of individual researchers, mainly in the social sciences, in various parts of the world, but mainly in Europe. Called in its early days, “polemology” and/or “irenology”, it formally took the generic name of peace research when the International Peace Research Association was established in 1964.
Peace studies is the interdisciplinary, university-level academic study of information and literature on topics relevant to peace, most broadly conceived. The material studied are derived from various academic fields; international relations, political science, economics, anthropology, philosophy, theology, history, gender studies, and literature. The point of peace studies is to provide knowledge of various forms of violence and to consider proposals for overcoming them. Its origins lie primarily in critical approaches to international relations and political science.
Peace education introduces an emphasis on instructional methods and pedagogical approaches essential to facilitating personal and social change and transformation. Peace education is pursued in both formal and non-formal contexts, including but not limited to schools and universities, and peacebuilding and community settings.
Peace action refers to knowledge derived from practical and applied experience. It is knowledge produced in the actual day-to-day struggle for peace and justice.
