Peacehasalwaysbeenamonghumanity'shighestvaluesforsome,supreme.

Consider:"Peaceatanyprice."1"Themostdisadvantageouspeaceisbetter
thanthemostjustwar."2"Peaceismoreimportantthanalljustice."3"I
preferthemostunjustpeacetothejustestwarthatwaseverwaged."4"There
neverwasagoodwarorabadpeace."5
Yet,weagreelittleonwhatispeace.Perhapsthemostpopular(Western)view
isasanabsenceofdissension,violence,orwar,ameaningfoundintheNew
TestamentandpossiblyanoriginalmeaningoftheGreekwordforpeace,
Irene.Pacifistshaveadoptedthisinterpretation,fortothemallviolenceis
bad.Thismeaningiswidelyacceptedamongirenologists6andstudentsof
internationalrelations.Itistheprimarydictionarydefinition.
Peace,however,isalsoseenasconcord,orharmonyandtranquility.Itis
viewedaspeaceofmindorserenity,especiallyintheEast.Itisdefinedasa
stateoflaworcivilgovernment,astateofjusticeorgoodness,abalanceor
equilibriumofPowers.
Suchmeaningsofpeacefunctionatdifferentlevels.Peacemaybeopposedto
oranoppositeofantagonisticconflict,violence,orwar.Itmayrefertoan
internalstate(ofmindorofnations)ortoexternalrelations.Oritmaybe
narrowinconception,referringtospecificrelationsinaparticularsituation
(likeapeacetreaty),oroverarching,coveringawholesociety(asinaworld
peace).Peacemaybeadichotomy(itexistsoritdoesnot)orcontinuous,
passiveoractive,empiricalorabstract,descriptiveornormative,orpositive
ornegative.
Theproblemis,ofcourse,thatpeacederivesitsmeaningandqualitieswithin
atheoryorframework.Christian,Hindu,orBuddhistwillseepeace
differently,aswillpacifistorinternationalist.Socialist,fascist,andlibertarian
havedifferentperspectives,asdopoweroridealistictheoristsofinternational
relations.Inthisdiversityofmeanings,peaceisnodifferentfromsuch
conceptsasjustice,freedom,equality,power,conflict,class,and,indeed,any
otherconcept.
AllconceptsaredefinedwithinatheoryorcognitiveframeworkwhatIhave
calledelsewhereaperspective.7Throughaperspectivepeaceisendowedwith
meaningbybeinglinkedtootherconceptswithinaparticularperceptionof
reality;andbyitsrelationshiptoideasorassumptionsaboutviolence,history,

divinegrace,justice.Peaceistherebylockedintoadescriptiveorexplanatory
viewofourrealityandeachother.
Myperspective,whichseespeaceasaphaseinaconflicthelix,anequilibrium
withinasocialfield,hasbeenpresentedinthepreviousfourvolumes.7aInthis
ChapterIwillreviewthisperspective,makecleartheimbeddedmeaningof
peace,describeitsrelatedqualitiesanddimensions,andpreparefor
consideringalternativeconceptualizationsinthenextChapter.Thisand
Chapter3arethustheprologuetomysubsequenttheoryofajustpeace.

2.2PEACEASASOCIALCONTRACT
Myperspectiveandassociatedmeaningofpeacearebestsummarized
throughanumberofsocialprinciples.Thesehavebeendocumentedandthe
evidencegivenforthemelsewhere,8aswillbenotedforeach.
2.2.1TheConflictPrinciple
Conflictisabalancingofpowersamonginterests,capabilities,andwills. 9Itisa
mutualadjustingofwhatpeoplewant,canget,andarewillingtopursue.
Conflictbehavior,whetherhostileactions,violence,orwar,isthenameans
andmanifestationofthisprocess.

2.2.2TheCooperationPrinciple
Cooperationdependsonexpectationsalignedwithpower.Throughconflictina
specificsituation,abalanceofpowersandassociatedagreementareachieved.
Thisbalanceisadefiniteequilibriumamongtheparties'interests,
capabilities,andwills;theagreementisasimultaneoussolutiontothe
differentequationsofpower,andtherebytheachievementofacertain
harmonystructureofexpectations.Atthecoreofthisstructureisastatus
quo,orparticularexpectationsoverrightsandobligations.Conflictthus
interfacesandinterlocksaspecificbalanceofpowersandanassociated
structureofexpectations.
Cooperationcontractualorfamilisticinteractions10dependsonaharmony
ofexpectations,amutualabilityofthepartiestopredicttheoutcomeoftheir

behavior.Suchis,forexample,themajorvalueofawrittencontractortreaty.
Andthisstructureofexpectationsdependsonaparticularbalanceof
powers.11Thus,cooperationdependsonexpectationsalignedwithpower.

2.2.3TheGapPrinciple
Agapbetweenexpectationsandpowercausesconflict.Astructureof
expectations,onceestablished,hasconsiderablesocialinertia,whilethe
supportingbalanceofpowerscanchangerapidly.Interestscanshift,new
capabilitiescandevelop,willscanstrengthenorweaken.Astheunderlying
balanceofpowerschanges,agapbetweenpowerandthestructureof
expectationscanform,causingtheassociatedagreementtolosesupport.The
largerthisgap,thegreaterthetensiontowardrevisingexpectationsinline
withthechangeinpower,andthusthemorelikelysomerandomeventwill
triggerconflictovertheassociatedinterests.Suchconflictthenservesto
createanewcongruencebetweenexpectationsandpower.
Conflictandcooperationthereforeareinterdependent.Theyarealternative
phasesinacontinuoussocialprocess12underlyinghumaninteraction:now
conflict,thencooperation,andthenagainconflict.13Cooperationinvolvesa
harmonyofexpectationscongruentwithabalanceofpowersachievedby
conflict.

2.2.4TheHelixPrinciple
Conflictbecomeslessintense,cooperation14morelasting.Ifinteractionoccurs
inaclosedsystemorisfreefromsudden,sharpchangesintheconditionsofa
relationship(as,forexample,ifonepartytoabusinesscontractgoes
bankrupt,orasignatorytoaregionalmilitaryalliancewiththeUnitedStates
hasamilitarycoup),thenthroughconflictandcooperationpeoplegradually
learnmoreabouteachother,theirmutualadjustmentscomeeasier,their
expectationsmoreharmoniousandlasting.Conflictandcooperationthus
formahelix,movingupwardonacurveoflearningandadjustments,withthe
turnthroughcooperationbeingmorefamilisticanddurable;thatthrough
conflictshorterandlessintense.15
2.2.5TheSecondandFourthMasterPrinciples

Throughconflictisnegotiatedasocialcontract.16Asmentioned,conflictisa
balancingofpowersaconsciousorsubconsciousnegotiationofopposing
interests,capabilities,andwills.Thisprocessdeterminessomeimplicitor
explicit,subconsciousorconscioussocialcontract.Itissocialininvolvinga
relationshiporinteractionbetweentwoormorewills.Itisacontractinthat
thereisanagreementaharmonizationofexpectations.
Itisthissocialcontractthatispeacewithinsocialfieldtheory.Peace,thenis
determinedbyaprocessofadjustmentbetweenwhatpeople,groups,orstates
want,can,andwilldo.Peaceisbasedonaconsequentbalanceofpowersand
involvesacorrespondingstructureofexpectationsandpatternsof
cooperation.Moreover,peacemaybecomeunstablewhenanincreasinggap
developsbetweenexpectationsandpower,asheredefined,17andmaycollapse
intoconflict,violence,orwar.

2.3THENATUREOFASOCIALCONTRACT
Socialcontracts,thestructuralbasisofpeaceasheredefined,takemany
formsthatinterconnectandoverlapindiverse,complexwaystoordersocial
communitiesandorganizations.Icanhardlyengageherethisvariety,which
woulditselfrequireavolume.18Rather,Ishallsimplyoutlinethediversityof
socialcontracts,especiallysothatthenested,overlapping,andmultilayered
natureofsocialcontracts,andthuspeace,isclear.
Throughoutthefollowingdiscussionthreepointsshouldbekeptinmind.
First,asmentioned,asocialcontractistheoutcomeofpartiesbalancingtheir
mutualinterests,capabilities,andwills,andisbasedonaparticularbalance
thusachievedabalanceofpowers.
Second,thepowersconstitutingthebalancearenotnecessarilycoerciveor
authoritative;threatorlegitimacyarenottheonlybasesforsocialcontracts.
Altruistic,intellectual,orexchangepowers(basedonlove,persuasion,or
promises,respectively)maydominate.Thus,asocialcontractmaybea
marriageagreement,anunderstandingdevelopedamongscientistsovera
disputedtheory,orasaleinamarket.19
Third,asocialcontractthispeaceisonlyaphaseinaconflicthelixandis
thusatemporaryequilibriuminthelongtermmovementofinterpersonal,
social,orinternationalrelations.

2.3.1Expectations
Asusedhere,anexpectationisapredictionabouttheoutcomeofone's
behavior.20Asocialcontractharmonizescertainexpectationsbetweenthe
parties;thatis,itenableseachtoreliablypredicttheother'sresponses.Such
expectationsarevaried;ourvocabularyfordiscriminatingamongthemis
welldeveloped.Rememberingmyfundamentalconcernwithsocialpeaceand
conflict(andthusIamuninterestedin,forexample,alegalclassificationof
contracts),thesecanbedividedintostatusquoandnonstatusquo
expectations.WithinthesetwodivisionsIcandefinefivetypes,asshownin
Table2.1.

A.Statusquo.Theconceptofstatusquoisbasictothesevolumes.Inprevious
volumes21Iarguedthatabreakdownofstatusquoexpectationsisanecessary
causeofviolenceandwar,andItriedtoverifythisagainstempiricalresults. 22
Thereasonforthisnecessityisthatstatusquoexpectationsdefinethebasic
rightsandobligationsofthepartiesinvolved,andthereforeaffectvitalvalues.
Theserightsandobligationsformthetwotypesofstatusquoexpectations.As
Table2.1shows,theyinvolveclaims,privileges,responsibilities,duties,andso
on.Noteespeciallythatexpectationsaboutpropertywhoownswhatare
partofthestatusquo.
Obviously,thedivisionbetweenstatusquoandnonstatusquoexpectationsis
notclearcut.Thecriterionofdiscriminationissaliencetofundamental
values,andthusintensityoffeelingandcommitment.Forexample,
agreementsoverproperty(suchasterritory)willusuallyinvolvestrong
emotionandcommitment,whileagreeduponrulesorpractices,advantagesor

benefitsarelessvitalandviolationsmoretolerable.However,wearedealing
herewithagreatcomplexityofsocialcontractsandthesubjectivityof
underlyinginterests,meanings,andvalues.Insomesituationsarule,
payment,orservicemaybealifeordeathmatteroraquestionof
fundamentalprincipletothepartiesinvolvedandthus,forthiscase,amatter
ofthestatusquo.Therefore,theclassificationofexpectationsunderstatusquo
ornonstatusquodivisionsinTable2.1simplyattemptstomakeintelligiblethe
diversityofexpectations,ratherthantoconstructconceptuallytight
demarcationscoveringallpossibilities.
B.NonStatusQuo.Onetypeofnonstatusquoexpectationsisdistributional,
establishingwhichpartycananticipatewhatfromwhom,suchasbenefits,
advantages,andservices.Thetworemainingtypesguideorprescribebehavior
betweentheparties.Thesocialcontractoftenincludesrules,customs,or
practicesthatprovidestandardsordefinecustomaryorrepeatedactions.
Suchmaybecommands,authoritativestandards,orprinciplesofright
actions.Theymaybebinding,actingtocontrolorregulatebehavior.Such
prescriptiveexpectationsinsocialcontractsaremores(longterm,morally
bindingcustoms),norms,thelawnormsofgroups,23orthecustomaryor
positivelawofsocietiesorstates.Eventhe"rulesofmoralityconstituteatacit
socialcontract"(Hazlitt,1964:xii).
C.Overall.Regardlessofwhetherthefocusistherightsorobligations,the
distributions,ortheguidesorprescriptionsbetweenpartiesstructuredby
theirsocialcontract,theseexpectationsshareonecharacteristic:they
circumscribearegionofpredictability,orsocialcertainty,betweentheparties.
Withasocialcontract,eachpartycanreliablyforeseeandplanonthe
outcomeofitsbehaviorregardingtheother,asover,forexample,claims,
privileges,duties,orservices.Whatresponsestoanticipate,theprospectof
reciprocity,thelikelihoodofparticularsanctions,areclear.Socialcontracts
arethusoursocialorgansofpeace,extendingintothefuturemutualpathsof
socialcertaintyandthusconfidence.

2.3.2TheoreticalDimensions

A.Actuality.InTable2.2Ilist11theoreticaldimensionsalongwhichsocial
contractsvary,andhaveorganizedthemintofourgeneraltypes.24Tobegin
with,socialcontractsmaybeinformal,asareunwrittenunderstandings
betweenfriendsorallies;ortheymaybeformal,aswithtreaties.Theymaybe
implicit,tacitagreementsthatthepartieschoosenottomention,asawife's
acceptanceofherhusband'saffairs;ortheymaybeexplicit,suchasaverbal
contract.Theymaybesubconscious,aswhencoworkersunconsciouslyavoid
sensitivetopicsoverwhichtheymightfight.Or,ofcourse,thesocialcontract
maybeconscious.
Thesethreedimensionsinformalversusformal,implicitversusexplicit,and
subconsciousversusconsciousconcerntheactualityofsocialcontracts,
whethertheyarealatentagreementunderlyingsocialbehaviororamanifest
compactofsomekind.25Afourth,quiteimportantdimensiondefineshowa
socialcontractismanifested.
Adirectsocialcontractisaspecificagreementbetweenparticularparties.It
givesorimpliesnames,dates,places,anddefiniteexpectations.Contractsare
usuallythoughtofasthiskind,suchasaconstructioncontractbetweentwo
firmsoratradetreatyamongthreestates.However,directcontractsmay
overlaporbeinterconnectedthroughthedifferentparties,andthusforma
systemofcontracts.Andthesesystemsthemselvesmayoverlapandbe
interdependent.Outofthesediverse,interconnected,andrelateddirect
contractsandsystemsofcontractswilldevelopmoregeneralexpectations,
suchasabstractrules,norms,orprivilegesatthelevelofthesocialsystem
itself.Noonewillhaveagreedtotheseexpectationsperse,norarethey
connectedtoanyparticularinterest,buttheynonethelesscompriseasocial
contract(albeitanindirectone)coveringthesocialsystem.Thepricesofgoods
inafreemarketcomprisesuchanindirectsocialcontractevolvingfromthe
diversedirectcontractsbetweenbuyersandsellers.26InSection2.3.3Iwill
presentsomeofthemajorformsdirectcontractsmaytake;insubsequent
sectionsIwilldescribeseveralordersofdirectandindirectcontracts.
B.Generality.Asecondtypeoftheoreticaldimensiondelineatesasocial
contract'sgenerality.Onesuchdimensionconcernswhetheracontractis
uniqueorcommon.Auniquesocialcontractisaonetimeonlyagreement
withinauniquesituationandconcerningnonrepetitiveeventsorinteraction
betweentheparties.Suchistheimplicitagreementwroughtinanalleybya
thug,whoseknifecoercesyoutohandoveryourmoney;anotherexampleisa
twohourceasefireagreementtoenablecombatantstoclearthebattlefieldof

wounded,oraneutralstategrantingAmericanreliefplanesaonceonly
flyovertorushfoodandmedicinetoearthquakevictimsinaneighboring
state.Bycontrast,acommonsocialcontractinvolvesrepeatedeventsor
patternsofinteraction.Treaties,legalcontracts,constitutions,andcharters
areusuallyofthistype.Clearly,theuniquecommondimensionisa
continuum,sincebetweentheuniquetwominuteholdupandthecommon,
overridingpoliticalconstitutionofastateareavarietyofsocialcontracts
combiningindifferentwaysuniqueandcommonexpectations.
TurningtothesecondgeneralitydimensionshowninTable2.2,socialcontracts
maybebilateral,involvingonlytwoparties,multilateralincoveringmorethan
twoparties,orcollective.Thelattercoversasociety,community,oragroup.
Constitutionsorchartersareofthistype,asareanorganization'sbylaws.
Whilethismayseemclearenough,thereisanintellectualtraptoavoidhere
thatofalwaysviewingcollectivesocialcontractsasnecessarilyconstructed,
designed,ortheexplicitandconsciousoutcomeofarationalprocessof
negotiation.27Collectivecontractsalsomayemergefromtheinterwoven,
multilayered,bilateralandmultilateralsocialcontractscrisscrossingasociety.
Theintegratedsystemofabstractrules,norms,mores,andcustomsspanning
asocietyformanindirect,collectivesocialcontract.Itisimplicitand
informal;itsexpectationsarepartlyconscious,partlyunconscious.The
systemofinformalrulesoftheroadissuchacollectiveagreementgoverning,
alongwithcoextensiveformaltrafficlaws,acommunityofdrivers.
Whilenogroupofpeoplemayhaveformallyorconsciouslyagreedtoa
collectivesocialcontractwhilesuchmayemergefromvarious,lowerlevel
socialcontracts,manyofwhichareconsciousagreementsitisstillbasedona
particularbalanceofpowers,nowinvolvingallmembersofthecollective.
Consider,forexample,thehistoricallyrapiddissolutionandrestructuringof
collectiveexpectationsinvolvingrules,customs,andlawsthathaveoccurred
asaresultofconquest(suchasLatvia,Lithuania,andEstoniaconqueredand
absorbedbytheSovietUnionin1939),ofmilitarydefeatandoccupation(as
ofHitler'snationalsocialist,totalitarianGermany),orrevolution(witnessthe
FrenchandRussianRevolutions,orthe19741978Cambodiansocial
revolutionoftheKhmerRouge).Ofcourse,notallnorms,customs,or
customarylawsarechanged,nomorethananewbilateralormultilateral
contractwilldiscardallpreviousexpectations.Newsocialcontractsbuildon
theold.However,anewsocialcontract,collectiveorotherwise,willbe
meaningfullydifferent;associatedinteractionbetweenthepartieswillchange
significantly.

Finally,thethirddimensiondefiningacontract'sgeneralitymaybenarrow,
middlerange,oroverarching.Anarrowcontractconcernsonlyafewinterests,
events,orbehaviors,suchasacontracttopaintacar,atradetreaty
increasingthequotaonimportedsugar,orthepriceofaSonytelevisionset. 28
Anoverarchingcontractdevelopsfrom,refersto,orspansawholesystemof
relationships,suchasthoseofafamily,thelargersociety,oranorganization.
Amarriagecontractstipulatingdutiesandrightsofspouses,anorganization's
constitution,orthesystemofnormscoveringasocietyaresomeexamples.
Betweenthenarrowandoverarchingareavarietyofmiddlerangesocial
contractscoveringorinvolvingalargeamountofbehavior,butnotthewhole
society.One'sworkcontract,analliancebetweenstates,andapeacetreaty
areexamplesinthismiddlerange.
C.Polarity.ThethirdtypeofdimensionshowninTable2.2concernsasocial
contract'spolarity.Inthedimensionofcoerciveness,thepartiestosocial
contractmayvoluntarilyacceptit,oroneormorepartiesmaybecoercedinto
it,eitherbyotherpartiestothecontractorbyathirdparty,suchasina
shotgunweddingorgovernmentallyimposed,unionmanagementcontract.
Betweenfreelydeterminedandcoercedcontractsarethosewhichoneormore
partiesagreetooutofnecessity.Thatis,circumstances,theenvironment,or
eventsleavevirtuallynorealisticorpracticalchoice.Inaonecompany
miningtownwhereapersonhashisroots,hemayhavelittle,socially
meaningfulchoicebuttocontractforworkwiththecompany.Todefeat
HitlerintheSecondWorldWar,Churchillfelthehadlittlechoicebuttoform
analliancewithStalin.
Asecondpolaritytypedimensionconcernswhetherasocialcontractis
solidary,neutral,orantagonistic.29Solidaryexpectationsderivefromhelpful,
altruistic,orcompassionatebehavior.Suchexpectationsarecommonamong
closefriendsorrelations,lovers,orcloseknitcommunalorreligiousgroups.
Antagonisticexpectations,however,derivefrommutuallycompetitive,
divergent,oropposingbehavior.Theyinvolveaperceptionofincompatible
purposes,temporarilyboundinasocialcontract,andabeliefthatsatisfying
one'sinterestsentailsfrustratingthoseoftheotherparties.Alabor
managementcontractachievedafteralong,violentstrikeissuchan
antagonisticcontract;oratrucebetweentraditionalenemies,suchas
PakistanandIndia,NorthandSouthKorea,orIsraelandSyria.Between
solidaryandantagonisticcontractslieneutralcontracts,30thosewhichare
strictlyamatterofbusiness,aquestionofthepartiescoollyandobjectively
satisfyingratherspecificinterests.Examplesareagreementsforabankloan,

rentinganapartment,importingcotton,orincreasingthepostageon
internationalmail.
D.Evaluative.Finally,thereistheevaluativedimension.Oneoftheseconcerns
whetherasocialcontractisgoodorbad.Fundamentalphilosophical
controversycentersontheideaofgood.Forthemoment,Imean"good"
simplyinthesensethatonemightsayatreatyisagoodonebecauseithas
characteristicsthatonedesiresorbelievesrationallycommendableordivinely
inspired.31
Acontractmaybepositiveornegativeinthesamesenseas"good"or"bad."
Thereisapotentialconfusionintheuseoftheseterms,however,sinceherea
socialcontractequalspeace."Positivepeace"hascometomean,especially
amongScandinavianirenologists32anexistingoridealsocialstate,suchasthe
achievementofindividualpotential,asreflectedinsocialequality,for
example."Negativepeace"isthensimplytheabsenceofviolence.This,
however,isaconfusionofcategories,andleadstosuchstrangebutconsistent
(bydefinition)expressionsas"apositive,negativepeace."33Simply,Iwill
meanpositiveasgoodandnegativeasbadinqualifyingsocialcontractsor
peace.
Asecondevaluativedimensiondefinesonekindofgoodsocialcontract:
whetheritisjustorunjust.Itisthisdimensionofsocialcontractsthatisthe
majorfocusofthisbook.Understandingthatasocialcontractdefinesa
particularpeace,myquestionis:Whatisajustpeace?Myanswer,developed
inPartIIisthatjusticeisthefreedomofpeopletoformtheirown
communitiesortoleaveundesirableones.Forlargescalesocieties,justpeace
ispromotedthroughaminimumgovernment.

2.3.3Forms

Table2.3presentsmajorformsofdirectsocialcontracts.Thereisnoneedto
describeeachindetailhere.Sufficetosaythateachisastructureof

expectationsbasedonadefinitebalanceofinterests,capabilities,andwills.
Eachisasocialislandofpeace.
2.3.4SocialOrders
Asocialorderisaparticulararrangementofdirectandindirectsocial
contractsformingameaningful,causalfunctional34whole.Twotypesofsocial
ordersareofconcernhere.Oneisthatofgroups;theotherofsocieties.
A.Groups.Agroupisstructuredbyadirect,overarchingsocialcontractthat
definesmembers'rights,obligations,andauthoritativeroles.Behavioris
guidedandprescribedbysanctionbasedlawnorms.Allthismaybecodified
inorganizingdocuments,suchasacharter,constitution,orbylaws;orthese
maybeinformal,implicit,orevensubconsciousunderstandingsandnorms
evolvingfromthespontaneousinteractionandconflictsofgroupmembers,as
inafamilyorclan.35
Inanycase,thissocialcontractmaybesolidary,neutral,orantagonistic(asin
family,workgroup,andprison,respectively);itmaytightlyorganize
membersorleavethemunorganized;anditmayrecruitmembersvoluntarily,
throughcoercion,oroutofnecessity.Groupgoalsmaybediffusedor
superordinate;thebasisofauthoritativerolesmaybelegitimacyorthreats.
ThesediversecharacteristicsshapethefivegroupsshowninTable2.4. 36

Formypurposeshere,themostimportantdistinctionisbetweenspontaneous
groupsandvoluntaryassociationsontheonehand,andvoluntary,quasi
coercive,andcoerciveorganizationsontheother.Anorganizationis
structuredbyanexplicit,formalsocialcontractaimedatachievingsome
superordinategoal(profitforabusiness,militaryvictoryforanarmy,
segregatingcriminalsforaprison,educationforauniversity).Expectations
arewrappedaroundthisgoal:itdeterminesroles,rights,andobligations,as
wellaslawnormsprescribingbehavior.Anorganizationisthenanantifield.37
Spontaneousinteractioniscircumscribed,consignedtoregionsofsocialspace
(theintersticesoftheorganizationalchart)irrelevanttoanorganization's
goals.Bycontrast,voluntarygroupsandassociationsarelessorganized,not
asstronglydirectedtowardsomesuperordinategoal.Goalsmayevenbe

absent,diffuse,orunarticulated.Coercionorauthorityplayminorroles.
Withinthesegroupsandassociationsfieldforcesandprocesseshave
considerablefreedomandscope,asinafamily,friendshipgroup,or
neighborhoodassociation.
Thesedifferentgroupsdefinedifferentstructuresofpeace,differentpatternsof
ourinterestsandcapabilities,ofourpowers.
B.Societies.ThesecondkindofsocialordershowninTable2.4isthesociety.
ThethreepuretypeslistedhavebeendiscussedatlengthinVol.2:TheConflict
Helix38andtheirempiricalvaliditywasassessedthere.39Here,Ineedonlynote
themoreimportantrelevancies.
Asocietyisdefinedbyadivisionoflabor40and,accordingly,certainshared
meanings,values,andnorms;socialinteraction;andacommunicationsystem.
Itisshapedbyanindirect,overarching,collectivestructureofexpectationsa
mainlyinformalandimplicitsocialcontract.Theformofsocialpower
primarilyunderlyingthiscontractdeterminesthetypeofsociety.Anexchange
societyisdominatedbyexchangepower;anauthoritativesocietyby
authoritativepower;acoercivesocietybycoercion.Byvirtueofthe
dominatingformofpowerandassociatedsocialdynamics,eachsociety
manifestsaparticulardimensionofconflict,withexchangesocietiesleast
violent;coercive,themost.41Eachtypeofsocietyisthusadifferentkindof
peacefulorder.
Internationalrelationsamongsocietiesareofspecialimportancehere.Nation
statesformanexchangesociety42withalibertariangovernment,pluralistic
conflict,43andassociatedpluralisticstructureofpeace.Inlaterdiscussing
internationalpeaceIwillmakeuseofthissocialfact.
C.Summary.Ihaveshownthediversityofsocialcontracts,andthuspeace,
throughdetailingtheirvariousexpectations,dimensions,forms,andorders.I
needonlyunderlinenowthenested,overlapping,andhierarchicalcomplexof
suchcontractsfillingoutthestructureofagrouporsociety.Consider,for
example,avoluntaryorganizationsuchasauniversity.Ithasanoverarching
contractdefiningitspurposes,organizationalstructure,positions,and
attendantrightsandobligations,andassociatedrulesandlawnorms.Under
thecoveroftheseexpectationsaredefinedrelatedsocialcontractsand
systemsofcontractsgoverningseparateadministrativefunctions(suchas
admissionandfinancialaid),colleges,divisions,anddepartments.Withinthe

constraintsoftheuniversity'soverarchingexpectations,eachcontractor
systemhasacertainlife,dependingontheadministrators,deans,andfaculty
involved.Eachteachingdepartmentwithinacollegeofdivisionachievesits
owninformalorformalsocialcontractsestablishingrights,obligations,and
privilegesattendantuponfacultyandstudentrankanddefiningtheroleof
studentsandrulesforjudgingissuesbeforethedepartment.Asshouldbe
clear,eachdepartment,college,andadministrativedivisionwillbeanarena
ofconflictestablishingorrevisingsuchexpectations,althoughtheoverarching
socialcontractthatconstitutestheuniversityremainsstablearegionofsocial
peaceatitslevel.
Theuniversityitselfiswithinanoverarchingsocialcontractthatisthelarger
society.Families,Businesses,universities,governments,churches,areallare
collectivesocialcontractswithinsociety,whichalsoincludesthenumberless
bilateralandmultilateralsocialcontractsamonggroups,subgroups,and
individualsandthecollectivecontractsorderingsubsocieties.Eachsocial
contractisaspecificpeacewithinaparticularconflicthelix;eachmayhave
withinitlowerlevelconflict(forexample,astatewithinaregionof
internationalpeacemaysufferinternalguerrillawarandterrorism);each
peacemayexistwithinanongoing,antagonisticconflict(asinternallypeaceful
statesengageinwar).
Peaceisthereforecomplex,multilayered.Tosaytheleast,discussingpeace
requiresbeingspecificaboutthesocialcontractinvolved.Topresentatheory
aboutajustpeacedemandsclarityabouttheassociatedexpectations,
dimensions,andsocialorders.

2.4CONCEPTUALLEVELSANDDIMENSIONSOFPEACE
Thedimensions,forms,andordersofsocialcontractsdescribedaboveare
also,bydefinition,thoseofpeace.Whatmustbeaddedhereandinthenext
Sectionareadditionaldistinctionsnotusuallyappliedtosocialcontractsbut
whichhelplocatepeaceasasocialcontractamongourdiverse
conceptualizationsofpeace.ThisandSection2.5alsorepresentpartofmy
effortatvocabularybuildingdevelopinginasystematicmanner,and
locatinginoneplace,thosetermsapplicabletopeacethatwillbeusedin
subsequentchapters.

Table2.5presentstheconceptuallevelanddimensionsofpeacetobe
discussedhere.

2.4.1ConceptualLevels
A.Levels.Undoubtedly,peaceisoftenconceptuallyopposedtowar.Obviously,
then,oneconceptuallevelforanalyzingajustpeaceinvolvesthosesocial
contractsdeterminedbyinternational,civil,orrevolutionarywar.
Peace,however,especiallyamongpacifists,isalsoopposedtoviolence.This
includeswar,ofcourse,butadditionallycoversviolentactsnotordinarily
thoughtoforlegallydefinedaswar.Indeed,inthecontemporaryworldlegal
war(thatis,warasalegalstateofrelationsinvokingspecialinternational
laws)israre,whilewarlikeviolenceisasintenseandprevalentaswarswere
duringpastcenturies.Nonetheless,thisismorethanamatterofdefiningwar
empirically.Manydofeelthatpeace,conceptually,appliesonlytothose
humanrelationswhichexcludepersonal,organized,orcollectiveviolence.
Thoseopposingtheideaofpeacetoviolenceorwarusuallyseepeaceasan
absenceofsuchbehavior.Butadifferentview,especiallyintheEast,sees
peaceasharmony,tranquility,concord.Peaceisthenconceptuallyopposedto
nonviolent,antagonisticconflict,suchasthatmanifestingthreatsand
accusations,hostilequarrels,angryboycotts,andriotousdemonstrations.
Anotherconceptgoesevenfurther,seeingpeaceasabsoluteharmony,
serenity,orquietude;thatis,asopposedtoanykindofconflict,antagonistic
orotherwise.Conflictisageneralconceptmeaning,inessence,abalancingof
power,44whichmayinvolvenotonlyhostileorantagonisticbalancingbutalso
thatofintellectualconflict(asinfriendlydisagreementoverfacts),bargaining
conflict(asinhagglingoverasaleprice),oralover'sconflict(aswheneach
triestogivetheotherthechoiceofamovietosee).Eachoftheseconflictsends
inasocialcontract,andthereforeinakindofpeace.Imentionthisconceptual
levelforcompleteness,however.Myconceptualfocushere,asforall
irenologists,willbeonpeaceatthelevelofantagonisticconflict,whether
violentornot.

B.AThreshold.Especiallysignificantforatheoryofjustpeaceisthe
distinctionbetweennonviolent,antagonisticconflictononesideandviolence
ontheother.Thereisanempiricalthresholdhere.AsIwillarguelaterin
Section7.4.2andSection8.2,theconditionsforajustpeaceatthelevelof
violencewillincreasetheamountofnonviolentconflict.Ajustpeacefreefrom
longtermviolenceis,atthelevelofsocietiesatleast,onlypossibleattheprice
ofpeacefromnonviolentconflict.

2.4.2SocialLevels
A.Levels.Clearly,peaceasasocialcontractoccursatdifferentlevelsofsocial
relationships.Table2.5listsfourofconcernhere.Oneisinternational,thelevel
ofmosthistoricalconcernaboutpeace.Asecondlevelconcernsthecentral
governmentorrulingpower(suchasadominantreligiousleaderorpolitical
party)ofastate.Peacehereistheoutcomeof,orcandisintegrateinto,
revolutionorcivilwar;guerrillawarandterrorism;politicalturmoil
involvingriots,demonstrations,generalstrikes,andassassinations.
Athirdlevelinvolvesgrouprelationswithinstates,suchasamongreligious
andethnicgroups,nationalities,classes,castes,unions,andfamilies.Astate,
atthelevelofitscentralgovernment,maybepeaceful,manifestingastable
socialcontract,whilesomeofitsregionsmayexperiencecontinuinggroup
violence.Thefinallevelinvolvestheinterpersonalrelationshipsamong
individuals.
B.CrosscuttingLevels.Sociallevelsofpeacearecrosscutting:eachofthe
conceptuallevelsmayrefertoanyoneofthesocialones.Evenwaris
applicabletoindividualrelations,aswhenconflictgoesbeyondaviolent
incidenttoinvolveacampaignofviolencetodefeatordestroyanotherperson.
Itshould,beclear,then,thattheremaybepeacefromwar,butnotfrom
antagonistic,nonviolentconflict.Moreover,theremaybepeacefrom
internationalwar,whileinternalwarrendsastate.Conversely,astatemaybe
atpeacewhileengagedininternationalwar.Peaceamongstatesmaybe
widespread,centralstategovernmentsmaybestableandsecure,whilesome
groupsinoneprovince,region,orotherpoliticalsubdivisionarelockedin
totalwar.Fromtheperspectiveofaparticularcitizen,hisstateandsocial
groupsallmaybeatpeace,whilepersonalpeaceeludeshimhesimplymay
notgetalongwithhisneighborsorcoworkers.

Peaceisthusmultilayeredandcomplex.Thismustbekeptinmindindefining
ajustpeace.

2.4.3ConceptualDimensions
A.TheMetalevel.Section2.3.2presentedmajortheoreticaldimensionsofsocial
contracts,andthusofpeace.Thedimensionsconsideredhereandshownin
Table2.5referonlytopeaceasaconceptandnottheconceptofpeace.Thisis
likethedifferencebetweenethicalandmetaethicalconcepts,orpoliticaland
metapoliticalones.Ineachcase,theformerreferstothecontent;thelatterto
theconceptaboutthecontents.45Forexample,apeacecanbeoverarching
(Table2.2);aconceptofpeacecanbeabstract.
B.EmpiricalConcept.Thefirstsuchdimensiondefineswhethertheconceptis
empirical,abstract,ortheoreticalaconstruct.46Anempiricalconcept47ofpeace
referstoreadilyobservablephenomena.Itismeasurable(operational).Peace
asabsenceofkillingviolenceissuchaconcept;asispeaceasanabsenceof
legallydeclaredwarorapeacetreaty(oranywrittensocialcontract,forthat
matter).
C.AbstractConcept.Whilealsoreferringtoempiricalphenomena,anabstract
conceptofpeaceisnotdirectlyobservable.Rather,itusuallydenotesabundle
ofempiricalattributesorqualities,orisreflectedinpatternsofbehavior.
Examplesareconceptssuchasstatus,power,orideology,whicharedetached
fromparticularinstancesoreventsorspecificempiricalcharacteristics.
Abstractconceptsprovidegeneral,theoreticalunderstandingofsocialreality,
whileempiricalconceptsareusuallycommonsensedescriptionsofimmediate
perception.48Forgeneralusepeaceasasocialcontractwouldbeanabstract
concept,althoughsomesocialcontractsmaybequiteconcreteandhence
empirical.Theabstractioninvolvedisclearestwhenweconsiderimplicit,or
evensubconscious,agreementsinvolvingtacitexpectations.Theabstract,
nonformalrulesoftheroadarepartofsuchanabstractsocialcontract.And
considertheoverarchingsocialcontractwhoseexpectationsdefinerulesand
normsspanningsocietybutwhichnoonesignedordirectlyagreedupon,
whichfewareawareof,butwhichmostobey.Mostfamiliesareintegratedby
suchexpectationsthatwifeandhusband,parentsandchildrenhaveofeach
otherbutwhichanobserverwouldhavedifficultydefiningempirically
(althoughcertainlyindicatorscouldbedeveloped,asforstatusorpower).

Peaceasasocialcontractisanabstractionwithintheideaofaconflicthelix,
whichispartofsocialfieldtheory.Thistheoryprovidesanexplanationof
conflict,violence,war,andpeace.Somuch,Itrust,wasmadeclearinVol.2:
TheConflictHelixandVol.4:War,Power,Peace.
Thereareotherabstractdefinitionsofpeace:Forexample,peaceaslawor
justice;orpeaceasconcord,harmony,ortranquility.Oftenthetheoretical
contextforanabstractdefinitionofpeaceisnotexplicit,butnonethelessis
clearfromthecontextwithinwhichtheconceptisdevelopedorused.
D.Construct.Finally,peaceasaconstruct49meansthat"peace"servesa
steppingstoneroleintheory.Itisatheoreticalconcept;analytic,not
synthetic.Thecontentgiventoaconstructisnotdefinedindependentofa
theorybutwhollywithintheoperationsanddeductionsofatheory.By
contrast,whilemeasurementsorindicatorsofanabstractconceptcertainly
wouldbedirectedbyatheory,theactualdata(orcontent)arecollected(or
observed)independently.
Thisisadifficultbutimportantidea,andIwouldliketotakeamomentto
makeitclear.Considerasimpleexplanatorytheorythaty=h+tx,whereyis
thelevelofarmamentsofstatei,xisthelevelofarmamentsofanopposing
statej,andtandharetheoreticalcoefficientsconceptualizedas"x's
perceptionofthreatfromy,"and"thehostilitythatjfeelstowardi,"
respectively.50Thissimpleexplanatorytheorysaysthatonestate'sarmaments
areafunctionofthoseoftheopposingstate's,dependingonitsperceptionof
thethreatfromtheotheranditshostilitytowardit.Nowyandxareabstract
concepts,since"armaments"isaconceptcoveringatremendousempirical
diversityofweaponsandindicators.Nonetheless,byaddingauxiliary
statementstothetheoryonemightmeasurearmamentsthroughsuch
indicatorsasdefenseexpendituresornumberofarmedmilitarypersonnel.
Dataontheseindicatorscouldthenbecollectedfromsourcesreadilyavailable
andindependentofthetheory.
However,withinthistheory,threatandhostilityareconstructs.No
measurementofthemorindicatorsneedbygiven;nodatacollected
specificallyonthem.Rather,thecoefficientsaretotallydefinedbyfittingy=h
+txtothedataonxandy.Suchafitcouldbemadebybivariateregression
analysiswherehistheinterceptandttheregressioncoefficient;ythe
dependentandxtheindependentvariables.Thisgivesnumericalvaluestoh
andtwithoutanyspecificdatacollectedonthem.Asconstructs,theywould

havebeengivenempiricalcontenttotallydependentonthetheoryy=h+tx
anddataonxandy.
Keepingthissimplearmstheoryinmind,Imustnowdiscriminatebetween
thelooseandtightversionsofsocialfieldtheory.Inthelooseversion
(specifically,thatpresentedinmostofthesevolumes,especiallyconcerning
theconflicthelix),themathematicalstructureoffieldtheoryisusually
background;51content,conceptualunderstanding,andexplanationareusually
foreground.Astructureofexpectationssocialcontractistreatedasan
abstraction.Itisgivenostensivecontent,suchasindiscussingaunion
managementcontract,animplicitagreementendingafamilyquarrel,an
internationalsettlementofadispute,orthelawnormsintegratingagroup.
Inthetighttheory,52mathematicalstructure,substantiveinterpretationof
primitivetermsorconstructs,53operationalization,andempiricaltestsareof
concern.Thetighttheoryismeanttobeasexplicit,formal,andgeneralas
possible.Expectationsareconstructsweightingbehavioraldispositionsina
socialfieldandtechnicallyfunctionascanonicalcoefficientsinapplication. 54
Andtoenhancethetheory'sgenerality,Ihaveconsideredastructureof
expectationsasimplicitlyanindirect,overarchingsocialcontractofasocial
field(suchasaspontaneousorselforganizing55society).Thisstructureisa
cooperativecomponentanotherconstruct56underlyingthevariationin
manifestinteraction.Itisreflectedincommonpatternsofsocialinteraction,
andthusisempiricallymeasuredindirectlyonlybyamathematicallydefined
axislyingthroughanempiricalpatternofsocialinteractionspanningsociety. 57
Forthetighttheory,then,applicabletoanindirect,overarchingsocialcontract
forsocialfields,peaceisaconstruct.Itswholemeaningisgivenbythetheory;
itservestoaidempiricalexplanationandtheoreticalunderstanding;its
empiricalcontentistracedbythecooperativepatternsofsocialinteraction.
InthisVol.5:TheJustPeaceIwillnotdealwiththetighttheory,whoseroleis
preciseandtestablescientificexplanation,notintuitiveunderstanding.The
loosetheorywillprovidesufficientframeworkforourpurposeshere.And,as
inpreviousvolumes,Iwilltreatpeaceasanabstraction,evenwhenreferring
toindirect,overarchingsocialcontracts.
Incidentally,peaceasaconstructisnotuniquetofieldtheory,althoughasfar
asIknownoothersuchtighttheorysotreatsit.Peaceasdivinegracein
ChristiantheologyorasshalominJudaism,ofwhichonemeaningisa

covenantwithJehovah,areconstructs.Theirempiricalmeaningisnotgiven
directlyorabstractly;rather,theyareprimitivetermswhosecontentcomes
fromtheempiricalnatureofother,linkedtheologicalconcepts.Moreover,the
conceptof"positivepeace"developedbyJohanGaltungisaconstructwithin
aneoMarxisttheoryofexploitation;"positivepeace"hasnodirectempirical
orindirectabstractempiricalcontent,butisdefinedastheabilityof
individualstorealizetheirpotential,whichinturnisequatedintheorywith
equality,itselfanabstractionmeasuredbyvariousindicatorsofequality. 58
E.DescriptiveNormative.Theempiricalabstractconstructdimensionof
peaceconceptsisthefirstconceptualdimension.Theseconddefineswhether
theconceptofpeaceisdescriptiveornormative.Adescriptiveconceptisone
simplydenotingsomeaspectofreality,suchastrade,state,orpresident.
Anormativeconceptisevaluative,denotingorimplyinggoodness,desirability,
whatoughttobe,orthenegationofthesedenotations.Compassion,equality,
andexploitationaresuchnormativeconcepts.Clearly,thesameconceptmay
beuseddescriptivelyornormativelydependingoncontextandintent.
However,someconceptshaveabuiltinevaluationthatevenacareful
descriptiveanalysismaynotavoid,suchaswiththeconceptsmurder,torture,
exploitation,charity,andlove.Aswithlove,peaceundefinedisanimplicit
good,ahope,desire,ahumanideal."Givepeaceinourtime,0Lord."59Inits
commonusage,peaceisnormative.
However,regardlessoftheaffectiveconnotationofpeace,theconceptcanbe
useddescriptively.Forexample,ifpeaceisconceivedasanabsenceofwaror
apeacetreaty,itispossibletowriteaboutthepeaceinEuropesince1945,the
peaceoftheVersaillesTreaty,ortheaverageperiodsofpeaceinhistory,
withoutnecessarilyconnotingthatthesearegoodhistoricalperiods(although
forpacifists,peaceasanabsenceofwaris,ipsofacto,goodinallcontexts).
Myuseofpeaceasasocialcontractismeantdescriptively.Notallsocial
contractsaregood.Somearequitebad,60aswasthehorriblepeace(asabsence
ofinternationalwar)oftheKhmerRougeoverCambodiain19741978
(beforetheVietnameseinvasion).Sincepeaceismeantheretobe
(normatively)asneutralaconceptaspossible,itissensibletoaskwhenpeace
isgood,or(asasubcategoryofthegood)whenitisjustorwhenbador
unjust.FortheveryreasonIhavetreatedpeacedescriptivelyinprevious
volumes,eventhoughitismyfundamentalnormativegoal,Inowmust
concludebypointingoutinthisVol.5:TheJustPeacewhenpeace,sodescribed,

isjustorunjustand,givenmyanalysesandresults,whatwillfosterajust
peace.

2.5QUALITIESOFPEACE

2.5.1AnExistent

Table2.6presentsfourqualitiesofpeaceentailedbymyconceptualization.

Clearly,fromSection2.2,peaceisasociopsychologicalexistent.Ithas
dispositionalandmanifest61being.Inthisitisonaparwithconflict.62Conflict
ismanifestedinparticularpatternsofbehavior;soispeace.63Conflictand
peacemaybeabsent,aswhentwoindividualsorgroupslackcontactor
awarenessofeachother.Andconflictandpeacearecoupledexistents,closely
relatedwithinasocialprocessIcalltheconflicthelix.
Otherconceptualizationsalsotreatpeaceasanexistingsomething,suchas
peaceasharmony,integration,orvirtue.However,thecurrentlyconventional
definitionofpeaceastheabsenceofviolenceorwartreatspeaceasavoid,a
nonexistent.Thiscreatesseveralanalyticalproblems,whichwillbementioned
below.64

2.5.2Dichotomous
Peaceasanexistentisdichotomous:itisoritisnot.Itwouldbemeaninglessto
talkaboutmoreorlessofapeace,asitwouldbemeaninglesstotalkabout
moreorlessofacontract,anationstate,apresident,oranelephant.65Of
course,astatemaybelargeorsmall,richorpoor.Likewise,peacevaries
alongseveraldimensions;itmaytakeondifferentformsorsocialorders. 66

Itisnecessaryhere,then,torememberthedistinctionbetweenapeace
existingornotandtheattributes,form,ororderofthepeacethatexists.
Thus,Imightsaythatpeaceintheworldisincreasingandmeanthatmore
statesaresubscribingtoaparticularoverarching,internationalpeace.Orby
sayingthatpeaceismoreintenseImightimplythataspecificpeaceis
involvingmoreandmorecooperativeinteraction.

2.5.3InternalandExternal
Inmyview,peaceisinternalandexternal.Itisasocialcontractamongpeople
orgroupsinvolvingthesepsychologicalandsocialrealities.Theformer
comprisestheparties'expectationsandthecongruenceoftheseexpectations
withtheirmutualinterests,capabilities,andwills.Theseareallpsychological
variables.Thesocialreality,manifestingtheharmonizationofcertain
expectationsamongtheparties,maybeevidencedinspecificdocuments(such
asawrittencontract),physicalstructures(suchascertaingovernment
buildings),andpatternsofcooperativeinteraction.Tosay,then,thatpeaceis
anexistentmeansthattheparticularexpectations,meanings,andvalues
withinthemindsofthepartiesandtheirsocialmanifestationsareallcausally
functionally67integratedintoasocialcontract.Thus,likeaniceberg,peace
seenonthesurfaceofsocialrelationsisonlyasmallpartoftheoverall
structure.68
2.5.4Active
Finally,peaceasasocialcontractisactive,notpassive.Itiscreatedthrough
negotiation,adjustment,resolution,decisions.Itcomprisespredictions
(expectations)aboutthefuture.Itismanifestedthroughcooperative
interaction.Itsexistencedependsoncongruencewiththebalanceofpowers.It
isaphaseinthedynamicsoftheconflicthelix.
Bycontrast,peaceastheabsenceofviolenceorwarispassive.True,itmaybe
generatedbynegotiationandresolution.Buttheresultingpeaceisinactive,
inert.Itisasocialvoidsomethingtobuildawallaroundtoprotectand
maintain.Anyconditionorstructureorlackthereofconstitutessuchapeace
aslongasthereisnosocialviolenceevenadesertwithouthumanlife. 69

2.6ADVANTAGESOF
THISCONCEPTUALIZATION
Peaceconceptualizedasasocialcontracthasanumberofadvantages.First,
peaceisthendefinedaspartofadynamicsocialprocesswithawelldefined
nature;itisgivenmeaningandsubstanceindefiniterelationshiptoconflict
andcooperation.
Second,peacestandsincleartheoreticalandsubstantiverelationshiptosuch
importantconceptsasperception,situation,expectations,interests,
capabilities,will,power,status,class,andbehavior.70Thisgivesthenatureof
peaceconsiderablesubstantiveandtheoreticalclarity.Thatis,peaceislocked
intoanoverarchingsocialtheory.
Third,asasocialcontractpeaceisoperational,andempiricalpatternsof
peace,sodefined,havebeenwelldelineated.71
Fourth,becauseofthetheoreticalandsubstantivemeaningofpeace,
peacemakingandpeacekeepingpoliciesaregivenconcretedirectionand
crucialvariablesarespotlighted.Forexample,keepingthepeacethen
depends,mostgenerally,onmaintainingcongruencebetweenthebalanceof
powersandthestructureofexpectations(socialcontract).Thismightbedone
byalteringexpectationsunilaterallytoadjusttochangingcapabilities,or
strengtheningwilltolessenadevelopinggapwithexpectations.72
Fifth,peaceasconceptualizedembodiesanumberofpsychologicalprinciples,
suchassubjectivity,intentionality,freewill,andindividualism. 73This,plus
thesocialprinciplesmentionedinthepreviousSection,enableaclearand
straightforwardapplicationofthesocialcontracttheoryofjustice.Aswillbe
showninthenextpart,ajustpeaceisahypotheticalsocialcontractofa
particularkind,onetowhichindividualswouldfairlyandimpartiallyagree.
***
ThisChapterhasdescribedpeaceasasocialcontract.Andithasmadethe
necessarydefinitionsanddistinctionsinordertocomparethisideaofpeaceto
alternativeconceptualizations..ThiswillbedoneinChapter3.

NOTES

*ScannedfromChapter1inR.J.Rummel,TheJustPeace,1981.Forfullreferenceto
thebookandthelistofitscontentsinhypertext,clickbook.Typographicalerrorshave
beencorrected,clarificationsadded,andstyleupdated.
1.AlphonsedeLamartine,MeditationsPoetiques(1820).
2.DesideriusErasmus,Adagio.
3.MartinLuther,OnMarriage(1530).
4.Cicero,LetterstoAtticus.
5.BenjaminFranklin,LettertoJosiahQuincy(September11,1773).
6.Irenology=thescientificstudyofpeace.SeeStarke(1968).
7.SeeVol.1:TheDynamicPsychologicalField(Section8.3ofChapter8).Iclassifyand
discussrelevanttypesofconceptsinSection2.4.3.SeealsoNote48.
7a.Thesevolumesare:Vol.1:TheDynamicPsychologicalField;Vol.2:TheConflict
Helix;Vol.3:ConflictInPerspective;andVol.4:War,Power,Peace.
8.TheseprinciplesarepresentedinVol.4:War,Power,Peace(Chapter20),andare
eachthesubjectofchaptersinInTheMindsofMen(1979a;republishedasTheConflict
Helix).
9.Onthenatureandvarietyofpowers,seeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapters19,20,
and21).Oninterests,capabilities,andwills,seeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapters6,
27,28,and29).Formathematicaldefinitions,seeVol.4:War,Power,Peace(Chapter8
andSection9A.1ofAppendix9A).Onconflictasbalancingofpowers,seeVol.2:The
ConflictHelix(Section29.3ofChapter29)andVol.4:War,Power,Peace(PartV).Note
thatIdefineaninterestbroadlyasanysituationwant(orgoal)meanscomplex,which
includessentiments,roles,values,andethics.Interestsareactivatedattitudes,
stimulatedbyparticularneeds,Thus,astreatedhere,interestsarebasicmotivational
variables.SeeVol.1:TheDynamicPsychologicalField(Chapters19,20,21,particularly
Section20.3ofChapter20).
10.Forthedevelopmentofdifferenttypesofsocialbehavior,seeVol.1:TheDynamic
PsychologicalField(PartIII).Forthemathematicaldevelopment,seeVol.4:War,
Power,Peace(Chapter5andChapter6andSection9A.1ofAppendix9A).Empirical
applicationsaregiveninVol.4:War,Power,Peace(Chapter4).
11.Notethatthebalanceofpowersisnotnecessarilyofcoercionandforce,butmay
combineexchange,intellectual,authoritative,altruistic,andmanipulativepowers.

Moreover,regardlessofpower'sform:Power=interestsXcapabilitiesXwill.Andthe
balancingofthesepowerstakesplaceinaperceivedsituation.Thebalanceofpowersis
thusamultidimensionalbalanceinthemindsofthepartiesinvolvedandshouldnotbe
confusedwithanymechanicalandphysicalbalance.
12.InthewordsofHenryKissinger(1974:643),"twoworldwarsandaneraof
involvementandconflictshouldnowhavetaughtusthatpeaceisaprocess,nota
condition."
13.Thisisclearlyadialecticalviewofconflictandpeace.See,forexample,Mao(1954:
Vol.2,p.45):
As everybody knows, war and peace transform themselves into
each other.... All contradictory things are interconnected, and
they not only coexist in an entity under certain conditions-this is
the whole meaning of the identity of contradictions.

14.Elsewhere(seeNote8)Ireferto"peace"ratherthan"cooperation"intheprinciple.
SinceIamleadingtoadefinitionofpeacehere,however,Ihavesubstituted
"cooperation"for"peace."
15.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapter29)andVol.4:War,Power,Peace(Chapter
18,particularlyFigures18.1,18.2,and18.3).ThisconceptionoverlapsBoulding's,
althoughexpressedwithinadifferenttheoryandbydifferenttheoreticalterms.
AccordingtoBoulding,
peace is a property of conflict systems and a homeostatic or
cybernetic property that enables the system, in the course of its
dynamic path, to remain in some stated boundary. Where the
boundary is drawn is not so important as the machinery by
which the system stays within it wherever it is drawn. Most
conflict systems exhibit what might be called a "Break
boundary" at which the system suddenly changes into another or
passes some point of no return in its dynamic processes. Thus,
marital conflict may lead to separation or divorce, industrial
conflict may lead to strikes, personal conflicts may lead to
fisticuffs at the lower end of the social scale or to litigation at the
upper end, and international relations may degenerate into war.
----1963:73

16.Hereitisunnecessarytodistinguishinterpersonalandinternationalcontracts.
Therefore,IamcombiningwhatIhavecalledelsewhere(seeNote8)theThirdand
FourthMasterPrinciples.
17.SeeNote15.
18.Withtheunderstandingthatsocietiesandorganizationsarestructuresof
expectations(socialcontracts),seeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapters30,31,33and
34)fortheoreticalandempiricalanalysisoftypesofsocietiesandpoliticalsystems,and
Vol.1:TheDynamicPsychologicalField(Chapter33)forstructuresofexpectations
withinstates.Forstructuresofexpectationswithintheinternationalsociety,seeVol.4:
War,Power,Peace(Section4.3).
19.SeeNote28.
20.Expectationsweighbehavioraldispositions.SeeVol.1:TheDynamicPsychological
Field(Sections15.2and18.1ofChapter15andChapter18),Vol.4:War,Power,Peace
(Chapter5andChapter6andSection8.2ofChapter8).
21.Vol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapter24;Section29.4ofChapter29);Vol.4:War,
Power,Peace(Section16.9ofChapter16,StatusQuoDisruptionProposition16.10,
ViolencePrinciple20.16,andWarPrinciple20.22).
22.Vol.4:War,Power,Peace(Proposition16.10).
23.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Sections23.1and23.3ofChapter23).
24.Thesedimensionsaremeanttocoverallformsofcontractsandtodiscriminate
amongtheirqualitativelysignificantaspects.Tomyknowledge,littlequantitative
empiricalworkonthedimensionsofcontractshasbeendone.Foranexception,see
Russett'sfactoranalysisofinternationalalliances(1971).
25."Actuality.....latent,""manifest"arebasicontologicalcategoriesofthesevolumes.
Fortheirdevelopmentanddiscussion,seeVol.1:TheDynamicPsychologicalField
(Chapter8andChapter9).
26.SeeNote28.
27.Thisisthemythof"rationalconstructivism"wellelaboratedbyHayek(1973Vol.1,
Chapters1and2).Ingeneral,thisisthebeliefthatsocietiesarerationallyconstructed;
thattheyareorganizations.Thisisanintellectualerrorunderlyingthecurrent
emphasisongovernmental(i.e.,socialist)interventioninandplanningofallormajor
aspectsofsociety.Whilesomesocietiesare,ofcourse,organized(suchasacommunist
state,themilitary,orauniversity),notallareorneedbe.Societiescanbespontaneous
andselfregulatingthatis,socialfields,inwhichpatternsandinstitutionsof

cooperation,communications,andthedivisionoflabor,evolvetosatisfyindividual
needsandmaintainpeace.Thischaracterizestheexchangesocietyanditsfreemarket.
SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapter22,Chapter30,Chapter31,andChapter32).
Internationalrelationsformsuchanexchangesociety.SeeVol.4:War,Power,Peace
(Chapter2).
28.Thepriceofgoodsisanarrowsocialcontract.Inafreemarketitistheresolutionof
diverseoverlappingbalancesbetweenbuyersandsellers.Inacommandmarketthe
priceofgoodsissetbygovernmentmanagersandplanners,butisstillasocialcontract
(evenmoreobviouslyso)resultingfrommultipleoverlappingandascending
bureaucraticandpoliticalbalances.
Ofcourse,thepriceofcoffeeonthemarketshelfseemsqualitativelydifferentfromthe
signedpeacetreatyinhand,anditseemsoddtocallbothsocialcontracts.Butthisis
becausetheyaremanifestlydifferentkindsofsocialcontracts.Besidesbeingnarrow,a
priceisaninformal,implicit,subconscious,indirect,andcollectivesocialcontract,
whereasapeacetreatyisformal,explicit,conscious,andpossiblymiddlerange.They
thereforedisplaytheessenceofsocialcontractsquitedifferently,aswhaleandmouse
manifestqualitativelydistinct"mammalness"amonganimals.However,thepriceof
goodsandpeacetreatiesareoneinbeingastructureofexpectationsbasedonabalance
ofpowerswhichistheoutcomeofabalancingprocess.Forafreemarketprice,the
balanceisamongexchangepowers;foracommandpriceitisamongcoerciveand
authoritativepowers.
29.Fortheapplicationofthesedistinctionstosocialbehavior,seeVol.2:TheConflict
Helix(Section10.4ofChapter10).
30.Themoreappropriateterm,asusedbyPitirimSorokin(1969),is"contractual"(see
Vol.2:TheConflictHelix,Section10.5ofChapter10).However,Icouldonlyconfuse
theissuebyreferringto,forexample,contractualsocialcontracts.Bycontractual
Sorokinmeantbehaviorthatwasnarrow,utilitarian,businesslike.
31.Iamexpressingasummaryviewofthegoodheresufficientonlytoorientthe
subsequentdiscussion.
32.SeeSection3.9.3,whereIpresentJohanGaltung'sideaofpositivepeace.
33.Definedastheabsenceofviolence,negativepeacemayinvolve"positive"or
non"positive"peace.Thisnotonlyentailscallingastateofnegativepeace"positive"if
socialequalityobtains(thuswewouldhavea"positive,negative"peace),butalsouses
"positive"inanaffective,desirablesense,whiletreatingitsoppositeasaffectively
neutral.Thus,todenoteanundesirableabsenceofviolence(e.g.,slavery),onemustsay
somethinglike"abad,negativepeace."Allthishardlyleadstoclarity.

34.Iamusing"causalfunctional"inthesamesensehereasinpreviousvolumes,which
isasdefinedbySorokin(1969:145146).Thebasicideaisthatdiverseobjectsorevents
areunitedorconnectedbytheirrelationshiptoanexternalagency(asalltheobjectsin
myhouseareinterrelatedthroughtheirfunctionalrelationshiptome),bytheir
manifestcausaldependenceandfunctionalinterdependence(aswithdiverseaspectsof
auniversityorgovernment),orbytheirmeaningfulcausalandfunctional
interrelationships(asintheinterconnectionbetweenallthediverseevents,objects,
agents,andactionscomprisingawar).
35.IhavedifferentiatedamongtypesanddimensionsofgroupsinVol.2:TheConflict
Helix(Chapter23),especiallyinrelationtotheconceptofantifield.
36.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Table23.1),whichshowstheprofilesofthedifferent
typesofgroupsacrossthesecharacteristics.
37.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapter22andSection23.3ofChapter23).
38.Chapter30ofVol.2:TheConflictHelix.
39.Chapter33andChapter34ofVol.2:TheConflictHelix.
40."Thefundamentalsocialphenomenaisthedivisionoflaboranditscounterpart
humancooperation"(Mises,1966:157).And:"Societyisjointactionandcooperation
inwhicheachparticipantseestheotherpartner'ssuccessasameansfortheattainment
ofhisown."(p.169).
41.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapter32).Ihavealsoelaborated,perhapsmore
clearly,thiscrucialrelationshipbetweentypeofsocietyandconflictinmybook,Inthe
MindsofMen(Chapters1619;republishedasTheConflictHelix).
42.SeeVol.4:War,Power,Peace(Chapter2).
43.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Sections32.5and35.5ofChapter32andChapter35).
44.SeeVol.2:TheConflictHelix(Chapter26).
45.Iseparateconceptsinmeaningfromperceptsandperceptibles.Thelatterare
stimulithatreachthebrain,transformedandcarriedviaourneurologicalreceptors.
Perceptsareperceptiblesendowedwithperceptualmeaningandvaluethroughour
culturalmatrix.Itistheperceptthatweconsciouslyperceive.Forexample,the
perceptiblemaybea"pieceofwood,sharpenedatoneendandwitharubbery
substanceattheother."Theperceptwouldbeofa"pencil."Thus,"crossedsticks"
becomeperceivedasa"Christiancross";a"hairysphere"asa"tennisball."Concepts
arethenthecognitivestructuresweimposeonpercepts.Thus,"pencil,""cross,"or
"tennisball"areconceptscorrelatedwith,butnotidenticalto,percepts.Conceptsadd

meaning,schema,valuetopercepts,asismostclearlyseenbytheconcept"cross"or
"tennisball,"whilealsolosingsomeofthephenomenologicalrichnessofthepercept.
Onallthis,seeVol.1:TheDynamicPsychologicalField(PartII,esp.Section11.3of
Chapter11onconcepts).
46.Ifindnoconsensusonthebesttaxonomyforconcepts.Generally,however,scientists
discriminate,asIdohere,betweenthoseconceptsclosetotheobservationalleveland
thosewhicharetheoreticalinsomesense.See,forexample,Hempel(1952)andPrice
(1953).
47.Thisisalsocalledanobservationalconcept.
48.Inessence,allconceptsaredefinedwithinsometheoryorcognitiveframework,even
suchcommonsenseconceptsasdogandhouse.Toseethis,inpart,considerhow
languagesdiffersignificantlyintheconceptsdevelopedtocovereveneveryday
phenomena.Asonewhospeaksmorethanonelanguageknows,oftenacommonideaor
thingconceptualizedinonelanguagewillhavenocounterpartinanother.

Comment

Last Updated
Understanding Peace Education: An Indian Perspective
Shreya Jani

"Without an integrated understanding of life, our individual and collective problems will only deepen and extend. The p
education is not to produce mere scholars, technicians and job hunters, but integrated men and women who are free
only between such human beings can there be enduring peace."
~J

There is a high level of violence in the world today, both physical and structural. We thus need tools and techniques to
this phenomenon. With increasing levels of violence and conflict there is also an increasing sense of trying to find pea
transform these conflicts from violent clashes to energies for social change. Since wars begin in the minds of men, it
minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.(UNESCO n.d.). Thus for us to take that step, to move
violence-habituated system to a peaceable society we need to understand the nature of social conflicts and the tools
transformation. Education is one of the most powerful tools that we have to make this shift towards peace.

Social conflict is a phenomenon of human creation, located in relationships. 1 That is people are actively involved in c
situations and interactions that they experience as conflict. These interactions are rooted in peoples history, experien
perception, interpretations, and expressions of their realities. This intern is deeply linked to peoples common sense
understanding and accumulated experiences, which allow them to react or respond to a conflict. Social conflict therefo
socially constructed cultural event.2 It emerges through an interactive process based on a search for and creation of

meaning. Shared knowledge and a groups ability to name the world and their reality are pivotal to its manifestation. In
conflict leads to transforming and renaming of the world and its realities and thus not only is it evitable, but a necessa
dynamic society. If conflict leads to evolution of thought and action and is a positive, inevitable force in the world, then
needed is not the mere reduction or conclusion of conflicts but innovative mechanisms and interactions to transform c
positive forces of social change, which education systems can help build.

As pointed out by Liesbeth Vroemen and John Galtang, peace, like war and justice, is a human creation. It is a proces
that is, something dynamic which needs to be constantly addressed, thus a goal and a journey in itself. It is deeply co
the notion of social justice, interconnectedness and realization of the full potential of (any/all) human beings. Peace th
ultimate aim or goal but a continuum that is moving from more violence habituated systems towards lesser violence h
systems, change being the only constant in it. Peace then is a process rather than an ultimate goal. It is also a structu
movement in it, thus peace is a process structure.3 There can be peace in maintaining the status quo, which is unjust,
not lasting peace. Thus when we speak of peace in and through education, we are talking specifically about just peac
Therefore, according to Johan Galtung, peace is the absence of physical and structural violence.

The epistemological root of the word education is from the Latin word educare which means to draw or lead out. Thu
seeks to lead out the knowledge within each individual. Peace education more so emphasizes the need to draw out th
live peacefully which resides in each individual as a response to the world they live in.
These responses have been summed up beautifully by V. Cawagas and T. Swee-Hin (1991) into six categories:

Dismantling a culture of war

Living with justice and compassion
Promoting human rights and responsibility
Living in harmony with the earth
Building a culture of respect reconciliation and solidarity
Cultivating inner peace
To sum it up, Peace education is the process of promoting knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring ab
changes that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolv
peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an intrapersonal, interpersonal, inter-group, n
international level. (UNICEF). Peace education is therefore both a philosophy and skill that prepares people, young a
negotiate on behalf of themselves and the world in a peaceful manner. It seeks to transform conflict using non-violent
bases itself in the values of compassion, interconnectedness, justice and harmony.

Peace education seeks to create a culture of peace. To understand the goal of peace education we need to understa
meaning of culture of peace. According to Groff and Smoker (2003), there are six dimensions to the culture of peace:

Absence of war This implies that conflicts between and within states that are wars and civil wars must end for peace
Thus, it argues that killing has to stop for people to get more out of life and is a necessary prerequisite to create a pea

Balance of power Peace is a dynamic and delict balance of power. It is a balance involving political, social, cultural
technological factors, and that war occurred when this balance broke down (Quincy Wright 1941).

Negative peace and positive peace Drawing from Galtungs understanding of peace as both absence of physical vio
(negative peace) and structural violence (positive peace). This aspect insists the culture of peace to be one promotin
negative and positive peace.

Feminist peace Pushing the limits of positive and negative peace, Brock-Utne includes violence against an individua
important aspect of culture of peace. Thus the new definition of peace then included not only the abolition of macro le
organized violence, such as war, but also doing away with micro-level unorganized violence, such as rape in war or in
(Groff & Smoker).

Holistic Gaia peace Highlights the need for peace not only between human beings, but peace with the environment
shifts the focus of peace from a merely anthropocentric concept to include all species in the world and peace with nat
with the environment is seen as central for this type of holistic peace theory, where human beings are seen as one of
species inhabiting the earth, and the fate of the planet is seen as the most important goal (Groff & Smoker).

Holistic inner and outer peace This has been the latest addition to the concept of culture of peace as there has been
trepidation to add this sometimes controversial aspect to the field of peace studies. Though secularist may find it prob

also recognised that peace without this aspect cannot exists. Many thinkers also believe that the world is the reflectio
persons inner being. Accordingly, this aspect is of great importance for building a culture of peace. Spiritually based
stresses the centrality of inner peace, believing that all aspects of outer peace, from the individual to the environment
must be based on inner peace (Groff & Smoker).

There remain many dichotomies still unresolved in this field but no one can deny that peace education is one of the m
tools that we have today to transform society. As it emphasises the holistic dimension of living on earth, it compels ea
to engage with everyday life to bring peace on earth. It faces its own unique challenges as well. Such that by its very
education is not self-financing. Education that challenges the status quo and the power structures that support only on
economic development will always find funding hard to come by (L. Cronkhite). The lack of funding being just the tip
iceberg, as the field tries to accommodate and negotiate diversities of perspectives and realities trying to strike the de
balance to build peace. It is a dynamic field which can fine-tune itself with praxis. As M.K Gandhi once said, there is n
peace, peace is the way.

Sceptics may question the tools and technique of peace education as an effective way forward to rebuild this war torn
ridden and terrorised planet but one has to look around and we will find enough successful efforts in this direction. P
peace intends to create attitudes; skills and knowledge amongst students, which help them, move form a violent habit
system to a more peaceful system. In the case of India it intents to break biases, question intolerance and othering, c
colonial legacy and create a new vocabulary suited to its experiences knowledge and needs. Pedagogy for peace can
the synergy required to bring together various efforts both of governmental and non-governmental actors to bring abo
social change. Here we will examine 5 principals which are part and parcel of peace education framework and how th
implemented in South Asia.

The Five Principals of Peace Education in India:

1) Conscientisation and critical pedagogy: freedom from the colonial legacy and banking system of education. Accord
oppressed (excluded) people need to develop critical consciousness in order to challenge the ideas of dominant grou
their oppressors. They need to be able to critically assess the kinds of ideas, contexts and relationships which are usu
for granted or accepted as inevitable, in order to question the root causes of their oppression (Freire 1970). Through
of conscientisation, or developing critical consciousness, excluded groups can learn to identify, interpret, criticize and
transform the world about them. Crucial to this process is the notion of praxis by which Freire means being able to ma
connection between experience, understanding and social action to bring about social change. It is a process which p
do for themselves because liberation or emancipation cannot be handed down from above. It must come from the bot
example of work done in this direction can be seen in a movement called Jana Sanskriti or cultural movement in Wes
India. It uses theatre of the oppressed in which the oppressed are not mute, passive observers expected to accept wh
solution is offered to them. The culture in our society is one of centralization and monologue where a few constitute a
force and the majority has no choice but to follow instructions blindly, even willingly. Jana Sanskriti wishes to break the
monologue. The success of Jan Sanskriti and its methods used offers a rich knowledge base for future educators look
innovative and meaningful tool for their classroom. Jan Sanskriti is just one of the many groups working towards Cons
and Critical pedagogy.

2) Systems thinking: freedom from fragmentation and reactiveness in our education system increasingly has made us
on the scientific method or analytical thinking. Edward T Clark Jr. in his article, The Design Solution: Systems Thinkin
four methodological characteristics implicit in the scientific method: a) It is reductionistic and atomistic; b) it is rationa
and empirical; c) it assumes objectivity; and d) it assumes an either/or logic. These assumptions lead to fragmentatio
competition and reactiveness in our education system. Moreover it creates a mind, which is disinviting to paradoxes a
beings. The world is reduced to an inert, non-living being to be acted upon. Not denying the importance of the scientif
one has to question its relevance and move towards a systems approach if we wish to create an education system, w
capable of transforming conflict.
It is important to see analytical thinking and systems thinking as complementary rather than as a contradictory or an o
way of thinking.
Systems thinking also comes with its assumption:

It incorporates logic
It assumes a living universe
It values ecological thinking
It recognises that we live in a participatory universe
It is at the same time both local and global
It honours the long-range view

The works of NGOs like Society For Integrated Development of the Himalayas (SIDH) in partnership with the Sarva S
Abhyan in Uttarancha, India and Urmul Trust in Rajasthan, India are powerful models for implementing the above. En
non-formal centres of education and making education curriculum deeply linked to local knowledge not only increases
participation but also makes for a more responsive and community based learning process.

3) Compassion, cooperation and co-existence: Challenging competition as a tool to motivate learners. These values a
challenge biases, suspicion of the other and mans constant conquest over nature drawing deeply from the Buddhist
Universal Responsibility and the Gandhian principle of Sanmati. For too long, the fear of communal politics has led
apprehension of using the existing cultural knowledge in this region which lends themselves to peace and social chan
wisdom of spiritual thinkers from the Buddha to Iqbal have been scarcely reflected upon or brought to light for the you
with. SPIC MACAY Gurkul Scholarship is a good example of how one can innovatively bridge this gap, exposing and
students to these ideas, looking beyond the current accepted system of education, and exploring ideas that are gener
by the dominant sensibilities. The three principles mentioned above find a deep resonance in the synchronic traditions
wisdom of this region and should find a voice in the curriculum and teaching methods of this region.

4) Curriculum, context and dialogical learning: questions power, politics and pedagogy. What we teach is as important
teach. The content or the subject matter then becomes the lens from which you approach and view the given situation
the content and the method have to work hand in hand. Curriculum for pedagogy for peace has to be context sensitiv
on dialogical method of teaching which makes it dynamic and constantly being defined and redefined in the light of co
Curriculum has to free itself from prejudices at the same time not be apolitical and removed from reality. The Hoshang
Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) and Eklavya in Madhya Pradesh India is perhaps a good example of engaging
free of prejudices. HSTP has attempted to base science education on the principles of learning by discovery, learni
activity and learning from the environment in contrast to the prevailing textbook centred learning by rote method.

5) Contemplation and self-knowledge questioning an education system that insists humans are nothing more than m
capital: This aspect is normally missing or at best given lip service to at schools. Education as viewed by Gandhi has
three components, that which is for the mind, the body and the spirit. Therefore in his Nai Talim model for education, h
to break the hierarchy of knowledge, which puts mind above body and spirit. Self-knowledge is the fulcrum or anchor,
us build relationships in the world. Most educators and teachers in this region have emphasised its importance in the
process and learning. It is the basis of action, which is based in thought and reflection rather than reaction. Thus from
to Aurobindo and Tagore, all have emphasised its importance, especially during the formative years of a childs learnin
However, this aspect is normally restricted to what is known as holistic school. The Krishanmurti Foundation India an
progressive schools in the metros are examples of this model. The lack of encouragement to this aspect cannot be ju
basis of lack of finances or infrastructure to do it. It is merely matter of priorities of the education system, which is gea
building human capital. This needs to be challenged, for only a people anchored in themselves are capable of creatin
new rather than just human being programmed to solve problems.

Peacebuilding is an intervention that is designed to prevent the start or resumption of violent

conflict by creating a sustainable peace. Peacebuilding activities address the root causes or
potential causes of violence, create a societal expectation for peaceful conflict resolution and
stabilize society politically and socioeconomically. The exact definition varies depending on
the actor, with some definitions specifying what activities fall within the scope of
peacebuilding or restricting peacebuilding to post-conflict interventions.
Peacebuilding includes a wide range of efforts by diverse actors in government and civil
society at the community, national and international levels to address the root causes of
violence and ensure civilians have freedom from fear (negative peace), freedom from want
(positive peace) and freedom from humiliation before, during, and after violent conflict.
The tasks included in peacebuilding vary depending on the situation and the agent of
peacebuilding. Successful peacebuilding activities create an environment supportive of selfsustaining, durable peace; reconcile opponents; prevent conflict from restarting; integrate
civil society; create rule of law mechanisms; and address underlying structural and societal

issues. Researchers and practitioners also increasingly find that peacebuilding is most
effective and durable when it relies upon local conceptions of peace and the underlying
dynamics which foster or enable conflict.[1]

Definition
Although peacebuilding has remained a largely amorphous concept without clear guidelines
or goals,[2] common to all definitions is the agreement that improving human security is the
central task of peacebuilding.
Although many of peacebuilding's aims overlap with those of peacemaking, peacekeeping
and conflict resolution, it is a distinct idea. Peacemaking involves stopping an ongoing
conflict, whereas peacebuilding happens before a conflict starts or once it ends. Peacekeeping
prevents the resumption of fighting following a conflict; it does not address the underlying
causes of violence or work to create societal change, as peacebuiding does. It also differs
from peacebuilding in that it only occurs after conflict ends, not before it begins. Conflict
resolution does not include some components of peacebuilding, such as state building and
socioeconomic development.
In 2007, the UN Secretary-General's Policy Committee defined peacebuilding as follows:
"Peacebuilding involves a range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or
relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict
management, and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and sustainable development.
Peacebuilding strategies must be coherent and tailored to specific needs of the country
concerned, based on national ownership, and should comprise a carefully prioritized,
sequenced, and therefore relatively narrow set of activities aimed at achieving the above
objectives."[3]
There are two broad approaches to peacebuilding.
First, peacebuilding can refer to direct work that intentionally focuses on addressing the
factors driving or mitigating conflict. When applying the term "peacebuilding" to this work,
there is an explicit attempt by those designing and planning a peacebuilding effort to reduce
structural or direct violence.
Second, the term peacebuilding can also refer to efforts to coordinate a multi-level,
multisectoral strategy, including ensuring that there is funding and proper communication and
coordination mechanisms between humanitarian assistance, development, governance,
security, justice and other sectors that may not use the term "peacebuilding" to describe
themselves. The concept is not one to impose on specific sectors. Rather some scholars use
the term peacebuilding is an overarching concept useful for describing a range of interrelated
efforts.
While some use the term to refer to only post-conflict or post-war contexts, most use the term
more broadly to refer to any stage of conflict. Before conflict becomes violent, preventive

peacebuilding efforts, such as diplomatic, economic development, social, educational, health,

legal and security sector reform programs, address potential sources of instability and
violence. This is also termed conflict prevention. Peacebuilding efforts aim to manage,
mitigate, resolve and transform central aspects of the conflict through official diplomacy as
well as through civil society peace processes and informal dialogue, negotiation, and
mediation. Peacebuilding addresses economic, social and political root causes of violence and
fosters reconciliation to prevent the return of structural and direct violence. Peacebuilding
efforts aim to change beliefs, attitudes and behaviors to transform the short and long term
dynamics between individuals and groups toward a more stable, peaceful coexistence.
Peacebuilding is an approach to an entire set of interrelated efforts that support peace.

History
In the 1970s, Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung first created the term peacebuilding
through his promotion of systems that would create sustainable peace. Such systems needed
to address the root causes of conflict and support local capacity for peace management and
conflict resolution.[3] Galtung's work emphasized a bottom-up approach that decentralized
social and economic structures, amounting to a call for a societal shift from structures of
coercion and violence to a culture of peace. American sociologist John Paul Lederach
proposed a different concept of peacebuilding as engaging grassroots, local, NGO,
international and other actors to create a sustainable peace process. He does not advocate the
same degree of structural change as Galtung.[4]
Peacebuilding has since expanded to include many different dimensions, such as
disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and rebuilding governmental, economic and
civil society institutions.[3] The concept was popularized in the international community
through UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's 1992 report An Agenda for Peace.
The report defined post-conflict peacebuilding as an action to identify and support structures
which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict"[5] At
the 2005 World Summit, the United Nations began creating a peacebuilding architecture
based on Kofi Annan's proposals.[6] The proposal called for three organizations: the UN
Peacebuilding Commission, which was founded in 2005; the UN Peacebuilding Fund,
founded in 2006; and the UN Peacebuilding Support Office, which was created in 2005.
These three organizations enable the Secretary-General to coordinate the UN's peacebuilding
efforts.[7] National governments' interest in the topic has also increased due to fears that failed
states serve as breeding grounds for conflict and extremism and thus threaten international
security. Some states have begun to view peacebuilding as a way to demonstrate their
relevance.[8] However, peacebuilding activities continue to account for small percentages of
states' budgets.[9]
The Marshall Plan was a long-term postconflict peacebuilding intervention in Europe with
which the United States aimed to rebuild the continent following the destruction of World
War II. The Plan successfully promoted economic development in the areas it funded.[10]
More recently, peacebuilding has been implemented in postconflict situations in countries
including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and South Africa.[11]

Components of peacebuilding
The hits included in peacebuilding vary depending on the situation and the agent of
peacebuilding. Successful peacebuilding activities create an environment supportive of selfsustaining, durable peace; reconcile opponents; prevent conflict from restarting; integrate
civil society; create rule of law mechanisms; and address underlying structural and societal
issues. To accomplish these goals, peacebuilding must address functional structures,
emotional conditions and social psychology, social stability, rule of law and ethics and
cultural sensitivities.[12]
Preconflict peacebuilding interventions aim to prevent the start of violent conflict.[13] These
strategies involve a variety of actors and sectors in order to transform the conflict.[14] Even
though the definition of peacebuilding includes preconflict interventions, in practice most
peacebuilding interventions are postconflict.[15] However, many peacebuilding scholars
advocate an increased focus on preconflict peacebuilding in the future.[13][14]
There are many different approaches to categorization of forms of peacebuilding among the
peacebuilding field's many scholars.
Barnett et al. divides postconflict peacebuilding into three dimensions: stabilizing the postconflict zone, restoring state institutions and dealing with social and economic issues.
Activities within the first dimension reinforce state stability post-conflict and discourage
former combatants from returning to war (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, or
DDR). Second dimension activities build state capacity to provide basic public goods and
increase state legitimacy. Programs in the third dimension build a post-conflict society's
ability to manage conflicts peacefully and promote socioeconomic development.[16]
1st Dimension

Taking away weapons

Re-integrating former combatants into civilian society

A mixture of locally and internationally focused components is key to building a long-term

sustainable peace.[12][17] Mac Ginty says that while different "indigenous" communities utilize
different conflict resolution techniques, most of them share the common characteristics
described in the table. Since indigenous peacebuilding practices arise from local
communities, they are tailored to local context and culture in a way that generalized
international peacebuilding approaches are not.[18]

Respected local figures

Public dimension

Storytelling and airing of grievances

Emphasis on relationships

Reliance on local resources

Major organizations
Intergovernmental organizations

The United Nations participates in many aspects of peacebuilding, both through the
peacebuilding architecture established in 2005-6 and through other agencies.

Peacebuilding architecture
o

UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC): intergovernmental advisory

body[7] that brings together key actors, gathers resources, advises
on strategies for post-conflict peacebuilding and highlights issues
that might undermine peace.[19]

UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF): supports peacebuilding activities that

directly promote post-conflict stabilization and strengthen state and
institutional capacity. PBF funding is either given for a maximum of
two years immediately following conflict to jumpstart peacebuilding
and recovery needs or given for up to three years to create a more
structured peacebuilding process.[20]

UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO): supports the Peacebuilding

Commission with strategic advice and policy guidance, administers
the Peacebuilding Fund and helps the Secretary-General coordinate
UN agencies' peacebuilding efforts.[7]

Other agencies
o

Peacebuilding Portal: provides information and develops

communication networks in the peacebuilding community to build
local, national, intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations' capacity

UN Department of Political Affairs: postconflict peacebuilding

UN Development Programme: conflict prevention, peacebuilding,

postconflict recovery[21]

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund focus on the economic and financial
aspects of peacebuilding. The World Bank assists in post-conflict reconstruction and recovery
by helping rebuild society's socioeconomic framework. The International Monetary Fund
deals with post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding by acting to restore assets and production
levels.[21]
The EU's European Commission describes its peacebuilding activities as conflict prevention
and management, and rehabilitation and reconstruction. Conflict prevention and management
entails stopping the imminent outbreak of violence and encouraging a broad peace process.
Rehabilitation and reconstruction deals with rebuilding the local economy and institutional
capacity.[22] The European Commission Conflict Prevention and Peace building 2001-2010
was subjected to a major external evaluation conducted by Aide a la Decisions Economique
(ADE) with the European Centre for Development Policy Management which was presented
in 2011.[23] The European External Action Service created in 2010 also has a specific Division
of Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Mediation.
Governmental organizations

USAID logo

France

French Ministry of Defence: operations include peacekeeping, political and

constitutional processes, democratization, administrative state capacity,
technical assistance for public finance and tax policy, and support for
independent media

French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs: supports peace

consolidation, including monitoring compliance with arms embargoes,
deployment of peacekeeping troops, DDR, and deployment of police and
gendarmerie in support of the rule of law

French Development Agency: focuses on crisis prevention through

humanitarian action and development

Germany

German Federal Foreign Office: assists with conflict resolution and

postconflict peacebuilding, including the establishment of stable state
structures (rule of law, democracy, human rights, and security) and the
creation of the potential for peace within civil society, the media, cultural
affairs and education

German Federal Ministry of Defence: deals with the destruction of a

countrys infrastructure resulting from intrastate conflict, security forces
reform, demobilization of combatants, rebuilding the justice system and
government structures and preparations for elections

German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development:

addresses economic, social, ecological, and political conditions to help
eliminate the structural causes of conflict and promote peaceful conflict
management; issues addressed include poverty reduction, pro-poor
sustainable economic growth, good governance and democracy

Switzerland

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA): following the bill passed by

the Swiss Federal Parliament in 2004 which outlined various measures for
civil peacebuilding and human rights strengthening, the Human Security
Division (HSD) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has
been responsible for implementing measures which serve to promote
human security around the world. It is the competence centre for peace,
human rights and humanitarian policy, and for Switzerlands migration
foreign policy.[24] To this end, the FDFA gets a line of credit to be renewed
and approved by Parliament every four years (it was CHF 310 million for
the 20122016 period.) Its main peacebuilding programmes focus on 1.
the African Great Lakes region (Burundi and Democratic Republic of
Congo), 2. Sudan, South Sudan and the Horn of Africa, 3. West Africa and
Sahel, 4. Middle East, 5. Nepal, 6. South Eastern Europe and 7. Colombia.

United Kingdom

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office: performs a range of reconstruction

activities required in the immediate aftermath of conflict

UK Ministry of Defence: deals with long-term activities addressing the

underlying causes of conflict and the needs of the people

UK Department for International Development: works on conflict

prevention (short-term activities to prevent the outbreak or recurrence of
violent conflict) and peacebuilding (medium- and long-term actions to
address the factors underlying violent conflict), including DDR programs;
building the public institutions that provide security, transitional justice
and reconciliation; and providing basic social services

United States

United States Department of State: aids postconflict states in establishing

the basis for a lasting peace, good governance and sustainable
development

United States Department of Defense: assists with reconstruction,

including humanitarian assistance, public health, infrastructure, economic
development, rule of law, civil administration and media; and stabilization,
including security forces, communication skills, humanitarian capabilities
and area expertise

United States Agency for International Development: performs immediate

interventions to build momentum in support of the peace process
including supporting peace negotiations; building citizen security;
promoting reconciliation; and expanding democratic political processes [25]

United States Institute of Peace:

Nongovernmental organizations

Alliance for Peacebuilding: Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that works to

prevent and resolve violent conflict through collaboration between
government, intergovernmental organizations and nongovernmental
organizations; and to increase awareness of peacebuilding policies and
best practices

Berghof Foundation: Berlin-based independent, non-governmental and

non-profit organisation that supports efforts to prevent political and social
violence, and to achieve sustainable peace through conflict
transformation.

Catholic Relief Services: Baltimore-based Catholic humanitarian agency

that provides emergency relief post-disaster or post-conflict and
encourages long-term development through peacebuilding and other
activities

Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War: Organisation in London that

promotes peacebuilding as an alternative to military security via a Peace
Tax Bill and reform of the 1 billion UK Conflict, Stability and Security Fund.

Conciliation Resources: London-based independent organisation working

with people in conflict to prevent violence and build peace.

Crisis Management Initiative: Helsinki-based organization that works to

resolve conflict and build sustainable peace by bringing international
peacebuilding experts and local leaders together

IIDA Women's Development Organisation is a Somali non-profit, politically

independent, non-governmental organisation, created by women in order
to work for peacebuilding and womens rights defence in Somalia.

Initiatives of Change: global organization dedicated to "building trust

across the world's divides" (of culture, nationality, belief, and background),

involved in peacebuilding and peace consolidation since 1946 [26] and

currently in the Great Lakes area of Africa, [27] Sierra Leone and other areas
of conflict.

International Alert: London-based charity that works with people affected

by violent conflict to improve their prospects for peace and helps shape
and strength peacebuilding policies and practices

International Crisis Group: Brussels-based nonprofit that gives advice to

governments and intergovernmental organizations on the prevention and
resolution of deadly conflict

Interpeace: Geneva-based nonprofit and strategic partner of the United

Nations that works to build lasting peace by following five core principles
that put people at the center of the peacebuilding process

Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group: Since 1992 models and

supports relationships among adversaries, while creating how-to
documentary films. From 2003-2007, with Camp Tawonga brought
hundreds of adults and youth from 50 towns in Palestine and Israel to
successfully live and communicate together at the Palestinian-Jewish
Family Peacemakers CampOseh Shalom - Sanea al-Salam [28]

Peace Direct: London-based charity that provides financial and

administrative assistance to grassroots peacebuilding efforts and
increases international awareness of both specific projects and grassroots
peacebuilding in general;

Saferworld: UK-based independent international organisation working to

prevent violent conflict and build safer lives;

Search for Common Ground: international organization founded in 1982

and working in 35 countries that uses evidence-based approaches to
transform the way communities deal with conflict towards cooperative
solutions;

Seeds of Peace: New York City-based nonprofit that works to empower

youth from areas of conflict by inviting them to an international camp in
Maine for leadership training and relationship building;

United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY Peacebuilders): The Haguebased network of young leaders and youth organizations that facilitates
affiliated organizations' peacebuilding efforts through networking, sharing
information, research and fundraising

Tuesday's Children: New York-based organization that brings together

teens, ages 1520, from the New York City area and around the world who
share a common bondthe loss of a family member due to an act of
terrorism. Launched in 2008, Project COMMON BOND has so far helped
308 teenagers from 15 different countries and territories turn their
experiences losing a loved one to terrorism into positive actions that can
help others exposed to similar tragedy. Participants share the vision of the
program to Let Our Past Change the Future. [29]

Karuna Center for Peacebuilding: U.S.-based international nonprofit

organization that leads training and programs in post-conflict
peacebuilding for government, development institutions, civil society
organizations, and local communities

Nonviolent Peaceforce: Brussels-based nonprofit that promotes and

implements unarmed civilian peacekeeping as a tool for reducing violence
and protecting civilians in situations of violent conflict

Research and academic institutes

United States Institute of Peace Headquarters in Washington D.C.

Center for Justice and Peacebuilding: academic program at Eastern

Mennonite University; promotes peacebuilding, creation care, experiential
learning, and cross-cultural engagement; teachings are based on
Mennonite Christianity

Center for Peacebuilding and Development: academic center at American

University's School of International Service; promotes cross-cultural
development of research and practices in peace education, civic
engagement, nonviolent resistance, conflict resolution, religion and peace,
and peacebuilding

Irish Peace Institute: promotes peace and reconciliation in Ireland and

works to apply lessons from Ireland's conflict resolution to other conflicts

Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies: degree-granting

institute at the University of Notre Dame; promotes research, education
and outreach on the causes of violent conflict and the conditions for
sustainable peace

United States Institute of Peace: non-partisan federal institution that works

to prevent or end violent conflict around the world by sponsoring research
and using it to inform actions

University for Peace: international institution of higher education located in

Costa Rica; aims to promote peace by engaging in teaching, research,
training and dissemination of knowledge necessary for building peace

swisspeace: a practice-oriented peace research institute that is associated

with the University of Basel, Switzerland; analyzes the causes of violent
conflicts and develops strategies for their peaceful transformation.

Role of women
Women have traditionally played a limited role in peacebuilding processes even though they
often bear the responsibility for providing for their families' basic needs in the aftermath of
violent conflict. They are especially likely to be unrepresented or underrepresented in
negotiations, political decision-making, upper-level policymaking and senior judicial
positions. Many societies' patriarchal cultures prevent them from recognizing the role women
can play in peacebuilding.[30] However, many peacebuilding academics and the United
Nations have recognized that women play a vital role in securing the three pillars of
sustainable peace: economic recovery and reconciliation, social cohesion and development
and political legitimacy, security and governance.[31][32]
At the request of the Security Council, the Secretary-General issued a report on women's
participation in peacebuilding in 2010. The report outlines the challenges women continue to
face in participating in recovery and peacebuilding process and the negative impact this
exclustion has on them and societies more broadly. To respond to these challenges, it
advocates a comprehensive 7-point action plan covering the seven commitment areas:
mediation; post-conflict planning; financing; civilian capacity; post-conflict governance; rule
of law; and economic recovery. The action plan aims to facilitate progress on the women,
peace and security agenda. The monitoring and implementation of this action plan is now
being led jointly by the Peacebuilding Support Office and UN Women.[33] In April 2011, the
two organizations convened a workshop to ensure that women are included in future postdisaster and post-conflict planning documents. In the same year, the PBF selected seven
gender-sensitive peacebuilding projects to receive $5 million in funding.[31]
Porter discusses the growing role of female leadership in countries prone to war and its
impact on peacebuilding. When the book was written, seven countries prone to violent
conflict had female heads of state. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and Michelle Bachelet of
Chile were the first female heads of state from their respective countries and President
Johnson-Sirleaf was the first female head of state in Africa. Both women utilized their gender
to harness "the power of maternal symbolism - the hope that a woman could best close
wounds left on their societies by war and dictatorship."[34]

Ongoing efforts

Ongoing UN PBC and PBF projects[35]

Ongoing UN PBF projects[36]

The UN Peacebuilding Commission works in Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea,

Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone[35] and the UN Peacebuilding Fund funds projects in
Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon,
Liberia, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, Timor-Leste
and Uganda.[36] Other UN organizations are working in Haiti (MINUSTAH),[37] Lebanon,[38]
Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq.
The World Bank's International Development Association maintains the Trust Fund for East
Timor in Timor-Leste. The TFET has assisted reconstruction, community empowerment and
local governance in the country.[39]
As part of the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq, the United States has invested $104
billion in reconstruction and relief efforts for the two countries. The Iraq Relief and
Reconstruction Fund alone received $21 billion during FY2003 and FY2004.[40] The money
came from the United States Department of State, United States Agency for International
Development and the United States Department of Defense and included funding for security,
health, education, social welfare, governance, economic growth and humanitarian issues.[41]
Civil society organisations sometimes even are working on Peacebuilding themselves. This
for example is the case in Kenya, reports the magazine D+C Development and Cooperation.
After the election riots in Kenya in 2008, civil society organisations started programmes to
avoid similar disasters in the future, for instance the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
Commission (TJRC) and peace meetings organised by the church and they supported the
National Cohesion and Integration Commission.

Results
In 2010, the UNPBC conducted a review of its work with the first four countries on its
agenda.[42] An independent review by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting also highlighted
some of the PBC's early successes and challenges.[43]
One comprehensive study finds that UN peacebuilding missions significantly increase the
likelihood of democratization.[44]

Criticisms
Jennifer Hazen [2] contends there are two major debates relating to peacebuilding; the first
centres on the role of the liberal democratic model in designing peacebuilding activities and
measuring outcomes and the other one questions the role of third-party actors in
peacebuliding.
Regarding the debate about the role of the liberal democratic model in peacebuilding, one
side contends that liberal democracy is a viable end goal for peacebuilding activities in itself
but that the activities implemented to achieve it need to be revised; a rushed transition to
democratic elections and market economy can undermine stability and elections held or

economic legislation enacted are an inappropriate yardstick for success. Institutional change
is necessary and transitions need to be incremental. Another side contends that liberal
democracy might be an insufficient or even inappropriate goal for peacebuilding efforts and
that the focus must be on a social transformation to develop non-violent mechanisms of
conflict resolution regardless of their form.[2]
With regards to the role of third-party actors, David Chandler [45] contends that external
support creates dependency and undermines local and domestic politics, thus undermining
autonomy and the capacity for self-governance and leaving governments weak and dependent
on foreign assistance once the third-party actors depart. Since the logic of peacebuilding
relies on building and strengthening institutions to alter societal beliefs and behaviour,
success relies on the populations' endorsement of these institutions. Any third party attempt at
institution building without genuine domestic support will result in hollow institutions - this
can lead to a situation in which democratic institutions are established before domestic
politics have developed in a liberal, democratic fashion, and an unstable polity.
Implementation

Barnett et al. criticizes peacebuilding organizations for undertaking supply-driven rather than
demand-driven peacebuilding; they provide the peacebuilding services in which their
organization specializes, not necessarily those that the recipient most needs.[46] In addition, he
argues that many of their actions are based on organizations precedent rather than empirical
analysis of which interventions are and are not effective.[9] More recently, Ben Hillman has
criticized international donor efforts to strengthen local governments in the wake of conflict.
He argues that international donors typically do not have the knowledge, skills or resources to
bring meaningful change to the way post-conflict societies are governed.[47][48]
Perpetuation of cultural hegemony

Many academics argue that peacebuilding is a manifestation of liberal internationalism and

therefore imposes Western values and practices onto other cultures. Mac Ginty states that
although peacebuilding does not project all aspects of Western culture on to the recipient
states, it does transmit some of them, including concepts like neoliberalism that the West
requires recipients of aid to follow more closely than most Western countries do.[49] Barnett
also comments that the promotion of liberalization and democratization may undermine the
peacebuilding process if security and stable institutions are not pursued concurrently.[50]
Richmond has shown how 'liberal peacebuilding' represents a political encounter that may
produce a post-liberal form of peace. Local and international actors, norms, institutions and
interests engage with each other in various different contexts, according to their respective
power relations and their different conceptions of legitimate authority structures.[51]

26.1NATUREOFCONFLICT

Theideaofconflictisbasictoourunderstandingandappreciationofour
exchangewithrealityofhumanaction.Conflictcanbetreatedbroadlyasa
philosophicalcategorydenotingtheclashofpoweragainstpowerinthe
strivingofallthingstobecomemanifest.Or,conflictcanbeseensimplyasa
distinctcategoryofsocialbehaviorastwopartiestryingtogetsomething
theybothcannothave.Moreover,conflictcanbeapprehendedasa
potentialityorasituation,asastructureoramanifestation,asaneventora
process.
Theconceptofconflictismultidimensional;itenvelopsafamilyofforms.We
selectonedependingonouranalyticalpurposesandpracticalproblem.
Becausemyconcernistounderstandconflictasasocialfieldphenomena,I
mustfirstconsiderconflictasageneralcategory.Fromthismostgeneral
conceptionIcanworktowardscomprehendingsocialconflict,andits
empiricalmanifestations.
Realitycomprisesmultiformandinterwovenpotentialities,dispositions,and
powers.Whataspectbecomesmanifestdependsonthedialectical
confrontationbetweenthisrealityandourperspective,whichisapower,an
outwarddirectedvector.Whatweperceiveistheresultoftheconflictbetween
thisvectorandreality'sinwardbearingvectorofpower(e.g.,betweena
baby'scryandwhatwearefocusingonatthemoment).
Suchistheviewofrealityprovidedbythefieldapproachofthisbook.What
thenisconflict?Conflictisabalancingofvectorsofpowers,ofcapabilitiesto
produceeffects.Itisaclashofpowers.Butnote.Conflictisnotabalance,an
equilibrium,ofpowers.Itisnotastableresultant.Conflictisthepushingand
pulling,thegivingandtaking,theprocessoffindingthebalancebetween

powers.Thus,Ihavefavoredthetermdialecticalthemovingbackandforth
inafieldofconfrontationtodescribeperception.Forperceptionisseldom
determinate.Itisacontinualbalancingofoutwarddirectedandinward
bearingvectorsofpower,aperpetualconflict.
Mostfundamentally,therefore,conflictiscorrelativetopower.Power,simply,
isthecapabilitytoproduceeffects;conflictistheprocessofpowersmeeting
andbalancing.Tounderstandwhatpowersbecomesucceedrequires
comprehendingtheirconflicts;tounderstandconflictinvolvesuntanglingthe
powersinvolved.
Conflictisthereforeuniversal,asHeracleituspointedout.Ourvery
experiencepresupposesconflictinitsgeneration,andourknowledge,apart
fromitsaprioricategories,isbasedonsuchconflict.Ourlearningabout
ourselves,others,andreality,ourgrowthanddevelopment,andour
increasingabilitytocreateourownheavenorhell,comesthroughconflict.
Thedesiretoeradicateconflict,thehopeforharmonyanduniversal
cooperation,isthewishforafrozen,unchangingworldwithallrelationships
fixedintheirpatternswithallinbalance.Oneinwhichwecannothopenor
planforabettertomorrow,butcanonlyfollowourinevitablecourse,withthe
determinedupsanddownsofawoodenhorseonamerrygoround.

26.2LEVELSOFCONFLICT

Asabalancingofpowers,conflictembodiesthelevelsofpotentiality,
dispositions,ormanifestations.Potentialityiswhatmaybecome;itisthespace
ofpossibilities,asthespaceofablackboardistherealmofallthetwo
dimensionalfiguresandformsthatmaybedrawnonit.
Conflictaspotentialityisthenthespaceofpossibleconflicts:therealmof
potentialopposingvectorsofpower.
Forexample,thespaceofourinterests(whereinterestsarevectorsofpower) 1
isaspaceofpotentialconflicts;thispageoftextisaspaceofpotentialconflict
betweenthepowerofthesewordsandthemeaningyouprojectontothem;the

twodimensionalspaceofalandscapepaintingisapotentialconflictbetween
thevectorsofactioninthepaintingwhichstandindynamictensionandthe
viewer'sperspective.Letmecallsuchconflictpotentialsaconflictspace.Itis
thespacewithinwhichconflictcanoccur,althoughatanymomenttheremay
benoongoingconflict.
Ourreality,then,isaconflictspace.Evenourperceptionpresupposesa
conflictbetweeninwarddirectedvectorsandouractivereachingouttosense
andcomprehendsuchreality.
Areallspacesofpotentials,then,conflictspaces?Yes,forallpotentialsmay
beopposed;allpotentialitieshaveinherentintheirspacethepossibilityof
conflict.Evenaonedimensionalspacecontainsthepossibilityofopposing
vectors,astrainsheadedforcollisiononastraightrailroadtrack.
Butpotentialityisonlyonelevelofreality.Asecondisthatofdispositionsand
powers:ofpotentialitiestransformedintotendenciestowardspecificityand
theirstrengthtobesomanifest.Atthislevelwecandiscriminatebetweentwo
facetsofconflict:aconflictstructureofthosedispositionsopposingeachother
withintheconflictspace;andtheconflictsituationconsistingofopposing
powers,andtheirindeterminatebalancing.Clearly,someclarificationis
required.
Realityisamultidimensionalspaceofpotentialitiesandmultifold,divergent,
congruent,intersecting,andopposingdispositions.Twosuchdispositionsare
oxygenandhydrogen,whichhavethetendencytoformadynamicbalance
calledwater.Wateritselfhastheopposingdispositionstobecomesteamor
ice.Normally,inwaterthesedispositionsformastructure;theyexistwith
littlestrengthtowardsconflict.Neitherheatingthewatertoboilingnor
freezingitaltersthestructureofconflict,althoughthedispositionofwaterto
becomesteamoriceismanifested.Thestructuremerelyindicatesthe
existenceofdispositionswhichhaveatendencytoconflict.Thus,slavesand
masters,proletariatandbourgeoisie,andpeasantandlandownercomprise
structuresofconflict,regardlessofthestrengthoftheiropposingdispositions.

Withinaconflictstructure,however,mayexistaconflictsituation.Thisisa
situationinwhichtheopposingtendenciesareactivatedopposingpowersare
manifest.Considerwateragain.Ifwateriscontainedinapipetenmeterslong
withoneendheatedbyatorchandtheotherpackedindryice,theopposing
dispositionstobecomesteamoriceareactivated.Thatis,theyhavebecome
opposingpowerstowardsmanifestation.Similarly,ifbothslavesandmasters
shareanormativesystemlegitimizingslavery,aswastrueinclassicalGreece,
thenthereexistsastructureofconflict,butnoconflictsituation.However,let
areligionspreadwhichemphasizestheequalityandfreedomofallpeopleand
theevilsofslavery,andslavesbecomeconsciousoftheirexploitationandthe
mastersbecomeawareoftheneedtoprotecttheirinterests.Dispositionshave
becomeactualopposingpowers:aconflictsituationexists.
Thefinallevelofrealityisofmanifestations.Thisisthelevelofmanifest
conflict,ofconflictbehavior,wheretheoppositionofpowersisspecific.For
waterenclosedinapipe,thesimultaneousheatingandfreezingofthetwo
endsthesituationofconflictmanifestsarapidcirculationofwater.This
circulationreflectsthebalancingofpowersthestruggleofopposite
tendencieswithinthewater.Likewise,secretmeetingsamongslavesandthe
organizationofanescaperoutemanifesttheconflictsituation.
Onthiswemustbecareful,however.Thisprocesshasthreefacets:opposing
attemptstoproduceeffects,thatis,opposingpowers;thebalancingofthese
powers;andtheactualbalanceofpowers.Nowtheopposingpowerscreatea
conflictsituationatthelevelofdispositionsandpowers.Onthisplanethe
actualbalancing,theprocessoftheirclashing,maybepartiallyindeterminate,
liketheunconsciouscognitivebalancinginapsychologicalfieldwhich
partiallyunderliesourperception,orthemovementofmoleculesinthe
circulatingwater.However,aspectsofthisprocessmaybecomemanifest.We
perceivetherapidlycirculatingwaterinthepipe(assumethepipeismadeof
aspecialglass),slavesmayriotordemonstrateagainsttheirmasters.
Consequently,thebalancingprocessoccursbothatthelevelofdispositions
andpowersandofmanifesteffects;theprocessmayinvolveboththeconflict
situationandmanifestconflict.Thethunderstormwhichmanifeststheconflict

betweenhotandcoldairsystemsisbutthedeterminateaspectofthe
balancingofthesetwosystems.
Finally,thereisthebalanceofpowers,themomentaryequilibrium
establishedbetweentheopposingpowers.Thisbalanceismanifest,
determinate.Muchofourperceptionconstitutessuchabalancebetween
outwardandinwarddirectedpowers(asachild'scrymayovercomeone's
absorptioninaTVdrama).Althoughwatermaybeabalancingbetween
tendenciestobecomesteamorice,thereisstillsufficientbalancetomanifest
thequalitiesofaliquid.Althoughtheremaybeasituationofconflictbetween
slavesandmasters,asufficientbalanceoftheopposingpowersmayexistto
manifestthepatternsofdominanceandsubordination.
Abalanceofpowersisnolongeraconflict.Itisneitheraconflictnormanifest
conflict.Itisasystemofmanifesteffects.
Manifestrealitythereforehastwoforms.Manifestationsareeithera
balancingofpowersorabalanceofpowers.Thus,manifestroles,norms,or
practicesinsocietyevidenceabalanceamongsocialpowers.Acourtcase,
however,involvingthelegalityofaparticularrule,sayofaregulatoryagency,
manifestsabalancingofpowers.

Toconclude,conflictisabalancingofpowerswhichcanbecorrelatedto
potentiality,dispositions,andmanifestationsasshowninFigure26.1.The
levelsofrealityshownarethecategoriesofbeingdiscussedinChapter3.The
levelsofconflictareshowncorrelativetothese,andthedynamicsofeachlevel

areshownabove.Thentheideasoflatentandmanifestconflict,muchusedin
thecontemporaryliteratureonconflict,areshownintheirrelationshipto
theselevels.Notethatthebalanceofpowersismanifest,butnotall
manifestationsreflectabalanceofpowers.Somecompriseabalancingof
powers,i.e.,manifestconflict.

Figure26.2showsthelogicalrelationshipbetweenthelevelsofconflictandof
reality.Thespaceofpotentialityandofconflictaredifferent
conceptualizationsofthesamespace.Aconflictstructureandconflict
situationaresubregionsonthelevelofdispositionsandpowers.Andmanifest
conflictisasubsetofmanifestations.
Althoughthesevariouslevelsinthetwofiguresappeartobedividedinto
discreteboxesorregions,thelinesfunctiononlytodiscriminateconcepts.In
reality,thereisashadingfromoneleveltoanother,acontinuity.Potentiality
mergesintodispositionsandpowers.Whatismanifestmaybefocusedand
sharp,specificanddeterminateatthecenter,butbecomegraduallyhazyand

indistinctattheedgessuchthatwheremanifestationleavesoffanddisposition
beginsisunclear.

Conflict refers to some form of friction, disagreement, or discord arising within a group
when the beliefs or actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or
unacceptable to one or more members of another group. Conflict can arise between members
of the same group, known as intragroup conflict, or it can occur between members of two or
more groups, and involve violence, interpersonal discord, and psychological tension, known
as intergroup conflict. Conflict in groups often follows a specific course. Routine group
interaction is first disrupted by an initial conflict, often caused by differences of opinion,
disagreements between members, or scarcity of resources. At this point, the group is no
longer united, and may split into coalitions. This period of conflict escalation in some cases
gives way to a conflict resolution stage, after which the group can eventually return to
routine group interaction once again.

Definitions
M. Afzalur Rakhim notes there is no single universally accepted definition of conflict.[1] He
notes that one issue of contention is whether the conflict is a situation or a type of behavior.[2]
Citing a review of definitions of organizational conflicts in 1990 by Robert A. Baron,[3]
Rakhim notes the following common elements in the definitions of conflict:[2]

there are recognized opposing interests between parties in a zero-sum

situation;

there must be a belief by each side that the other one is acting or will act
against them;

this belief is likely to be justified by actions taken;

conflict is a process, having developed from their past interactions;

Building on that, the proposed definition of conflict by Rakhim is "an interactive process
manifested in incompatibility, disagreement or dissonance within or between social
entities."[2] Rakhim also notes that a conflict may be limited to one individual, who is
conflicted within himself (the intrapersonal conflict).[2]
To take another definition of conflict, Michael Nicholson defines it as an activity which takes
place when conscious beings (individuals or groups) wish to carry out mutually inconsistent
acts concerning their wants, needs or obligations.[4] Conflict is an escalation of a
disagreement, which is its common prerequisite, and is characterized by the existence of
conflict behavior, in which the beings are actively trying to damage one another.[5] Rakhim
lists some manifestations of conflict behavior, starting with disagreement, and followed by
verbal abuse and interference.[6]
Conflicts can occur between individuals, groups and organizations; examples include quarrels
between individuals, labor strikes, competitive sports, or armed conflicts.[7]

Role of emotion in inter-group relations and conflict

A key player in inter-group relations and conflict is the collective sentiment a persons own
group (in-group) feels toward another group (out-group). These intergroup emotions are
usually negative, and range in intensity from feelings of discomfort when interacting with a
member of a certain other group to full on hatred for another group and its members. For
example, in Fischer's organisational research at the University of Oxford, inter-group conflict
was so 'heated' that it became mutually destructive and intractable, resulting in organizational
collapse.[8][9]
Out-group-directed emotions can be expressed both verbally and non-verbally, and according
to the stereotype content model, are dictated by two dimensions: the perceived warmth (How
friendly and sincere is the other group?) and competence of the other group (How skillful is
the other group?). Depending on the perceived degree of warmth and competence, the
stereotype content model predicts four basic emotions that could be directed toward the outgroup (Forsyth, 2006).
1) Envy- Results when the out-group is perceived to have high competence, but low warmth
(Cuddy, Fiske & Glick, 2007). Envious groups are usually jealous of another groups
symbolic and tangible achievements and view that group as competition (Forsyth, 2006).
2) Contempt- The out-group is taken to be low in both competence and warmth (Cuddy, Fiske
& Glick, 2007). According to Forsyth, contempt is one of the most frequent intergroup
emotions. In this situation, the out-group is held responsible for its own failures. In-group
members also believe that their conflict with the out-group can never be resolved (Forsyth,
2006).
3) Pity- Out-groups that are believed by the in-group to be high in warmth but low in
competence are pitied (Cuddy, Fiske & Glick, 2007). Usually pitied groups are lower in

status than the in-group, and are not believed to be responsible for their failures (Forsyth,
2006).
4) Admiration- Admiration occurs when an out-group is taken to be high in both warmth and
competence, however admiration is very rare because these two conditions are seldom met
(Cuddy, Fiske & Glick, 2007). An admired out-group is thought to be completely deserving
of its accomplishments. Admiration is thought to be most likely to arise when a member of
the in-group can take pride in the accomplishments of the out-group, and when the out-group
achieving does not interfere with the in-group (Forsyth, 2006). Sadhya boy

Types of conflict
Conflict is rarely seen as constructive; however, in certain contexts (such as competition in
sports), moderate levels of conflict can be seen as being mutually beneficial, facilitating
understanding, tolerance, learning, and effectiveness.[10] Sophia Jowett differentiates between
content conflict, where individuals disagree about how to deal with a certain issue, and
relational conflict, where individuals disagree about one another, noting that the content
conflict can be beneficial, increasing motivation and stimulating discussion, whereas the
relational conflicts decreases performance, loyalty, satisfaction, and commitment, and causes
individuals to be irritable, negative and suspicious.[10] Irving Janis proposed that conflict is
beneficial in groups and committees to avoid the error of "group think".[11]
Jehn and Mannix have proposed a division of conflicts into three types: relationship, task, and
process.[12] Relationship conflict stems from interpersonal incompatibilities; task conflict is
related to disagreements in viewpoints and opinion about a particular task, and process
conflict refers to disagreement over the groups approach to the task, its methods, and its
group process.[12] They note that although relationship conflict and process conflict are
harmful, task conflict is found to be beneficial since it encourages diversity of opinions,
although care should be taken so it does not develop into process or relationship conflict.[12]
Task conflict has been associated with two interrelated and beneficial effects. The first is
group decision quality. Task conflict encourages greater cognitive understanding of the issue
being discussed. This leads to better decision making for the groups that use task conflict.
The goal is to train your team to better solve problems.
The second is affective acceptance of group decisions. Task conflict can lead to increased
satisfaction with the group decision and a desire to stay in the group. Encourage the group
members to respect each other's opinions and to listen carefully. The goal is to train your
team to better work together. [13]
Amason and Sapienza in turn differentiate between affective and cognitive conflict, where
cognitive conflict is task-oriented and arises from differences in perspective or judgment, and
affective conflict is emotional and arises from personal differences and disputes.[14]

Five beliefs that propel groups toward conflict

Roy Eidelson and Judy Eidelson (2003) investigated some of the important roles that beliefs
may play in triggering or constraining conflict between groups. On the basis of a review of
relevant literature, five belief domains stand out as especially noteworthy: Superiority,
injustice, vulnerability, distrust and helplessness.[15]
1. Superiority
Individual-level core belief: This core belief revolves around a person's
enduring conviction that he or she is better than other people in important
ways. The cluster of attitudes commonly associated with this belief
includes a sense of specialness, deserving ness, and entitlement.
Group-level worldview: Many of these elements are also present in the
superiority worldview at the group level. This worldview encompasses
shared convictions of moral superiority, chosenness, entitlement and
special destiny. Several joint working committees of the American
Psychological Association have identified "belief in the superiority of one
group's cultural heritage (history, values, language, traditions, arts and
crafts, etc.) over another's as a defining characteristic of the phenomenon
they termed ethnocentric monoculturalism.[16]

2. Injustice
Individual-level core belief: The perceived mistreatment by specific
others or by the world at large. This mindset can lead the individual to
identify something as unfair which is merely unfortunate, and thereby to
inappropriately engage in retaliatory acts.
Group-level worldview: The injustice worldview reflects the in-groups
conviction that it has significant and legitimate grievances against another
group. This mindset can mobilize powerful and violent collective
insurgencies, especially because shared perceptions of injustice typically
heighten the identification and allegiance that individuals feel towards
their group. Further, these assessments of mistreatment are particularly
common across cultural divides because different cultures tend to have
different definitions for what constitutes justice, and different norms for
how it should be achieved.

3. Vulnerability
Individual-level core belief: The vulnerability core belief revolves
around a person's conviction that he or she s perpetually living in harm's
way. Vulnerability involves a person's perception of him or herself as
subject to internal or external dangers over which control is lacking, or is
insufficient to afford him or her a sense of safety.

Group-level worldview: Important parallels to this individual-level core

belief are present in a collective vulnerability worldview that again
appears to be widespread among ethnic groups. Fears about the future are
the most common cause of ethnic conflicts and often produce spiralling
violence. The vulnerability worldview is catastrophic thinking in which a
group's imagined worst case scenarios take on the inexorable logic of
inevitability.

4. Distrust
Individual-level core belief: This core belief focuses on the presumed
hostility and malign intent of others. The critical role played by issues of
trust in individual psychological development has long been recognized.
The expectation that others will hurt, abuse, humiliate, cheat, lie, or take
advantage usually involves the perception that harm is intentional or the
result of unjustified and extreme negligence. People who consistently
assume the worst about the intentions of others prevent truly
collaborative relationships from developing.
Group-level worldview: As an extension of this individual-level core
belief to larger groups. the distrust worldview focuses specifically on
perceptions of outgroups and revolves around beliefs that the other is
untrustworthy and harbors malign intentions toward the in-group.

5. Helplessness
Individual-level core belief: The conviction that even carefully planned
and executed actions will fail to produce desired outcomes. In some cases,
the individual may perceive him or herself as lacking the ability necessary
to attain a goal. Regardless of the extent to which helplessness is a matter
of distorted perception or objective reality, this core belief tends to be selfperpetuating because it diminishes motivation.
Group-level worldview: The helplessness worldview describes a
collective mindset of powerlessness and dependency. The extent to which
a group perceives itself as helpless reflects assessments not only of its
capabilities, but also of whether the environment is rich or poor in
opportunities for group advancement.

Conflict resolution
Main article: Conflict resolution

Nicholson notes that a conflict is resolved when the inconsistency between wishes and
actions of parties is resolved.[7] Negotiation is an important part of conflict resolution, and any
design of a process which tries to incorporate positive conflict from the start needs to be
cautious not to let it degenerate into the negative types of conflict.[10]
Conflict Mediation

Conflict is a social process that is exacerbated when individual members of a group take sides
in the debate. Among the methods to resolve conflict is mediation of the dispute by a group
member not currently involved in the dispute. More specifically, a mediator is defined as a
person who attempts to resolve a conflict between two group members by intervening in this
conflict. Put simply, the mediator can be thought of as a disinterested guide directs the
disputants through the process of developing a solution to a disagreement (Forsyth, 2006).
Although the tendency will be for group members who are uninvolved in the dispute to
remain uninvolved, in some cases, the sheer intensity of the conflict may escalate to the point
where mediation is unavoidable. Third party mediation of the conflict opens avenues for
communication between group members in conflict. It allows members to express their
opinions and request clarification of other members standpoints while the mediator acts as a
form of protection against any shame or loss of face that either disputant may experience.
This can be done by shedding a positive light on the reconciliation that was made during the
mediation process. For instance, if it was negotiated that two cashiers will rotate the
weekends they work, the mediator might point out that now each worker gets a weekend off
every two weeks (Forsyth, 2006).
The mediator can also offer assistance in refining solutions and making counter-offers
between members, adjusting the time and location of meetings so that they are mutually
satisfying for both parties (Forsyth, 2006).
According to Forsyth (2006), there are three major mediation approaches: Inquisitorial
procedure- Using this procedure, the mediator asks each of the disputants a series of
questions, considers the two sets of responses, and then selects and imposes a mandatory
solution on the members. The inquisitorial procedure is the least popular approach to
mediation.
Arbitration- Here, mediation involves the two disputants explaining their arguments to the
mediator, who creates a solution based on the arguments presented. Arbitration is best for low
intensity conflict, but is the most favored mediation style overall.
Moot- The moot approach involves an open discussion between disputants and the mediator
about the problems and potential solutions. In the moot approach, the mediator cannot impose
a mandatory solution. After arbitration, a moot is the most preferred mediation style.

Conflict theories are perspectives in sociology and social psychology that emphasize the
social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that critique the broad socio-political

system, or that otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism.
Conflict theories draw attention to power differentials, such as class conflict, and generally
contrast historically dominant ideologies. It is therefore a macro level analysis of society.
Karl Marx is the father of the social conflict theory, which is a component of the 4
paradigms of sociology. Certain conflict theories set out to highlight the ideological aspects
inherent in traditional thought. Whilst many of these perspectives hold parallels, conflict
theory does not refer to a unified school of thought, and should not be confused with, for
instance, peace and conflict studies, or any other specific theory of social conflict.

In classical sociology
Of the classical founders of social science, conflict theory is most commonly associated with
Karl Marx (18181883). Based on a dialectical materialist account of history, Marxism
posited that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce
internal tensions leading to its own destruction. Marx ushered in radical change, advocating
proletarian revolution and freedom from the ruling classes. At the same time, Karl Marx was
aware that most of the people living in capitalist societies did not see how the system shaped
the entire operation of society. Just like how we see private property, or the right to pass that
property on to our children as natural, many of the members in capitalistic societies see the
rich as having earned their wealth through hard work and education, while seeing the poor as
lacking in skill and initiative. Marx rejected this type of thinking and termed it false
consciousness, explanations of social problems as the shortcomings of individuals rather
than the flaws of society. Marx wanted to replace this kind of thinking with something Engels
termed class consciousness, workers' recognition of themselves as a class unified in
opposition to capitalist and ultimately to the capitalist system itself. In general, Marx wanted
the proletarians to rise up against the capitalist and overthrow the capitalist system.
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a
word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an
uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a
revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending
classes.
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels The Communist Manifesto 1848,

[1]

In the social productions of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite
relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production
appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of
production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic
structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political
superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.
The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social,
political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines
their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At
a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come

into conflict with the existing relations of production or this merely expresses
the same thing in legal terms with the property relations within the framework
of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the
productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then an era of social
revolution begins. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later
to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.

In studying such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material

transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the
precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic in
short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. Just
as one does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge
such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness
must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between
the social forces of production and the relations of production. No social order is ever
destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and
new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions
for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society.
Mankind thus inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve, since closer
examination will always show that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions
for its solution are already present or at least in the course of formation. In broad outline, the
Asiatic, ancient, [A] feudal and modern bourgeois modes of production may be designated as
epochs marking progress in the economic development of society. The bourgeois mode of
production is the last antagonistic form of the social process of production antagonistic not
in the sense of individual antagonism but of an antagonism that emanates from the
individuals' social conditions of existence but the productive forces developing within
bourgeois society create also the material conditions for a solution of this antagonism. The
prehistory of human society accordingly closes with this social formation.
Karl Marx A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy 1859,

[2]

Two early conflict theorists were the Polish-Austrian sociologist and political theorist Ludwig
Gumplowicz (18381909) and the American sociologist and paleontologist Lester F. Ward
(18411913). Although Ward and Gumplowicz developed their theories independently they
had much in common and approached conflict from a comprehensive anthropological and
evolutionary point-of-view as opposed to Marx's rather exclusive focus on economic factors.
Gumplowicz, in Grundriss der Soziologie (Outlines of Sociology, 1884), describes how
civilization has been shaped by conflict between cultures and ethnic groups. Gumplowicz
theorized that large complex human societies evolved from the war and conquest. Another
organizes states around the domination of one group: masters and slaves. Eventually a
complex caste system develops.[3] Horowitz says that Gumplowicz understood conflict in all
its forms: "class conflict, race conflict and ethnic conflict", and calls him one of the fathers of
Conflict Theory.[4]

What happened in India, Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome may sometime
happen in modern Europe. European civilization may perish, over flooded by
barbaric tribes. But if any one believes that we are safe from such catastrophes
he is perhaps yielding to an all too optimistic delusion. There are no barbaric
tribes in our neighbourhood to be sure but let no one be deceived, their
instincts lie latent in the populace of European states.
Gumplowicz (1884),

[5]

Ward directly attacked and attempted to systematically refute the elite business class's laissezfaire philosophy as espoused by the hugely popular social philosopher Herbert Spencer.
Ward's Dynamic Sociology (1883) was an extended thesis on how to reduce conflict and
competition in society and thus optimize human progress. At the most basic level Ward saw
human nature itself to be deeply conflicted between self-aggrandizement and altruism,
between emotion and intellect, and between male and female. These conflicts would be then
reflected in society and Ward assumed there had been a "perpetual and vigorous struggle"
among various "social forces" that shaped civilization.[6][7] Ward was more optimistic than
Marx and Gumplowicz and believed that it was possible to build on and reform present social
structures with the help of sociological analysis.
Durkheim (18581917) saw society as a functioning organism. Functionalism concerns "the
effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on
the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system,"[8] The chief form of social conflict
that Durkheim addressed was crime. Durkheim saw crime as "a factor in public health, an
integral part of all healthy societies."[9] The collective conscience defines certain acts as
"criminal." Crime thus plays a role in the evolution of morality and law: "[it] implies not only
that the way remains open to necessary changes but that in certain cases it directly prepares
these changes."[10]
Weber's (18641920) approach to conflict is contrasted with that of Marx. While Marx
focused on the way individual behavior is conditioned by social structure, Weber emphasized
the importance of "social action," i.e., the ability of individuals to affect their social
relationships.[11]

Modern approaches
C. Wright Mills has been called the founder of modern conflict theory.[12] In Mills's view,
social structures are created through conflict between people with differing interests and
resources. Individuals and resources, in turn, are influenced by these structures and by the
"unequal distribution of power and resources in the society."[12] The power elite of American
society, (i.e., the militaryindustrial complex) had "emerged from the fusion of the corporate
elite, the Pentagon, and the executive branch of government." Mills argued that the interests
of this elite were opposed to those of the people. He theorized that the policies of the power
elite would result in "increased escalation of conflict, production of weapons of mass
destruction, and possibly the annihilation of the human race."[12]

Gene Sharp (born 21 January 1928) is a Professor Emeritus of political science at the
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.[13] He is known for his extensive writings on
nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements
around the world. In 1983 he founded the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit
organization devoted to studies and promotion of the use of nonviolent action in conflicts
worldwide.[14] Sharp's key theme is that power is not monolithic; that is, it does not derive
from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power. For Sharp, political power, the power
of any stateregardless of its particular structural organizationultimately derives from the
subjects of the state. His fundamental belief is that any power structure relies upon the
subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). If subjects do not obey, leaders have no
power. Sharp has been called both the "Machiavelli of nonviolence" and the "Clausewitz of
nonviolent warfare."[15] Sharp's scholarship has influenced resistance organizations around the
world. Most recently the protest movement that toppled President Mubarak of Egypt drew
extensively on his ideas, as well as the youth movement in Tunisia and the earlier ones in the
Eastern European color revolutions that had previously been inspired by Sharp's work.[16]
A recent articulation of conflict theory is found in Alan Sears' (Canadian sociologist) book A
Good Book, in Theory: A Guide to Theoretical Thinking (2008):[17]

Societies are defined by inequality that produces conflict, rather than

which produces order and consensus. This conflict based on inequality can
only be overcome through a fundamental transformation of the existing
relations in the society, and is productive of new social relations.

The disadvantaged have structural interests that run counter to the status
quo, which, once they are assumed, will lead to social change. Thus, they
are viewed as agents of change rather than objects one should feel
sympathy for.

Human potential (e.g., capacity for creativity) is suppressed by conditions

of exploitation and oppression, which are necessary in any society with an
unequal division of labour. These and other qualities do not necessarily
have to be stunted due to the requirements of the so-called "civilizing
process," or "functional necessity": creativity is actually an engine for
economic development and change.

The role of theory is in realizing human potential and transforming society,

rather than maintaining the power structure. The opposite aim of theory
would be the objectivity and detachment associated with positivism,
where theory is a neutral, explanatory tool.

Consensus is a euphemism for ideology. Genuine consensus is not

achieved, rather the more powerful in societies are able to impose their
conceptions on others and have them accept their discourses. Consensus
does not preserve social order, it entrenches stratification, e.g., the
American dream.

The State serves the particular interests of the most powerful while
claiming to represent the interests of all. Representation of disadvantaged

groups in State processes may cultivate the notion of full participation, but
this is an illusion/ideology.

Inequality on a global level is characterized by the purposeful

underdevelopment of Third World countries, both during colonization and
after national independence. The global system (i.e., development
agencies such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund) benefits
the most powerful countries and multi-national corporations, rather than
the subjects of development, through economic, political, and military
actions.

Although Sears associates the conflict theory approach with Marxism, he argues that it is the
foundation for much "feminist, post-modernist, anti-racist, and lesbian-gay liberationist
theories."[18]

Types of conflict theory

Conflict theory is most commonly associated with Marxism, but as a reaction to
functionalism and the positivist method may also be associated with number of other
perspectives, including:

Critical theory

Feminist theory: An approach that recognizes women's political, social,

and economic equality to men.

Postmodern theory: An approach that is critical of modernism, with a

mistrust of grand theories and ideologies. [19]

Post-structural theory

Postcolonial theory

Queer theory: A growing body of research findings that challenges the

heterosexual bias in Western society.[19]

World systems theory

Race-Conflict Approach: A point of view that focuses on inequality and

conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories. [19]

Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyses violent and
nonviolent behaviours as well as the structural mechanisms attending conflicts (including
social conflicts) with a view towards understanding those processes which lead to a more
desirable human condition.[1] A variation on this, peace studies (irenology), is an
interdisciplinary effort aiming at the prevention, de-escalation, and solution of conflicts by
peaceful means, thereby seeking "victory" for all parties involved in the conflict. This is in
contrast to war studies (polemology), which has as its aim on the efficient attainment of
victory in conflicts, primarily by violent means to the satisfaction of one or more, but not all,
parties involved. Disciplines involved may include political science, geography, economics,
psychology, sociology, international relations, history, anthropology, religious studies, and
gender studies, as well as a variety of others. Relevant sub-disciplines of such fields, such as
peace economics, may be regarded as belonging to peace and conflict studies also.

Historical background
Peace and conflict studies is both a pedagogical activity, in which teachers transmit
knowledge to students; and a research activity, in which researchers create new knowledge
about the sources of conflict. Peace and conflict studies entails understanding the concept of
peace which is defined as political condition that ensures justice and social stability through
formal and informal institutions, practices, and norms

As pedagogical activity

Academics and students in the world's oldest universities have long been motivated by an
interest in peace. American student interest in what we today think of as peace studies first
appeared in the form of campus clubs at United States colleges in the years immediately
following the American Civil War. Similar movements appeared in Sweden in the last years
of the 19th century, as elsewhere soon after. These were student-originated discussion groups,
not formal courses included in college curricula.
The First World War was a turning point in Western attitudes to war. At the 1919 Peace of
Pariswhere the leaders of France, Britain, and the United States, led by Georges
Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, and Woodrow Wilson respectively, met to decide the
future of EuropeWilson proposed his famous Fourteen Points for peacemaking. These
included breaking up European empires into nation states and the establishment of the
League of Nations. These moves, intended to ensure a peaceful future, were the background
to a number of developments in the emergence of Peace and Conflict Studies as an academic
discipline (but they also, as Keynes presciently pointed out, laid the seeds for future conflict).
[2]
The founding of the first chair in International Relations at Aberystwyth University, Wales,
whose remit was partly to further the cause of peace, occurred in 1919.
After World War II, the founding of the UN system provided a further stimulus for more
rigorous approaches to peace and conflict studies to emerge. Many university courses in
schools of higher learning around the world began to develop which touched upon questions
of peace, often in relation to war, during this period. The first undergraduate academic
program in peace studies in the United States was developed in 1948 by Gladdys Muir, at
Manchester University a liberal arts college located in North Manchester, Indiana .[3] It was
not until the late 1960s in the United States that student concerns about the Vietnam War
forced ever more universities to offer courses about peace, whether in a designated peace
studies course or as a course within a traditional major. Work by academics such as Johan
Galtung and John Burton, and debates in fora such as the Journal of Peace Research in the
1960s reflected the growing interest and academic stature of the field.[4] Growth in the
number of peace studies programs around the world was to accelerate during the 1980s, as
students became more concerned about the prospects of nuclear war. As the Cold War ended,
peace and conflict studies courses shifted their focus from international conflict [5] and
towards complex issues related to political violence, human security, democratisation, human
rights, social justice, welfare, development, and producing sustainable forms of peace. A
proliferation of international organisations, agencies and international NGOs, from the UN,
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, European Union, and World Bank to
International Crisis Group, International Alert, and others, began to draw on such research.[6]
Agendas relating to positive peace in European academic contexts were already widely
debated in the 1960s.[7] By the mid-1990s peace studies curricula in the United States had
shifted "...from research and teaching about negative peace, the cessation of violence, to
positive peace, the conditions that eliminate the causes of violence."[5] As a result, the topics

had broadened enormously. By 1994, a review of course offerings in peace studies included
topics such as: "north-south relations"; "development, debt, and global poverty"; "the
environment, population growth, and resource scarcity"; and "feminist perspectives on peace,
militarism, and political violence."[5]
There is now a general consensus on the importance of peace and conflict studies among
scholars from a range of disciplines in and around the social sciences, as well as from many
influential policymakers around the world. Peace and conflict studies today is widely
researched and taught in a large and growing number of institutions and locations. The
number of universities offering peace and conflict studies courses is hard to estimate, mostly
because courses may be taught out of different departments and have very different names.
The International Peace Research Association website gives one of the most authoritative
listings available. A 2008 report in the International Herald Tribune mentions over 400
programs of teaching and research in peace and conflict studies, noting in particular those at
the United World Colleges, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Universitat Jaume I in Castelln
de la Plana/Spain, the American University, University of Bradford, the UN mandated Peace
University UPEACE in Ciudad Coln/Costa Rica, George Mason University, Lund,
Michigan, Notre Dame, Queensland, Uppsala, Innsbruck/Austria, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The Rotary Foundation and the UN University supports several international academic
teaching and research programs.
A 1995 survey found 136 United States colleges with peace studies programs: "Forty-six
percent of these are in church related schools, another 32% are in large public universities,
21% are in non-church related private colleges, and 1% are in community colleges. Fifty-five
percent of the church related schools that have peace studies programs are Roman Catholic.
Other denominations with more than one college or university with a peace studies program
are the Quakers, Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and United Church of Christ. One
hundred fifteen of these programs are at the undergraduate level and 21 at the graduate level.
Fifteen of these colleges and universities had both undergraduate and graduate programs."[5]
Other notable programs can be found at the University of Manitoba, Hiroshima University,
University of Innsbruck, Universitat Jaume I, University of Sydney, University of
Queensland, King's College (London), Sault College, London Metropolitan, Sabanci,
Marburg, Sciences Po, Universit Paris Dauphine University of Amsterdam, Otago, St
Andrews, and York. Perhaps most importantly, such programs and research agendas have
now become common in institutions located in conflict, post-conflict, and developing
countries and regions such as (e.g., National Peace Council), Centre for Human Rights,
University of Sarajevo, Chulalongkorn University, National University of East Timor,
University of Kabul, Makerere University, Mbarara University, and Tel Aviv University.
As research activity

Although individual thinkers such as Immanuel Kant had long recognised the centrality of
peace (see Perpetual Peace), it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that peace studies began to
emerge as an academic discipline with its own research tools, a specialized set of concepts,

and forums for discussion such as journals and conferences. Beginning in 1959, with the
founding of the Peace Research Institute Oslo- PRIO (associated with Johan Galtung), a
number of research institutes began to appear.[5]
In 1963, Walter Isard, the principal founder of Regional science assembled a group of
scholars in Malm, Sweden, for the purpose of establishing the Peace Research Society. The
group of initial members included Kenneth Boulding and Anatol Rapoport. In 1973, this
group became the Peace Science Society. Peace science was viewed as an interdisciplinary
and international effort to develop a special set of concepts, techniques and data to better
understand and mitigate conflict.[8] Peace science attempts to use the quantitative techniques
developed in economics and political science, especially game theory and econometrics,
techniques otherwise seldom used by researchers in peace studies.[9] The Peace Science
Society website hosts the second edition of the Correlates of War, one of the most well
known collections of data on international conflict.[10] The society holds an annual
conference, attended by scholars from throughout the world, and publishes two scholarly
journals: Journal of Conflict Resolution and Conflict Management and Peace Science.
In 1964, the International Peace Research Association was formed at a conference organized
by Quakers in Clarens, Switzerland. Among the original executive committee was Johan
Galtung. The IPRA holds a biennial conference. Research presented at its conferences and in
its publications typically focuses on institutional and historical approaches, seldom
employing quantitative techniques.[11] In 2001, the Peace and Justice Studies Association
(PJSA) was formed as a result of a merger of two precursor organizations. The PJSA is the
North American affiliate of IPRA, and includes members from around the world with a
predominance from the United States and Canada. The PJSA publishes a regular newsletter
(The Peace Chronicle), and holds annual conferences on themes related to the organization's
mission "to create a just and peaceful world" through research, scholarship, pedagogy, and
activism.[12]

Description
Peace Studies can be classified as:

Multidisciplinary, encompassing elements of Politics and International

Relations (particularly critical international relations theory), Sociology,
Psychology, Anthropology and Economics. Critical theory is also widely
used in peace and conflict studies.

Multilevel. Peace Studies examines intrapersonal peace, peace between

individuals, neighbours, ethnic groups, marriages, states and civilisations.

Multicultural. Gandhi is often cited as a paradigm of Peace Studies.

However, true multiculturalism remains an aspiration as most Peace
Studies centres are located in the West.

Both analytic and normative. As a normative discipline, Peace Studies

involves value judgements, such as "better" and "bad".

Both theoretical and applied.[6]

There has been a long-standing and vibrant debate on disarmament issues, as well as attempts
to investigate, catalogue, and analyses issues relating to arms production, trade, and their
political impacts.[13] There have also been attempts to map the economic costs of war, or of
relapses into violence, as opposed to those of peace.
Peace and conflict studies is now well established within the social sciences: it comprises
many scholarly journals, college and university departments, peace research institutes,
conferences, as well as outside recognition of the utility of peace and conflict studies as a
method.
Peace Studies allows one to examine the causes and prevention of war, as well as the nature
of violence, including social oppression, discrimination and marginalization. Through peace
studies one can also learn peace-making strategies to overcome persecution and transform
society to attain a more just and equitable international community.
Feminist scholars have developed a speciality within conflict studies, specifically examining
the role of gender in armed conflicts.[14][15] The importance of considering the role of gender
in post-conflict work was recognised by the United Nations Security Council resolution 1325.
Examples of feminist scholarship include the work of Carol Cohn and Claire Duncanson.

Ideas
Conceptions of peace
It has been suggested that this article be merged into Peace#Theories.
(Discuss) Proposed since October 2014.

The negative and positive peace framework is the most widely used today. Negative peace
refers to the absence of direct violence. Positive peace refers to the absence of indirect and
structural violence, and is the concept that most peace and conflict researchers adopt.This is
often credited to Galtung [16] but these terms were previously used by Martin Luther King in
the Letter from a Birmingham Jail in 1953, in which he wrote about "negative peace which is
the absence of tension" and "positive peace which is the presence of justice." These terms
were perhaps first used by Jane Addams in 1907 in her book Newer Ideals of Peace.
Several conceptions, models, or modes of peace have been suggested in which peace research
might prosper.[17]

The first is that peace is a natural social condition, whereas war is not. The
premise is simple for peace researchers: to present enough information so
that a rational group of decision makers will seek to avoid war and conflict.

Second, the view that violence is sinful or unskillful, and that non-violence
is skillful or virtuous and should be cultivated. This view is held by a
variety of religious traditions worldwide: Quakers, Mennonites and other
Peace churches within Christianity; Jains, the Satyagraha tradition in

Hinduism, Buddhism, and other portions of Indian religion and philosophy;

as well as certain schools of Islam[citation needed].

Third is pacifism: the view that peace is a prime force in human behaviour.

A further approach is that there are multiple modes of peace. [18]

There have been many offerings on these various forms of peace. These range from the well
known works of Kant, Locke, Rousseau, Paine, on various liberal international and
constitutional and plans for peace. Variations and additions have been developed more
recently by scholars such as Raymond Aron, Edward Azar, John Burton, Martin Ceadal,
Wolfgang Dietrich, Kevin Dooley, Johan Galtung, Michael Howard, Vivienne Jabri, JohnPaul Lederach, Roger Mac Ginty, Hugh Miall, David Mitrany, Oliver Ramsbotham, Anatol
Rapoport, Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, Oliver Richmond, S.P. Udayakumar, Tom Woodhouse,
others mentioned above and many more. Democratic peace, liberal peace, sustainable peace,
civil peace, hybrid peace, post-liberal peace, trans-rational peace(s)and other concepts are
regularly used in such work.
Conflict triangle

Johan Galtung's conflict triangle works on the assumption that the best way to define peace is
to define violence, its antithesis. It reflects the normative aim of preventing, managing,
limiting and overcoming violence.[16]

Direct (overt) violence, e.g., direct attack, massacre.

Structural violence. Death by avoidable reasons such as malnutrition.

Structural violence is indirect violence caused by an unjust structure and is
not to be equated with an act of God.

Cultural violence. Cultural violence occurs as a result of the cultural

assumptions that blind one to direct or structural violence. For example,
one may be indifferent toward the homeless, or even consider their
expulsion or extermination a good thing.

Each corner of Galtung's triangle can relate to the other two. Ethnic cleansing can be an
example of all three.
Cost of conflict

Cost of conflict is a tool which attempts to calculate the price of conflict to the human race.
The idea is to examine this cost, not only in terms of the deaths and casualties and the
economic costs borne by the people involved, but also the social, developmental,
environmental and strategic costs of conflict. The approach considers direct costs of conflict,
for instance human deaths, expenditure, destruction of land and physical infrastructure; as
well as indirect costs that impact a society, for instance migration, humiliation, growth of
extremism and lack of civil society.

Strategic Foresight Group, a think tank in India, has developed a Cost of Conflict Series for
countries and regions involved in protracted conflicts. This tool is aimed at assessing past,
present and future costs looking at a wide range of parameters.[19]

Normative aims
The normative aims of Peace Studies are conflict transformation and conflict resolution
through mechanisms such as peacekeeping, peacebuilding (e.g., tackling disparities in rights,
institutions and the distribution of world wealth) and peacemaking (e.g., mediation and
conflict resolution). Peacekeeping falls under the aegis of negative peace, whereas efforts
toward positive peace involve elements of peace building and peacemaking.[20]

Teaching peace and conflict studies to the military

One of the interesting developments within peace and conflict studies is the number of
military personnel undertaking such studies. This poses some challenges, as the military is an
institution overtly committed to combat. In the article "Teaching Peace to the Military",
published in the journal Peace Review,[21] James Page argues for five principles that ought to
undergird this undertaking, namely, respect but do not privilege military experience, teach the
just war theory, encourage students to be aware of the tradition and techniques of
nonviolence, encourage students to deconstruct and demythologize, and recognize the
importance of military virtue.

Critical peace and conflict studies: hybridity, trans-rational

peace, and elicitive conflict transformation
Scholars working in the areas of peace and conflict studies have made significant
contributions to the policies used by non-governmental organisations, development agencies,
international financial institutions, and the UN system, in the specific areas of conflict
resolution and citizen diplomacy, development, political, social, and economic reform,
peacekeeping, mediation, early warning, prevention, peacebuilding, and statebuilding.[22] This
represented a shift in interest from conflict management approaches oriented towards a
"negative peace" to conflict resolution and peacebuilding approaches aimed at a "positive
peace". This emerged rapidly at the end of the Cold War, and was encapsulated in the report
of then-UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace.[23] Indeed, it
might be said that much of the machinery of what has been called "liberal peacebuilding" by
a number of scholars[24] and "statebuilding" by another[25] is based largely on the work that has
been carried out in this area. Many scholars in the area have advocated a more
"emancipatory" form of peacebuilding, however, based upon a "Responsibility to Protect"
(R2P),[26] human security,[27] local ownership and participation in such processes,[28] especially
after the limited success of liberal peacebuilding/ statebuilding in places as diverse as
Cambodia, the Balkans, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Iraq. This
research agenda is in the process of establishing a more nuanced agenda for peacebuilding
which also connects with the original, qualitatively and normatively oriented work that
emerged in the peace studies and conflict research schools of the 1960s (e.g. see the Oslo
Peace Research Institute research project on "Liberal Peace and the Ethics of Peacebuilding"
and the "Liberal Peace Transitions" project at the University of St Andrews)[29] and more

critical ideas about peacebuilding that have recently developed in many European and nonwestern academic and policy circles.[30] Some scholars have pointed towards the hybrid
outcomes that have arisen in practice, indicating both the potential and problems of hybrid
forms of peace, with an everyday orientation, and suggestive of the emergence of a postliberal framework.[31]
The UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck/Austria proposed in
2008 a culture-based classification of peace interpretations: energetic, moral, modern, postmodern and trans-rational approaches.[32] The trans-rational approach unites existing spiritual
interpretations of society and relation[33] with the mechanistic methods of modern peace.
Hence this school prefers the strictly relational and systemic method of elicitive conflict
transformation (Lederach)[34] to the prescriptive approaches of modern conflict resolution.[35]

Criticism and controversy

A number of criticisms have been aimed at peace and conflict studies, often but not
necessarily from outside the realms of university system, including that peace studies:

do not produce practical prescriptions for managing or resolving global

conflicts because "ideology always trumps objectivity and pragmatism";

are focused on putting a "respectable face on Western self-loathing";

are hypocritical because they "tacitly or openly support terrorism as a

permissible strategy for the 'disempowered' to redress real or perceived
grievances against the powerful" (i.e. ideological anti-Western concepts
developed by social scientists such as Johan Galtung which arguably add a
sense of unjustified acceptability which is used in support of radicalism)

have curricula that are (according to human rights activist Caroline Cox
and philosopher Roger Scruton) "intellectually incoherent, riddled with bias
and unworthy of academic status...";[36]

have faculty are not fully competent in the disciplines (such as economics)
whose ideas were invoked as solutions to problems of conflict; [37]

have policies proposed to "eliminate the causes of violence" are uniformly

leftist policies, and not necessarily policies which would find broad
agreement among social scientists.[37]

Barbara Kay, a columnist for the National Post, specifically criticized the views of
Norwegian professor Johan Galtung, who is considered to be a leader in modern peace
research. Kay wrote that Galtung has written on the "structural fascism" of "rich, Western,
Christian" democracies, admires Fidel Castro, opposed resistance to the Soviet Invasion of
Hungary in 1956, and has described Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov as
"persecuted elite personages." Galtung has also praised Mao Zedong for "endlessly
liberating" China. Galtung has also stated that the United States is a "killer country" that is
guilty of "neo-fascist state terrorism" and has reportedly stated that the destruction of
Washington, D. C., could be justified by America's foreign policy. He has also compared the

United States to Nazi Germany for bombing Kosovo during the 1999 NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia.[36]
In the Summer 2007 edition of City Journal, Bruce Bawer sharply criticized Peace Studies.
He noted that many Peace Studies programs in American Universities are run by Marxist or
far-left Professors. More broadly, he argued that Peace Studies are dominated by the belief
that "America ... is the wellspring of the worlds problems" and that while Professors of
Peace Studies argue "that terrorist positions deserve respect at the negotiating table," they
"seldom tolerate alternative views" and that "(p)eace studies, as a rule, rejects questioning of
its own guiding ideology."[38]
Regarding his claim that Peace Studies supports violence in the pursuit of leftist ideology,
Bawer cited a quote from Peace and Conflict Studies,[39][40] a widely used 2002 textbook
written by Charles P. Webel and David P. Barash which praised Vladimir Lenin because he
maintained that only revolutionnot reformcould undo capitalisms tendency toward
imperialism and thence to war."[38]
David Horowitz has argued that Webel and Barash's book implicitly supports violence for
socialist causes, noting that the book states "the case of Cuba indicates that violent
revolutions can sometimes result in generally improved living conditions for many people."
Horowitz also argued that the book "treats the Soviet Union as a sponsor of peace
movements, and the United States as the militaristic, imperialist power that peace movements
try to keep in check" and that "the authors justify Communist policies and actions while
casting those of America and Western democracies in a negative light." Horowitz also
claimed that the authors discuss the Cuban Missile Crisis without mentioning its cause (i.e.
the placement of the Soviet missiles in Cuba) and blame John F. Kennedy while praising
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev for "be[ing] willing to back down." Finally, Horowitz
criticized the author's use of Marxist writers, such as Andre Gunder Frank and Frances Moore
Lappe, as the sole basis on which to study "poverty and hunger as causes of human
conflict."[41]
Kay and Bawer also specifically criticized Professor Gordon Fellman, the Chairman of
Brandeis University's Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies Program, whom they claimed
has justified Palestinian suicide-bombings against Israelis as "ways of inflicting revenge on
an enemy that seems unable or unwilling to respond to rational pleas for discussion and
justice."[38][42]
Katherine Kersten, who is a senior fellow at the Minneapolis-based conservative think tank
Center of the American Experiment, believes that Peace Studies programs are "dominated by
people of a certain ideological bent, and [are] thus hard to take seriously." Robert Kennedy, a
professor of Catholic studies and management at the University of St. Thomas, criticized his
university's Peace Studies Program in an interview with Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2002,
stating that the program employs several adjunct professors "whose academic qualifications
are not as strong as we would ordinarily look for" and that "The combination of the

ideological bite and the maybe less-than-full academic credentials of the faculty would
probably raise some questions about how scholarly the program is."[43]
Responses

Such views have been strongly opposed by scholars who claim that these criticisms
underestimate the development of detailed interdisciplinary, theoretical, methodological, and
empirical research into the causes of violence and dynamics of peace that has occurred via
academic and policy networks around the world.[6]
In reply to Barbara Kay's article, a group of Peace Studies experts in Canada responded that
"Kay's...argument that the field of peace studies endorses terrorism is nonsense" and that
"(d)edicated peace theorists and researchers are distinguished by their commitment to reduce
the use of violence whether committed by enemy nations, friendly governments or warlords
of any stripe." They also argued that:
...Ms. Kay attempts to portray advocates for peace as naive and idealistic, but the data shows
that the large majority of armed conflicts in recent decades have been ended through
negotiations, not military solutions. In the contemporary world, violence is less effective than
diplomacy in ending armed conflict. Nothing is 100% effective to reduce tyranny and
violence, but domestic and foreign strategy needs to be based on evidence, rather than
assumptions and misconceptions from a bygone era."[44]
Most academics in the area argue that the accusations that peace studies approaches are not
objective, and derived from mainly leftist or inexpert sources, are not practical, support
violence rather than reject it, or have not led to policy developments, are clearly incorrect.
They note that the development of UN and major donor policies (including the EU, US, and
UK, as well as many others including those of Japan, Canada, Norway, etc.) towards and in
conflict and post-conflict countries have been heavily influenced by such debates. A range of
key policy documents and responses have been developed by these governments in the last
decade and more, and in UN (or related) documentation such as "Agenda for Peace",
"Agenda for Development", "Agenda for Democratization", the Millennium Development
Goals, Responsibility to Protect, and the "High Level Panel Report".[45] They have also been
significant for the work of the World Bank, International Development Agencies, and a wide
range of Non Governmental Organisations.[46] It has been influential in the work of, among
others, the UN, UNDP, UN Peacebuilding Commission, UNHCR, World Bank, EU,
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, for national donors including USAID,
DFID, CIDA, NORAD, DANIDA, Japan Aid, GTZ, and international NGOs such as
International Alert or International Crisis Group, as well as many local NGOs. Major
databases have been generated by the work of scholars in these areas.[47]
Finally, peace and conflict studies debates have generally confirmed, not undermined, a broad
consensus (western and beyond) on the importance of human security, human rights,
development, democracy, and a rule of law (though there is a vibrant debate ongoing about
the contextual variations and applications of these frameworks)

Conflict: Definition, Characteristics, Forms and Other Details about Conflict!

Georg Simmel (1955) writes: There probably exists no social unit in which convergent and
divergent currents among its members are not inseparably interwoven. An absolutely
centripetal and harmonious group, a pure unification, not only is unreal, it could should
have no real life process society, too, in order to attain a determinate shape, needs some
quantitative ratio of harmony and disharmony, of association and competition, of favourable
and unfavourable tendencies.
In simple words, social conflict is always present in social life. It is a fundamental feature of
human society. It does not occur because people are unreasonable or unco-operative or
because they are unwilling to live properly and decently with others.
It is rooted in social differences of class and status, of wealth and opportunity, of material
interests, where scarce resources are unequally shared. Psychologists regard conflict as an
instinctual response in humans, in the face of stressful situations.
This response can be in the form of:
(1) fight,
(2) flee,

(3) simply freeze, or

(4) turning sideways into the conflict.
It is said that human beings are for the most part quite selfish and that chaos and strife are
both common and natural. This is why conflict is the fundamental form of dis-associative
interaction or oppositional-oriented relationship.
It is inherent in all social relationships and is also inevitable and universal. Bottomore (1962)
observed: Conflict is an intrinsic part of our social life, sustaining, modifying or destroying
the social groups in which it takes place.
Whenever and wherever there is a difference in the motives and interests (desire for prestige,
economic benefit, power and defeat or destruction of the enemy) of different persons, there is
bound to be some kind of conflict. It may be destructively or constructively directed.
It may be between individuals, groups of individuals or two societies (or nations) depending
whether the contradictory interests involved are personal or of group or of the whole
community or nation. Thus, merely to deplore that it is destructive, it is to miss its
significance as a force for social change.
Definitions:

An analysis of the literature reveals that the term conflict is defined in a number of ways.
Followers of Georg Simmel, like R.E. Park, have seen conflict as one of the central forms of
interaction. Simmel (1955) writes: If every interaction among men is a sociation, conflict
must certainly be considered as sociation.
Park and Burgess (1921), likewise, treat conflict as a distinct form of competition. They
wrote: Both are forms of interaction but competition is a struggle between individuals or
groups of individuals who are not necessarily in contact and communication while conflict is
a contest in which contact is an indispensable condition.
According to Max Weber (1968), a social relationship will be referred to as conflict in so far
as action within it is oriented intentional to carrying out the actors own will against the
resistance of the other party or parties. Thus, the social interaction of conflict is defined by
the desire of each participant to impose his will upon the others resistance.
These sentiments are well echoed in the words of A.W. Green (1956) who defined it as the
deliberate attempt to oppose, resist or coerce the will of another or others. As a process, it is
the antithesis of cooperation in which a deliberate attempt is made to thwart die will of
others. Gillin and Gillin (1948) wrote: Conflict is the social process in which individuals or
groups seek their ends by directly challenging the antagonist by violence or threat of
violence. To sum up, it may be said that conflict refers to the struggle in which competing

parties, attempting to reach a goal, strive to eliminate an opponent by making the other party
ineffectual or by annihilation.
Characteristics:

On the basis of foregoing discussion, the following characteristics (nature) of conflict, in

brief, may be cited:
1. It is a universal process found in every society.
2. It is the result of deliberate and conscious efforts of individuals or the groups.
3. The nature of the conflict is personal and direct. In conflict the incumbents or participants
know each other personally.
4. It is basically an individuals process. Its aim is not directly connected with the
achievement of the goal or an objective but is rather directed to dominate others or to
eliminate the opponent.
5. Conflict is of brief duration, temporary and intermittent in character. But, once begun, the
conflict process is hard to stop. It tends to grow more and more bitter as it proceeds. Being
temporary, it gives way to some form of accommodation.
6. It is a process loaded with impulsiveness of human emotions and violent passions. It gains
force and then bursts open. Unlike fighting of animals, generally in human groups, the
spontaneous fighting is inhibited. It is often avoided through the process of accommodation
and assimilation.
7. It may be latent or overt. In the latent form, it may exist in the form of tension,
dissatisfaction, contravention and rivalry. It becomes overt when an issue is declared and a
hostile action is taken.
8. It is mostly violent but it may take the form of negotiations, party politics, disputes or
rivalry.
9. It is cumulative; each act of aggression usually promotes a more aggressive rebuttal. Thus,
termination of conflict is not easy.
10. It tends to be more intense when individuals and groups who have close relationships
with one another are involved.
11. Groups previously in conflict may co-operate to achieve a goal considered important
enough for them to unite despite their differences.
12. It may emerge as a result of opposing interests. It is layered in a history of binary
perceptions: exile/homeland, outsider/insider, us/them, patriotic/unpatriotic.

13. It has both disintegrative and integrative effects. It disrupts unity in a society and is a
disturbing way of setting issues. A certain account of internal conflict, however, may serve
indirectly to stimulate group interaction. External conflict can have positive effects by
unifying the group.
Conflict and Contravention:

Contravention is the mild form of conflict in which contending parties (groups or individuals)
strive to prevent each other from achieving the objective through indirect attacks on the
opposite party.
It does contain antagonism and hostility like conflict. The establishment and fostering to
temporary political parties during national elections with the express purpose of dispersing
votes and confusing the electorate is an illustration of contravention.
Forms:

Conflict can be distinguished in so many ways. It may take place between persons or
individuals and groups. Conflict between persons is the most direct and immediate form of
conflict. It may involve intense personal animosities. It may take the form of a brute struggle
on the physical level to destroy or eliminate the opponent.
Personal conflicts arise on account of various motivesenvy, hostility, betrayal of trust being
the most predominant. In all societies there are at least two forms of conflict. First, there is
conflict between men contending for positions of power. Second, there is conflict between the
powerful and the powerless.
Group or corporate conflict:

It takes place between two societies or groups within a society. When group loyalties and
needs take precedence over personal individual feelings, it is group conflict. In such conflict,
individual feelings become irrelevant.
Groups attempt to impose their will on other groups in order to gain power, prestige, wealth
and commodities of value. Such conflict is impersonal. Communal or race riots, religious
persecution, labour-management disputes, and wars between two or more nations are some of
the examples of corporate or group conflict.
Greek philosopher Heracltitus once said: All is incessantly changing and war is the father of
all things. War is the most characteristic and spectacular form of group conflict. In the first
instance, it grows out of a clash of interests such as to destroy or weaken the competitor
group, to snatch the land or to steal the women or the property.
Primitive warfare was often operated selectively between the occupying peoples and the
invading hordes. In later years, culture development over population has often been at the
base of national conflict, although the direct and inciting causes often seem for removed.

Simmel (1955) has distinguished four types of conflict:

(i) War; (ii) feud or fictional strife; (iii) litigation; and (iv) conflict of impersonal ideals.
Simmel attributed war to a deep-seated antagonistic impulse in man. For him, antagonistic
impulse is a foundation of all conflicts.
Feud is an intra-group form of war which may arise because of injustice alleged to have been
done by one group to the other. Litigation is a judicial form of conflict when an individual or
group asserts its claims to certain rights on the basis of objective factors. Conflict of
impersonal ideals is a conflict carried on by the individuals not for themselves but for an
ideal. In such a conflict, each party attempts to justify truthfulness of its own ideals.
Direct and indirect conflict:

Direct conflict occurs where individuals or groups thwart or impede or restrain or injure or
destroy one another in the effort to attain the goal. Indirect conflict occurs where individuals
or groups do not actually impede the efforts of one another but nevertheless try to attain their
ends in ways which obstruct the attainment of the same end by others.
Gillin and Gillin (1948) have classified conflict in five groups:
(i) Personal conflict,
(ii) racial conflict,
(iii) class conflict,
(iv) political conflict, and
(v) international conflict.
Causes:

Earlier scientists like Charles Darwin saw conflict as inherent in the principles of struggle for
existence and survival of the fittest, while for Thomas Malthus, the champion of population
theory, reduced supply of the means of subsistence is the cause of conflict.
Some sociologists like Gustav Ratzenhofer and Ludwig Gumplowicz regard it as underlying
social evolution and progress. According to Ratzenhofer, the struggle for life takes the form
of conflict in interests. For Gumplowicz, it represents a primordial feeling of syngenisma
feeling of belonging together.
There are two main approaches which have analysed the causes of conflict in their own
way:

1. Psychological approach:

This approach tries to look for the causes of conflict in human nature and posits a fighting
instinct. This is exemplified in the views of Simmel, Freud and Lorenz. According to Freud,
there is an innate instinct for aggression in man which is responsible for conflict in human
society.
Recent biological and anthropological studies have generally supported the notion that there
is an aggressive instinct, resulting from natural selection. This theory has been criticized on
various grounds. It is said that the theory which depends upon a permanent and constant
aggressive instinct cannot explain the cycle of conflict and absence of conflict. It only
explains the propensity to engage in aggressive behaviour.
2. Sociological approach:

This approach is based on a theory of interests, i.e., conflict occurs, for example, when
territory is invaded or property is looted or attacked. This approach has its roots in the
Marxist tradition. This tradition assumes that social life is shaped by groups and individuals
who struggle or compete with one another over various resources and rewards.
These shape not only the patterns of everyday life and interaction, but also large patterns such
as racial, ethnic and class-caste relations. Marx argues that most conflict is economic and
rests on the unequal ownership and control of property.
There are many other causes of conflict, which may be briefly stated as under:
1. Individual differences:
No two men are alike in their nature, attitudes, ideals, opinions and interests. These
differences lead them to some or the other sort of conflict to fulfill their individual interest.
Because of these differences, they fail to accommodate themselves with each other.
2. Cultural differences:
Culture differs from society to society and also from group to group. These differences
sometimes cause tension and lead to conflict. The religious differences have often led to wars
and persecution in history. In India, often, communal conflicts broke out as the results of
religious differences.
3. Clash of interests:
The interests of different people or groups (such as political parties) occasionally clash. For
example, the interests of workers clash with those of the employers which lead to conflict in
the form of strike, bandh or dharana, etc., among them.
4. Social change:

All parts of society do not change with the same speed. This causes lag in the parts which
may cause conflict between different parts of the society. Conflict of generations (parentyouth) is the result of such social changes.
Types of Social Conflicts:

In the struggle to change the structure of society, or to resist such a change, conflict takes
various shapes.
Some common types of social conflicts are:
1. Social movement:

A strong sense of unjust suffering readily provides the rationale for a social movement, such
as Gujjars Andolan (2007 and 2008) for reservation in ST category in Rajasthan or Namak
Andolan of Gandhiji.
2. Riots and rebellions:

Riot is a situation in which a large crowd of people behave in a violent and uncontrolled
manner, especially when they protest about something. Rebellion is an organized attempt to
change the government/leader of a country using violent methods.
3. Civil politics:

In modem democratic societies there is an effort to bring conflict into the political institution,
to get people to work inside the system instead of outside. It is a principle of liberal
politics that all classes and groups should have access to the political process and be
encouraged to pursue their goals through conventional political means.
4. Revolution:

A revolution is the ultimate form of struggle against the prevailing social structure, in which
the intent is to alter the societys institutions and create a whole new social order based on a
radically different set of principles. It is a sweeping, sudden and comprehensive change in the
basic practices and ideas of an institution or society.
Nature of Conflict in India:

In India, the following main forms of conflict are found:

1. Communal conflict (communalism)
2. Caste conflict (casteism)
3. Regional conflict (regionalism)
4. Rural-urban conflict
5. Class conflict

6. Value conflict
7. Inter-group conflict
8. Inter-generation conflict
9. Reservation conflict
10. Gender conflict
Role (Functions) of Conflict:

Conflict has always captured the attention of people and the society. As other forms of social
interaction, it has both positive and negative effects. Conflict both terminates and commences
to serve the interests of man in society.
Cooley (1902) maintained: Conflict of some sort is the life of society, and progress emerges
from a struggle in which each individual, class or institution seeks to realise its own ideals of
good. Simmel (1955) observed that a conflict-free harmonious group is practically an
impossibility. There is no denying the fact that society requires for its formation and growth
both harmony and disharmony, association and disassociation.
Sorel (1908) felt that a social system was in need of conflict only to renew its energies and
revitalize its creative forces. His arguments that violent confrontations can be noble and
civilizing and that there is nothing to suggest civilized men and women will ever wholly
renounce violence to advance estimable causes. Young and Mack (1959) write. At its most
rudimentary level, conflicts result in the elimination or annihilation of the opponent.
In human society, however, most conflicts end in some sort of agreement or accommodation
or in the fusion of the two opposing elements. It is said that the origins of the state, social
organization and many social institutions are the result of war and struggle.
Generally, conflict is regarded as disintegrative and its dysfunctions are highlighted but
conflict plays constructive role also and it has positive functions for the individual and
society both. For instance, inter-group conflict is a patent source of inter-group co-operation.
It helps in unifying a society or a group when some external aggression occurs. Conflict
prevents the ossification of the social system by exerting pressure for innovation and
creativity.
Horton and Hunt (1964) have distinguished the effects of conflict as under:
Integrative effects

Disintegrative effects

Define issues.

Increases bitterness.

Leads to resolution of
issues.

Leads to destruction and bloodshed.

Increases group cohesion. Leads to inter-group tension.

Leads to alliance with
other groups.

Disrupts normal channels of

cooperation.

Keeps groups alert to

members interests.

Diverts members attention from

group objectives.

As a form of interaction, sociologically significant both from the point of view of personality
(individual level) and from that of social organization, both self-consciousness and group
consciousness are the result of conflict. At the individual level, every problem in the life of a
person is a conflict (struggle). Conflict plays a corresponding role in group organization.
Groups reach the maximum of unity and solidarity in overt conflict. External conflict
(conflict with another group) tends to integrate the group. On the one hand, it provides the
members with an external outlet for their hostilities and resentments and thus removes a lot of
internal tensions. On the other hand, it compels each member to co-operate and forge unity to
face the external threat.
While external conflict separates a group from its enemies, it also promotes alliances with
other groups. Simmel (1955) writes: A state of conflict pulls the members so tightly together
and subjects them to such a uniform impulse that the most completely get along with or
completely repel one another. Coser (1956) has also analysed in detail the role of conflict in
promoting unity.
Thus, the above discussion about the role (functions) of conflict may be summed up as
under:
1. Conflict determines the status of the individual in the social organization. Rivalry, war and
other forms of personal struggle determine superiority and subordination of men and groups.
2. Conflict is not always an unmitigated evil everywhere as it is generally assumed. It is a
chief means of group contact, and it has played an important role in the development and
spread of culture.
3. Conflict may eventuate in peace through victory of one contestant over others.
4. Conflict helps to define social issues and brings about a new equilibrium of contending
forces. It may lead to the working out of non-violent techniques for resolving crises. The end
result of conflict is that the issues are resolved at least for a time.
5. Conflict tends to stiffen the morale, promotes unity and cohesion within the group and may
lead to expanding alliances with other groups.

6. Conflict keeps groups alert to members interests.

7. Conflict generates new norms and new institutions. It happens mostly in economic and
technological realms. Economic historians often have pointed out that much technological
improvement has resulted from the conflict activity of trade unions. It leads to redefinition of
value systems.
8. Conflict within and between bureaucratic structures provides means of avoiding the
ossification and ritualism which threatens their form of organization.
9. According to Marxists, conflict leads not only to ever-changing relations within the
existing social structure, but the total system undergoes transformation through conflict.
10. Conflict between vested interests and new strata and groups demanding share of power,
wealth and status have proved to be productive of vitality.
11. Conflict may lead to a new consensus.
12. Conflict theorists (e.g., Coser, 1956) believe that conflict is necessary for progress. They
contend that societies progress to a higher order only if oppressed groups improve their lot.
Dysfunctions of Conflict:

Conflicts, as we know, disrupts social unity. It is highly disturbing way of settling issues.
Conflict within a group makes it hard for members to agree on group goals or to co-operate in
pursuit of them.
It often results in group tension. It increases bitterness and leads to destruction and
bloodshed. Conflict disrupts normal channels of co-operation. It diverts members attention
from group objectives.
Conflict of Values:

The conflict of values is a struggle of a different order and on a different plane from either the
personal or the group conflict. It is an aspect of conflict that is purely objective and
impersonal. In its simplest manifestation, conflict is merely a physical struggle between
individuals or groups.
But back of these physical facts is the social and psychological situation, i.e., the clash of
interests and attitudes that leads the groups to physical struggles. The wars of nations may
arise out of clash of attitudes and values. Value conflict between husband and wife sometimes
results into mental stress which eventually may lead to divorce.
The values involved may be material or immaterial realities. Men and nations fight for food
and lands and markets but they also fight for sentiments, beliefs and ideals. Some degree of

actual or potential conflict between younger and older generations is inevitable in a changing
world.
But above and beyond the physical struggles of individuals and groups and apart from the
interests and attitudes that motivate or accompany them is the conflict of values. Many of the
ideas and ideals prevailing among human beings are opposed and mutually exclusive such as
democracy vs. aristocracy, privatization vs. state ownership, globalization vs. nationalism,
etc.
Evolution and fundamentalism are contradictory interpretation of reality. There is no
resolution of conflict between such logically incompatible ideas and beliefs. The only
resolution of such a conflict is the disappearance of one or the other from the realm of human
values.

Special education (also known as special needs education, aided education, vocational
education, and limb care authority education) is the practice of educating students with
special needs in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Ideally, this
process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of
teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These
interventions are designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of
personal self-sufficiency and success in school and their community, than may be available if
the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.
Common special needs include learning disabilities, communication disorders, emotional and
behavioral disorders, physical disabilities, and developmental disabilities.[1] Students with
these kinds of special needs are likely to benefit from additional educational services such as
different approaches to teaching, the use of technology, a specifically adapted teaching area,
or a resource room.
Intellectual giftedness is a difference in learning and can also benefit from specialized
teaching techniques or different educational programs, but the term "special education" is
generally used to specifically indicate instruction of students with disabilities. Gifted
education is handled separately.
Whereas special education is designed specifically for students with special needs, remedial
education can be designed for any students, with or without special needs; the defining trait is
simply that they have reached a point of underpreparedness, regardless of why. For example,
even people of high intelligence can be underprepared if their education was disrupted, for
example, by internal displacement during civil disorder or a war.
In most developed countries, educators modify teaching methods and environments so that
the maximum number of students are served in general education environments. Therefore,
special education in developed countries is often regarded as a service rather than a place.[2][3]
[4][5][6]
Integration can reduce social stigmas and improve academic achievement for many
students.[7]
The opposite of special education is general education. General education is the standard
curriculum presented without special teaching methods or supports.

Identifying students or learners with special needs

A six-year-old boy with Down syndrome is ready for his first day of school.

Some children are easily identified as candidates for special needs due to their medical
history. They may have been diagnosed with a genetic condition that is associated with
intellectual disability, may have various forms of brain damage, may have a developmental
disorder, may have visual or hearing disabilities, or other disabilities.
For students with less obvious disabilities, such as those who have learning difficulties, two
primary methods have been used for identifying them: the discrepancy model and the
response to intervention model. The discrepancy model depends on the teacher noticing that
the students' achievements are noticeably below what is expected. The response to
intervention model advocates earlier intervention.
In the discrepancy model, a student receives special education services for a specific learning
difficulty (SLD) if the student has at least normal intelligence and the student's academic
achievement is below what is expected of a student with his or her IQ. Although the
discrepancy model has dominated the school system for many years, there has been
substantial criticism of this approach (e.g., Aaron, 1995, Flanagan and Mascolo, 2005) among
researchers. One reason for criticism is that diagnosing SLDs on the basis of the discrepancy
between achievement and IQ does not predict the effectiveness of treatment. Low academic
achievers who also have low IQ appear to benefit from treatment just as much as low
academic achievers who have normal or high intelligence.
The alternative approach, response to intervention, identifies children who are having
difficulties in school in their first or second year after starting school. They then receive
additional assistance such as participating in a reading remediation program. The response of
the children to this intervention then determines whether they are designated as having a

learning disability. Those few who still have trouble may then receive designation and further
assistance. Sternberg (1999) has argued that early remediation can greatly reduce the number
of children meeting diagnostic criteria for learning disabilities. He has also suggested that the
focus on learning disabilities and the provision of accommodations in school fails to
acknowledge that people have a range of strengths and weaknesses and places undue
emphasis on academics by insisting that students should be supported in this arena and not in
music or sports.

Individual needs
A special education program should be customized to address each individual student's
unique needs. Special educators provide a continuum of services, in which students with
special needs receives varying degrees of support based on their individual needs. Special
education programs need to be individualized so that they address the unique combination of
needs in a given student.[8]
In the United States, Canada, and the UK, educational professionals use the initialism IEP
when referring to a students individualized education plan. For children who are not yet 3, an
IFSP. (Individual Family Service Plan)It contains 1) information on the childs present level
of development in all areas; 2) outcomes for the child and family; and 3) services the child
and family will receive to help them achieve the outcomes.<2011, 2000 PACER Center>
Students with special needs are assessed to determine their specific strengths and weaknesses.
[8]
Placement, resources, and goals are determined on the basis of the student's needs.
Accommodations and Modifications to the regular program may include changes in the
curriculum, supplementary aides or equipment, and the provision of specialized physical
adaptations that allow students to participate in the educational environment as much as
possible.[9] Students may need this help to access subject matter, physically gain access to the
school, or meet their emotional needs. For example, if the assessment determines that the
student cannot write by hand because of a physical disability, then the school might provide a
computer for typing assignments, or allow the student to answer questions verbally instead. If
the school determines that the student is severely distracted by the normal activities in a large,
busy classroom, then the student might be placed in a smaller classroom such as a resource
room.

Methods of provision

PS 721, a special school in Brooklyn, New York exclusively for the education of
students with special needs.

Schools use different approaches to providing special education services to students. These
approaches can be broadly grouped into four categories, according to how much contact the
student with special needs has with non-disabled students (using North American
terminology):

Inclusion: In this approach, students with special needs spend all, or most
of the school day with students who do not have special needs. Because
inclusion can require substantial modification of the general curriculum,
most schools use it only for selected students with mild to moderate
special needs, which is accepted as a best practice.[10][11] Specialized
services may be provided inside or outside the regular classroom,
depending on the type of service. Students may occasionally leave the
regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions
in a resource room, or to receive other related services that might require
specialized equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class, such
as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy,
rehabilitation counseling. They might also leave the regular classroom for
services that require privacy, such as counseling sessions with a social
worker.[12]

Mainstreaming refers to the practice of educating students with special

needs in classes with non-disabled students during specific time periods
based on their skills. Students with special needs are segregated in
separate classes exclusively for students with special needs for the rest of
the school day.[13]

Segregation in a separate classroom or special school for students with

special needs: In this model, students with special needs do not attend
classes with non-disabled students. Segregated students may attend the
same school where regular classes are provided, but spend all
instructional time exclusively in a separate classroom for students with
special needs. If their special class is located in an ordinary school, they
may be provided opportunities for social integration outside the
classroom, such as by eating meals with non-disabled students. [14]
Alternatively, these students may attend a special school.[13]

Exclusion: A student who does not receive instruction in any school is

excluded from school. In the past, most students with special needs have
been excluded from school.[15] Such exclusion still affects about 23 million
disabled children worldwide, particularly in poor, rural areas of developing
countries.[16] It may also occur when a student is in hospital, housebound,
or detained by the criminal justice system. These students may receive
one-on-one instruction or group instruction. Students who have been
suspended or expelled are not considered excluded in this sense.

Effective Instruction for students with disabilities

Goal Directed: Each child must have an Individualized Education Program

(IEP) that distinguishes his/her particular needs. The child must get the

services that are designed for him/her. These services will allow him/her to
reach his/her annual goals which will be assessed at the end of each term
along with short-term goals that will be assessed every few months.

Research-Based Methods- There has been a lot of research done about

students with disabilities and the best way to teach them. Testing, IQs,
interviews, the discrepancy model, etc. should all be used to determine
where to place the child. Once that is determined, the next step is the best
way for the child to learn. There are plenty of different programs such as
the Wilson Reading Program and Direct Instruction

Guided by student performance- While the IEP goals may be assessed

every few months to a year, constant informal assessments must take
place. These assessments will guide instruction for the teacher. The
teacher will be able to determine if the material is too difficult or to easy.
[17]

Special schools

A special school is a school catering for students who have special educational needs due to
severe learning difficulties, physical disabilities or behavioural problems. Special schools
may be specifically designed, staffed and resourced to provide appropriate special education
for children with additional needs. Students attending special schools generally do not attend
any classes in mainstream schools.
Special schools provide individualised education, addressing specific needs. Student to
teacher ratios are kept low, often 6:1 or lower depending upon the needs of the children.
Special schools will also have other facilities for children with special needs, such as soft
play areas, sensory rooms, or swimming pools, which are necessary for treating students with
certain conditions.
In recent times, places available in special schools are declining as more children with special
needs are educated in mainstream schools. However, there will always be some children,
whose learning needs cannot be appropriately met in a regular classroom setting and will
require specialised education and resources to provide the level of support they require. An
example of a disability that may require a student to attend a special school is intellectual
disability. However, this practice is often frowned upon by school districts in the USA in the
light of Least Restrictive Environment as mandated in the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act.[18]
An alternative is a special unit or special classroom, also called a self-contained classroom,
which is a separate room or rooms dedicated solely to the education of students with special
needs within a larger school that also provides general education. These classrooms are
typically staffed by specially trained teachers, who provide specific, individualized
instruction to individuals and small groups of students with special needs. Self-contained
classrooms, because they are located in a general education school, may have students who
remain in the self-contained classroom full-time, or students who are included in certain

general education classes. In the United States a part-time alternative that is appropriate for
some students is sometimes called a resource room.
History of special schools

One of the first special schools in the world was the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in
Paris, which was founded in 1784. It was the first school in the world to teach blind students.
[19]
The first school in U.K, for the Deaf was established 1760 [20][21] in Edinburgh by Thomas
Braidwood, with education for visually impaired people beginning in the Edinburgh and
Bristol in 1765.
In the 19th Century, people with disabilities and the inhumane conditions where they were
supposedly housed and educated were addressed in the literature of Charles Dickens. Dickens
characterized people with severe disabilities as having the same, if not more, compassion and
insight in Bleak House and Little Dorrit.[22]
Such attention to the downtrodden conditions of people with disabilities brought resulted in
reforms in Europe including the re-evalutation of special schools. In the United States reform
came more slowly. Throughout the mid half of the 20th century, special schools, termed
institutions, were not only accepted, but encouraged. Students with disabilites were housed
with people with mental illnesses, and they were not educated much, if at all.[23]
Deinstitutionalization proceeded in the US beginning in the 1970s following the exposes of
the institutions, and it has taken sometime before the Education for All Handicapped
Children's Act of 1974, to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and then
Individuals with Disabilities Educational Improvement Act (IDEIA) have come into fruition.
[24]
School integration was supported as early as the 1970s, and teacher preparation programs
in higher education have carefully taught and instructed graduates on inclusion at the
classroom, individual, school, and district levels for decades resulting in dual certification of
"regular teachers".
With the Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997, school districts in the
United States began to slowly integrate students with moderate and severe special needs into
regular school systems. This changed the form and function of special education services in
many school districts and special schools subsequently saw a steady decrease in enrollment
as districts weighed the cost per student. It also posed general funding dilemmas to certain
local schools and districts, changed how schools view assessments, and formally introduced
the concept of inclusion to many educators, students and parents.[25]

Instructional strategies
Different instructional techniques are used for some students with special educational needs.
Instructional strategies are classified as being either accommodations or modifications.
An accommodation is a reasonable adjustment to teaching practices so that the student learns
the same material, but in a format that is more accessible to the student. Accommodations

may be classified by whether they change the presentation, response, setting, or scheduling of
lessons.[26] For example, the school may accommodate a student with visual impairments by
providing a large-print textbook. This is a presentation accommodation.
A modification changes or adapts the material to make it simpler.[27] Modifications may
change what is learned, how difficult the material is, what level of mastery the student is
expected to achieve, whether and how the student is assessed, or any another aspect of the
curriculum.[28] For example, the school may modify a reading assignment for a student with
reading difficulties by substituting a shorter, easier book. A student may receive both
accommodations and modifications.
Examples of modifications

Skipping subjects: Students may be taught less information than typical

students, skipping over material that the school deems inappropriate for
the student's abilities or less important than other subjects. For example,
students with poor fine motor skills may be taught to print block letters,
but not cursive handwriting.

Simplified assignments: Students may read the same literature as their

peers but have a simpler version, such as Shakespeare with both the
original text and a modern paraphrase available. [29]

Shorter assignments: Students may do shorter homework assignments or

take shorter, more concentrated tests.

Extra aids: If students have deficiencies in working memory, a list of

vocabulary words, called a word bank, can be provided during tests, to
reduce lack of recall and increase chances of comprehension. Students
might use a calculator when other students do not.

Extended time: Students with a slower processing speed may benefit from
extended time for assignments and/or tests in order to have more time to
comprehend questions, recall information, and synthesize knowledge.

Examples of accommodations

Response accommodations:[26] Typing homework assignments rather than

hand-writing them (considered a modification if the subject is learning to
write by hand). Having someone else write down answers given verbally.

Presentation accommodations:[26] Examples include listening to

audiobooks rather than reading printed books. These may be used as
substitutes for the text, or as supplements intended to improve the
students' reading fluency and phonetic skills. Similar options include
designating a person to read to the student, or providing text to speech
software. This is considered a modification if the purpose of the
assignment is reading skills acquisition. Other presentation
accommodations may include designating a person to take notes during

lectures or using a talking calculator rather than one with only a visual
display.

Setting accommodations:[26] Taking a test in a quieter room. Moving the

class to a room that is physically accessible, e.g., on the first floor of a
building or near an elevator. Arranging seating assignments to benefit the
student, e.g., by sitting at the front of the classroom.

Scheduling accommodations:[26] Students may be given rest breaks or

extended time on tests (may be considered a modification, if speed is a
factor in the test). Use a timer to help with time management.

All developed countries permit or require some degree of accommodation for students with
special needs, and special provisions are usually made in examinations which take place at
the end of formal schooling.[26]
In addition to how the student is taught the academic curriculum, schools may provide nonacademic services to the student. These are intended ultimately to increase the student's
personal and academic abilities. Related services include developmental, corrective, and
other supportive services as are required to assist a student with special needs and includes
speech and language pathology, audiology, psychological services, physical therapy,
occupational therapy, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation
and mobility services, medical services as defined by regulations, parent counseling and
training, school health services, school social work, assistive technology services, other
appropriate developmental or corrective support services, appropriate access to recreation and
other appropriate support services.[30] In some countries, most related services are provided by
the schools; in others, they are provided by the normal healthcare and social services systems.
As an example, students who have autistic spectrum disorders, poor impulse control, or other
behavioral challenges may learn self-management techniques, be kept closely on a
comfortingly predictable schedule, or given extra cues to signal activities.[31]
A university field, termed severe disabilities, also is taught throughout the US university
sector in schools of education. Advanced instruction is based upon community-referenced
instruction, and alignment with transition to adulthood and progressive community practices.
[32]

Rehabilitation counseling personnel are often association with supported employment

services, and typically with "transition to adulthood" [33] [34]in which multi-decade
recommendations for better coordination between the school and the community service
sectors have been made at the federal and university levels.

Issues
At-risk students (those with educational needs that are not associated with a disability) are
often placed in classes with students who have disabilities. Critics assert that placing at-risk
students in the same classes as students with disabilities may impede the educational progress

of people with disabilities.[35] Some special education classes have been criticized for a
watered-down curriculum.[36]
The practice of inclusion (in mainstream classrooms) has been criticized by advocates and
some parents of children with special needs because some of these students require
instructional methods that differ dramatically from typical classroom methods. Critics assert
that it is not possible to deliver effectively two or more very different instructional methods in
the same classroom. As a result, the educational progress of students who depend on different
instructional methods to learn often fall even further behind their peers.[37]
Parents of typically developing children sometimes fear that the special needs of a single
"fully included" student will take critical levels of attention and energy away from the rest of
the class and thereby impair the academic achievements of all students.[37]
Linked to this, there is debate about the extent to which students with special needs, whether
in mainstream or special settings, should have a specific pedagogy, based on the scientific
study of particular diagnostic categories, or whether general instructional techniques are
relevant to all students including those with special needs.[38][39]
Some parents, advocates, and students have concerns about the eligibility criteria and their
application. In some cases, parents and students protest the students' placement into special
education programs. For example, a student may be placed into the special education
programs due to a mental health condition such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression,
anxiety, panic attacks or ADHD, while the student and his parents believe that the condition
is adequately managed through medication and outside therapy. In other cases, students
whose parents believe they require the additional support of special education services are
denied participation in the program based on the eligibility criteria.[40]

Whether it is useful and appropriate to attempt to educate the most severely disabled children,
such as children who are in a persistent vegetative state, is debated. While many severely
disabled children can learn simple tasks, such as pushing a buzzer when they want attention,
some children may be incapable of learning. Some parents and advocates say that these
children would be better served by substituting improved physical care for any academic
program.[41] In other cases, they question whether teaching such non-academic subjects, such
as pushing a buzzer, is properly the job of the school system, rather than the health care
system.
Another large issue is the lack of resources enabling individuals with special needs to receive
an education in the developing world. As a consequence, 98 percent of children with special
needs in developing countries do not have access to education.[42]
Issues in Math
1.) Cognitive Development

Declarative Knowledge- This means remembering math facts that

children build off of for each new lesson taught by the teacher

Procedural Knowledge- This is the difficulties that students have

remembering the procedures or steps for various operations. An example
of this would be the Order of Operations. Most students remember that the
order is parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and
then subtraction. Children remember this through various chants and
rhymes. However, children with disabilities have difficulty grasping
procedural knowledge.

Conceptual Knowledge- This is the overall picture. Some students with

disabilities have difficulties understanding how various math concepts
relate and what mathematics means to our society. [17]

2.) Problems in performance

Writing numbers and different math symbols correctly- Some

children with various disorders such as dyslexia and dysgraphia will
greatly struggle with this.

Recalling the meanings of symbols and answers to basic facts

This goes along closely with cognitive issues. Some of these children may
recognize the math symbol or the basic problem; however, they cannot
recall the meaning of the symbol or answer to the math fact.

Counting Some children may forget which numbers come first, last, etc.

Following the steps of a strategy Word problems can sometimes

cause an issue of a step-by-step process. Children with disabilities may
forget the order, how to use context clues, etc.

3.) Performance on basic arithmetic

Errors in computation -The child may be able to actually understand the

problem and how to solve it. However, there may be various mistakes
throughout the multi-step problem.

Difficulty with the fact retrieval Every child must know their basic
facts and be able to retrieve them. If the child cannot, he will struggle in
math.

4.) Difficulty with word problems

Excluding irrelevant information Students with disabilities have a

difficult time picking out information that is irrelevant.

Complex sentence structures These children may have difficulty

reading the actual problem itself due to the complex wording. [17]

National approaches
Africa
South Africa

White Papers in 1995 and 2001 discuss special education in the country. Local schools are
given some independent authority.[26]
Both modifications and accommodations are recommended, depending on the student's
individual needs.
Asia
China
Main article: Education for disabled people in China
Japan
Main article: Education in Japan

Japanese students with special needs are placed in one of four different school arrangements:
special schools, special classrooms with another school, in resource rooms (which are called
tsukyu), or in regular classrooms.[26]
Special schools are reserved for students whose severe disabilities cannot be accommodated
in the local school.[26] They do not use the same grading or marking systems as mainstream
schools, but instead assess students according to their individualized plans.[26]
Special classes are similar, and may vary the national curriculum as the teachers see fit.
Tsukyu are resource rooms that students with milder problems use part-time for specialized
instruction individually in small groups. These students spend the rest of the day in the
mainstream classroom. Some students with special needs are fully included in the mainstream
classroom, with accommodations or modifications as needed.[26]
Training of disabled students, particularly at the upper-secondary level, emphasizes
vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible within society.
Vocational training varies considerably depending on the student's disability, but the options
are limited for some. It is clear that the government is aware of the necessity of broadening
the range of possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education is also a goal of
the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning accept more disabled
students.
Pakistan

After independence (1947), Pakistan had to face some serious challenges, due to which no
proper emphasis was given to special education and even education. Among other reasons,
lack of resources, financial as well as human, was the major one in this context. The need and

importance of special education was felt in different educational policies of Pakistan in

different times. At the first time, in its report, the Commission on National Education (1959)
highlighted the importance of special education. After that the Education Policy (1972) and
the National Policy and Implementation Programme (1979) gave some importance to this
sector. The same was also reflected in different medium-term (five-year) plans. This was felt
more seriously when the Directorate General of Special Education, Islamabad formulated a
draft National Policy for Special Education in 1986 and revised it in 1988 to bring it in line
with the emerging needs of special/disabled population. After that a special education policy
was launched in 1999. Recently, Government of Pakistan has launched a new National Policy
for Persons with Disabilities 2002, which is dynamically being implemented.
Further information: List of special schools in Karachi
Further information: List of special education institutions in Lahore
Singapore

Special education is regulated centrally by the Singapore Ministry of Education.[26] Both

special schools and integration into mainstream schools are options for students with special
educational needs, but most students with disabilities are placed in special schools.[26]
Students with special education who wish accommodations on national exams must provide
appropriate documentation to prove that they are disabled.[26] Accommodations, but not
modifications (e.g., simpler questions) are normally approved if they are similar to the
accommodations already being used in everyday schoolwork, with the goal of maintaining
the exam's integrity while not having students unfairly disadvantaged by factors that are
unrelated to what is being tested. The accommodations are listed on the Primary School
Leaving Exam.[26]
Australia

Australian Association of Special Education Inc (AASE)s position is informed by the

Disability Standards for Education 2005 which require that students with disabilities are
treated on the same basis as other students in regards to enrollment and participation in
education.[43]
With respect to standardized tests, special consideration procedures are in place in all states
for students who are disabled.[26] Students must provide documentation Not all desired forms
of accommodations are available. For example, students who cannot read, even if the
inability to read is due to a disability, cannot have the exam read to them, because the exam
results should accurately show that the student is unable to read. Reports on matriculation
exams do not mention whether the student received any accommodations in taking the test.[26]
Europe

Each country in Europe has its own special education support structures.[44]

For more details on 28 European countries see European Agency for Special Needs and
Inclusive Education.[45]
Czech Republic

Schools must take students' special education needs into account when assessing their
achievements.[26]
Denmark

In Denmark, 99% of students with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia are educated
alongside students without any learning challenges.[46]
Finland

Schools adapt the national guidelines to the needs of individual students. Students with
special educational needs are given an individualized plan.
They may be exempted from some parts of school examinations, such as students with
hearing impairments not taking listening comprehension tests. If the student receives
modifications to the school-leaving exams, this is noted on the certificate of achievement.[26]
If they are not following the national core curriculum, then they are tested according to the
goals of their individual educational program.[26]
France

French students with disabilities are normally included in their neighborhood school,
although children may be placed in special schools if their personalized plan calls for it.[26]
Each student's personalized school plan describes teaching methods, psychological, medical
and paramedical services that the school will provide to the student.
Germany

A special school for children with special emotional needs in Ktitz, Germany

Most students with special needs in Germany attend a special school that serves only children
with special needs. These include:

Frderschule fr Lernbehinderte (special school for learning disabilities):

for children who have challenges that impair learning

Frderschule mit dem Frderschwerpunkt Geistige Entwicklung (school for

cognitive development): for children with very severe learning challenges

Frderschule Schwerpunkt emotionale und soziale Entwicklung (school for

emotional and social development): for children who have special
emotional needs

Frderschule fr Blinde (school for the blind): for blind children

Frderschule fr Sehbehinderte (school for the visually impaired): for

children who are visually challenged

Frderschule fr Gehrlose (school for the deaf): for deaf children

Frderschule fr Schwerhrige (school for the hearing impaired): for

children who are hearing impaired

Frderschule fr Krperbehinderte (school for children with physical

disabilities): for children with physical disabilities

Frderschule fr Sprachbehinderte (school for children with language

disorders): for children with language disorders

Frderschule fr Taubblinde (school for the deafblind): for children who are
deafblind

Schule fr Kranke (school for ill children): for children who are too ill to
attend school or are hospitalized for a longer

Frderschule fr schwer mehrfach Behinderte (school for children with

severe and multiple disabilities): for children with severe and multiple
disabilities who need very special care and attention. Sometimes these
children are only susceptible for very basic emotional and sensory
stimulation. Thus teachers at these school (as well as at schools for the
deafblind) are highly specialized professionals.

One in 21 German students attends a special school. Teachers at those schools are specially
trained professionals who have specialized in special needs education while in university.
Special schools often have a very favorable student-teacher ratio and facilities other schools
do not have.
Some special needs children in Germany do not attend a special school, but are educated in a
mainstream school such as a Hauptschule or Gesamtschule (comprehensive school).
Students with special educational needs may be exempted from standardized tests or given
modified tests.[26]

Greece

Greek students with special needs may attend either mainstream schools or special schools.[26]
Students whose disabilities have been certified may be exempted from some standardized
tests or given alternative tests.[26] Accommodations are responsive to students' needs; for
example, students with visual impairments may take oral tests, and students with hearing
impairments take written tests. Accommodations and modifications are noted on the
certificate of achievement.
Hungary

Special education is regulated centrally.[26]

According to the 1993 Act on Public Education, students with special educational needs may
be exempted from standardized tests or given modified tests.[26] They have a right to extra
time, a choice of formats for the tests (e.g., oral rather than written), and any equipment that
they normally use during the school day.[26]
As of 2006, students with disabilities received a significant bonus (eight points) on the
university entrance examination, which has been criticized as unfair.[26]
The Netherlands

As a general rule, students with special educational needs are integrated into their regular,
mainstream schools with appropriate support, under the "Going to School Together" policy
(Weer Samen Naar School).[26] Four types of disability-specific special schools exist. The
national policy is moving towards "suitable education" (passend onderwijs), based on the
individual's strengths and weakensses.[26]
A strong emphasis is placed on the specific needs and positive capabilities of the individual,
rather than on limitations.[26] Disabilities are normally documented by experts.[26]
Norway
The National Support System for Special Needs Education (Statped) is managed by the
Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. The general objective for Statped is to
give guidance and support to those in charge of the education in municipalities and county
administrations to ensure that children, young people and adults with major and special
educational needs are secured well-advised educational and developmental provisions. The
institutions affiliated with Statped offer a broad spectrum of services. Statped consists of 13
resource centres owned by the State, and 4 units for special education, where Statped buys
services. These centres offer special educational guidance and support for local authorities
and county administrations.
Portugal

Students with disabilities have a "guaranteed right" to appropriate accommodations on

assessments.[26] Schools are generally considered autonomous.
Slovenia

On national tests, the National Examination Center normally grants most requests for
accommodations that are supported by the local school's examination committee. Legislation
opposes the use of modifications that would be unfair to non-disabled students.[26]
Spain

Schools are required to provide services and resources to students with special educational
needs so that they make progress and participate in school.[26] If the local school is unable to
provide appropriately for an individual student, then the student may be transferred to a
special school.[26]
Spanish non-governmental organizations like ONCE have traditionally provided significant
services to students with disabilities.[26]
Sweden

Local schools have significant autonomy, based on national guidelines. Schools are expected
to help students meet the goals that are set for them.[26]
There are special schools (Swedish:Srskola) for students with low abilities to attend normal
education. There has in 2012-2013 been media criticism on the fact that students with light
problems such as dyslexia have been placed in special schools, seriously hampering their
chances on the labour market.
Switzerland

Education is controlled by the 26 cantons, and so special education programs vary from place
to place.[26] However, integration is typical.[26] Students are assessed according to their
individual learning goals.[26]
United Kingdom
Main article: Special education in the United Kingdom
Further information: Special education in England and Special education in
Scotland

In England and Wales the acronym SEN for Special Educational Needs denotes the condition
of having special educational needs, the services which provide the support and the
programmes and staff which implement the education.[47] In England SEN PPS refers to the
Special Educational Needs Parent Partnership Service. SENAS is the special educational
needs assessment service, which is part of the Local Authority. SENCO refers to a special

educational needs coordinator, who usually works with schools and the children within
schools who have special educational needs. The Special Educational Needs Parent
Partnership Services help parents with the planning and delivery of their child's educational
provision. The Department for Education oversees special education in England.
Most students have an individual educational plan, but students may have a group plan in
addition to, or instead of, an individual plan. Groups plans are used when a group of students
all have similar goals.[48]
In Scotland the Additional Support Needs Act places an obligation on education authorities to
meet the needs of all students in consultation with other agencies and parents. In Scotland the
term Special Educational Needs (SEN), and its variants are not official terminology although
the very recent implementation of the Additional Support for Learning Act means that both
SEN and ASN (Additional Support Needs) are used interchangeably in current common
practice.
Turkey
Main article: Special education in Turkey

All special-needs students receive an Individualized Education Program (BEP) that outlines
how the school will meet the students individual needs. The zel Eitim Kurumlar
Ynetmeli (EKY) requires that students with special needs be provided with a Free
Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment that is appropriate to the
student's needs. Government-run schools provide special education in varying degrees from
the least restrictive settings, such as full inclusion, to the most restrictive settings, such as
segregation in a special school.
The education offered by the school must be appropriate to the student's individual needs.
Schools are not required to maximize the student's potential or to provide the best possible
services. Unlike most of the developed world, American schools are also required to provide
many medical services, such as speech therapy, if the student needs these services.
According to the Department of Education, approximately 10 percent of all school-aged
children) currently receive some type of special education services.
As with most countries in the world, students who are poor, ethnic minorities, or do not speak
the dominant language fluently are disproportionately identified as needing special education
services.
Poor, refugies are more likely to have limited resources and to employ inexperienced teachers
that do not cope well with student behavior problems, "thereby increasing the number of
students they referred to special education." Teacher efficacy, tolerance, gender, and years of
experience and special education referrals.
North America

In North America, special education is commonly abbreviated as special ed, SpecEd, SPED,
or SpEd in a professional context.
Canada

Education in Canada is the responsibility of the individual provinces and territories.[26] As

such, rules vary somewhat from place to place. However, inclusion is the dominant model.
For major exams, Canadian schools commonly use accommodations, such as specially
printed examinations for students with visual impairments, when assessing the achievements
of students with special needs.[26] In other instances, alternative assessments or modifications
that simplify tests are permitted, or students with disabilities may be exempted from the tests
entirely.[26]
United States
Main article: Special education in the United States

All special-needs students receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that outlines
how the school will meet the students individual needs. The Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) requires that students with special needs be provided with a Free
Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment that is appropriate to the
student's needs. Government-run schools provide special education in varying degrees from
the least restrictive settings, such as full inclusion, to the most restrictive settings, such as
segregation in a special school.[13] The education offered by the school must be appropriate to
the student's individual needs. Schools are not required to maximize the student's potential or
to provide the best possible services. Unlike most of the developed world, American schools
are also required to provide many medical services, such as speech therapy, if the student
needs these services.
According to the Department of Education, approximately 6 million children (roughly 10
percent of all school-aged children) currently receive some type of special education services.
[49]
As with most countries in the world, students who are poor, ethnic minorities, or do not
speak the dominant language fluently are disproportionately identified as needing special
education services.[50] Poor, black and Latino urban schools are more likely to have limited
resources and to employ inexperienced teachers that do not cope well with student behavior
problems, "thereby increasing the number of students they referred to special education."[51]
During the 1960s, in some part due to the civil rights movement, some researchers began to
study the disparity of education amongst people with disabilities.[52] The landmark Brown v.
Board of Education decision, which declared unconstitutional the "separate but equal"
arrangements in public schools for students of different races, paved the way for PARC v.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills vs. Board of Education of District of Columbia,
which challenged the segregation of students with special needs. Courts ruled that
unnecessary and inappropriate segregation of students with disabilities was unconstitutional.
[50]
Congress responded to these court rulings with the federal Education for All Handicapped

Children Act in 1975 (since renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA)). This law required schools to provide services to students previously denied access
to an appropriate education.
In US government-run schools, the dominant model is inclusion. In the United States, three
out of five students with academic learning challenges spend the overwhelming majority of
their time in the regular classroom.[53]

Inclusion in education was once described as an approach wherein students with special
educational needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students. Now it is crucial
that all policy makers, school boards, administrators, guidance counsellors, teachers, parents
and students ensure inclusive practice in all aspects of educational environments. Research
suggests that inclusivity is no longer defined by physical and cognitive disabilities but also
includes a full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age
and of other forms of human differences" (.[1] Research conducted by Richard Wilkinson and
Kate Pickett indicates "student performance and behaviour in educational tasks can be
profoundly effected by the way we feel, we are seen and judged by others. When we expect
to be view as inferior, our abilities seem to diminish" [2]

Inclusion, Integration and Mainstreaming

Inclusion has different historical roots which may be integration of students with severe
disabilities in the US (who may previously been excluded from schools or even lived in
institutions)[3][4][5] or an inclusion model from Canada and the US (e.g., Syracuse University,
New York) which is very popular with inclusion teachers who believe in participatory
learning, cooperative learning, and inclusive classrooms.[6]
Inclusive education differs from the early university professor's work (e.g., 1970s, Education
Professor Carol Berrigan of Syracuse University, 1985; Douglas Biklen, Dean of School of
Education through 2011) in integration|integration and mainstreaming [7] which were taught
throughout the world including in international seminars in Italy. Mainstreaming (e.g., the
Human Policy Press poster; If you thought the wheel was a good idea, you'll like the
ramp)tended to be concerned about "readiness" of all parties for the new coming together of
students with significant needs. Thus, integration and mainstreaming principally was
concerned about disability and special educational needs (since the children were not in the
regular schools) and involved teachers, students, principals, administrators, School Boards,
and parents changing and becoming ready for [8] students who needed accommodation or
new methods of curriculum and instruction (e.g., required federal IEPs - individualized
education program) [9][10] by the mainstream.[11][12][13]
By contrast, inclusion is about the childs right to participate and the schools duty to accept
the child returning to the US Supreme Court's Brown vs. the Board of Education decision and
the new Individuals with Disabilities Education (Improvement) Act (IDEIA). Inclusion
rejects the use of special schools or classrooms, which remain popular among large multiservice providers, to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. A
premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities, in contrast to earlier
concept of partial participation in the mainstream,[14] and upon respect for their social, civil,
and educational rights. Inclusion gives students with disabilities skills they can use in and out
of the classroom.[15]

Fully Inclusive Schools and General/Special Education

Policies
Fully inclusive schools, which are rare, no longer distinguish between "general education"
and "special education" programs which refers to the debates and federal initiatives of the
1980s,[16][17][18] such as the Community Integration Project [19] and the debates on home schools
and special education-regular education classrooms;[20] instead, the school is restructured so
that all students learn together.[21][22] All approaches to inclusive schooling require
administrative and managerial changes to move from the traditional approaches to elementary
and high school education.[23]
Inclusion remains in 2015 as part of school (e.g., Powell & Lyle, 1997, now to the most
integrated setting from LRE) [24] and educational reform initiatives in the US [25] and other
parts of the world. Inclusion is an effort to improve quality in education in the fields of
disability, is a common theme in educational reform for decades,[26] and is supported by the

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2006). Inclusion has been
researched and studied for decades, though reported lighly in the public with early studies on
heterogeneous and homogeneous ability groupings (Stainback & Stainback, 1989),[27] studies
of critical friends and inclusion facilitators (e.g., Jorgensen & Tashie, 2000),[28] self-contained
to general education reversal of 90% (Fried & Jorgensen, 1998),[29] among many others
obtaining doctoral degrees throughout the US.

Classification of Students and Educational Practices

Classification of students by disability is standard in educational systems which use
diagnostic, educational and psychological testing, among others. However, inclusion has been
associated with its own planning, including MAPS which Jack Pearpoint leads with still leads
in 2015 [30] and person-centred planning with John O'Brien and Connie Lyle O'Brien who
view inclusion as a force for school renewal.[31]
Inclusion has two sub-types:[32] the first is sometimes called regular inclusion or partial
inclusion, and the other is full inclusion.[33]
"Inclusive practice" is not always inclusive but is a form of integration. For example, students
with special needs are educated in regular classes for nearly all of the day, or at least for more
than half of the day.[33] Whenever possible, the students receive any additional help or special
instruction in the general classroom, and the student is treated like a full member of the class.
However, most specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom, particularly if
these services require special equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class (such
as speech therapy), and students are pulled out of the regular classroom for these services. In
this case, the student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend smaller, more
intensive instructional sessions in a resource room, or to receive other related services, such
as speech and language therapy, occupational and/or physical therapy, psychological services,
and social work.[33] This approach can be very similar to many mainstreaming practices, and
may differ in little more than the educational ideals behind it.[33]
In the "full inclusion" setting, the students with special needs are always educated alongside
students without special needs, as the first and desired option while maintaining appropriate
supports and services. Some educators say this might be more effective for the students with
special needs.[34] At the extreme, full inclusion is the integration of all students, even those
that require the most substantial educational and behavioral supports and services to be
successful in regular classes and the elimination of special, segregated special education
classes.[34] Special education is considered a service, not a place and those services are
integrated into the daily routines (See, ecological inventories) and classroom structure,
environment, curriculum and strategies and brought to the student, instead of removing the
student to meet his or her individual needs. However, this approach to full inclusion is
somewhat controversial, and it is not widely understood or applied to date.[34][35][36][37]
Much more commonly, local educational agencies have the responsibility to organize services
for children with disabilities. They may provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms

to mainstreaming to inclusion, and assign, as teachers and administrators often do, students to
the system that seems most likely to help the student achieve his or her individual educational
goals. Students with mild or moderate disabilities, as well as disabilities that do not affect
academic achievement, such as using power wheelchair, scooter or other mobility device, are
most likely to be fully included; indeed, children with polio or with leg injuries have grown
to be leaders and teachers in government and universities; self advocates travel across the
country and to different parts of the world. However, students with all types of disabilities
from all the different disability categories (See, also 2012 book by Michael Wehmeyer from
the University of Kansas) have been successfully included in general education classes,
working and achieving their individual educational goals in regular school environments and
activities (reference needed).
Alternatives to Inclusion Programs: School Procedures and Community
Development

Students with disabilities who are not included are typically either mainstreamed or
segregated.
A mainstreamed student attends some general education classes, typically for less than half
the day, and often for less academically rigorous, or if you will, more interesting and careeroriented classes. For example, a young student with significant intellectual disabilities might
be mainstreamed for physical education classes, art classes and storybook time, but spend
reading and mathematics classes with other students that have similar disabilities ("needs for
the same level of academic instruction"). They may have access to a resource room for
remediation or enhancement of course content, or for a variety of group and individual
meetings and consultations.
A segregated student attends no classes with non-disabled students with disability a tested
category determined before or at school entrance. He or she might attend a special school
termed residential schools that only enrolls other students with disabilities, or might be placed
in a dedicated, self-contained classroom in a school that also enrolls general education
students. The latter model of integration, like the 1970s Jowonio School in Syracuse, is often
highly valued when combined with teaching such as Montessori education techniques. Home
schooling was also a popular alternative among highly educated parents with children with
significant disabilities.
Residential schools have been criticized for decades, and the government has been asked
repeatedly to keep funds and services in the local districts, including for family support
services for parents who may be currently single and raising a child with significant
challenges on their own.[38] Children with special needs may already be involved with early
childhood education which can have a family support component emphasizing the strengths
of the child and family.[39]
Some students may be confined to a hospital due to a medical condition (e.g., cancer
treatments) and are thus eligible for tutoring services provided by a school district.[40] Less

common alternatives include homeschooling[41][42] and, particularly in developing countries,

exclusion from education.

Legal Issues: Education Law and Disability Laws

The new anti-discriminatory climate has provided the basis for much change in policy and
statute, nationally and internationally. Inclusion has been enshrined at the same time that
segregation and discrimination have been rejected. Articulations of the new developments in
ways of thinking, in policy and in law include:

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which sets out
childrens rights in respect of freedom from discrimination and in respect
of the representation of their wishes and views.

The Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO prohibits

any discrimination, exclusion or segregation in education.

The UNESCO[43] Salamanca Statement (1994) which calls on all

governments to give the highest priority to inclusive education. [44]

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) which

calls on all States Parties to ensure an inclusive education system at all
levels.[45]

From the Least Restrictive to the Most Integrated Setting

For schools in the United States, the federal requirement that students be educated in the
historic least restrictive environment that is reasonable encourages the implementation of
inclusion of students previously excluded by the school system.[46][47] However, a critical
critique of the LRE principle, commonly used to guide US schools, indicates that it often
places restrictions and segregation on the individuals with the most severe disabilities.[48] By
the late 1980s, individuals with significant disabilities and their families and caregivers were
already living quality lives in homes and local communities.[49][50][51] Luckily, the US Supreme
Court has now ruled in the Olmstead Decision (1999) that the new principle is that of the
"most integrated setting",[52] as described by the national Consortium of Citizens with
Disabilities, which should result in better achievement of national integration and inclusion
goals in the 21st Century.

Inclusion Rates in the World: "Frequency of Use"

The proportion of students with disabilities who are included varies by place and by type of
disability, but it is relatively common for students with milder disabilities and less common
with certain kinds of severe disabilities. In Denmark, 99% of students with learning
disabilities like 'dyslexia' are placed in general education classrooms.[53] In the United States,
three out of five students with learning disabilities spend the majority of their time in the
general education classroom.[54]
Postsecondary statistics (after high school) are kept by universities and government on the
success rates of students entering college, and most are eligible for either disability services

(e.g., accommodations and aides) or programs on college campuses, such as supported

education in psychiatric disabilities or College for Living. The former are fully integrated
college degree programs with college and vocational rehabilitation services (e.g., payments
for textbooks, readers or translators), and the latter courses developed similar to retirement
institutes (e.g., banking for retirees).

Principles of Inclusion and Necessary Resources

Although once hailed, usually by its opponents, as a way to increase achievement while
decreasing costs, full inclusion does not save money, but is more cost-beneficial and costeffective. It is not designed to reduce students' needs, and its first priority may not even be to
improve academic outcomes; in most cases, it merely moves the special education
professionals (now dual certified for all students in some states) out of "their own special
education" classrooms and into a corner of the general classroom or as otherwise designed by
the "teacher-in-charge" and "administrator-in-charge". To avoid harm to the academic
education of students with disabilities, a full panoply of services and resources is required (of
education for itself), including:[55]

Adequate supports and services for the student

Well-designed individualized education programs

Professional development for all teachers involved, general and special

educators alike

Time for teachers to plan, meet, create, and evaluate the students
together

Reduced class size based on the severity of the student needs

Professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer

tutoring, adaptive curriculum

Collaboration between parents or guardians, teachers or para educators,

specialists, administration, and outside agencies.

Sufficient funding so that schools will be able to develop programs for

students based on student need instead of the availability of funding.

Indeed, the students with special needs do receive funds from the federal government, by law
originally the Educational for All Handicapped Children Act of 1974 to the present day,
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which requires its use in the most
integrated setting.
In principle, several factors can determine the success of inclusive classrooms:

Family-school partnerships

Collaboration between general and special educators

Well-constructed plans that identify specific accommodations,

modifications, and goals for each student

Coordinated planning and communication between "general" and "special

needs" staff

Integrated service delivery

Ongoing training and staff development

Leadership of teachers and administrators

By the mid-1980s, school integration leaders in the university sector already had detailed
schemas (e.g., curriculum, student days, students with severe disabilities in classrooms) with
later developments primarily in assistive technology and communication, school reform and
transformation, personal assistance of user-directed aides, and increasing emphasis on social
relationships and cooperative learning. In 2015, most important are evaluations of the
populations still in special schools, including those who may be deaf-blind, and the
leadership by inclusion educators, who often do not yet go by that name, in the education and
community systems.
Differing Views of Inclusion/Integration

However, early integrationists community integration would still recommend greater

emphasis on programs related to sciences, the arts (e.g., exposure), curriculum integrated
field trips, and literature as opposed to the sole emphasis on community referenced
curriculum. For example, a global citizen studying the environment might be involved with
planting a tree ("independent mobility"), or going to an arboretum ("social and relational
skills"), developing a science project with a group ("contributing ideas and planning"), and
having two core modules in the curriculum.
However, students will need to either continue to secondary school (meet academic testing
standards), make arrangements for employment, supported education, or home/day services
(transition services), and thus, develop the skills for future life (e.g., academic math skills and
calculators; planning and using recipes or leisure skills) in the educational classrooms.
Inclusion often involved individuals who otherwise might be at an institution or residential
facility.
Today, longitudinal studies follow the outcomes of students with disabilities in classrooms,
which include college graduations and quality of life outcomes. To be avoided are negative
outcomes that include forms of institutionalization.

Common Practices in Inclusive Classrooms

Students in an inclusive classroom are generally placed with their chronological age-mates,
regardless of whether the students are working above or below the typical academic level for
their age. Also, to encourage a sense of belonging, emphasis is placed on the value of

friendships. Teachers often nurture a relationship between a student with special needs and a
same-age student without a special educational need. Another common practice is the
assignment of a buddy to accompany a student with special needs at all times (for example in
the cafeteria, on the playground, on the bus and so on). This is used to show students that a
diverse group of people make up a community, that no one type of student is better than
another, and to remove any barriers to a friendship that may occur if a student is viewed as
"helpless." Such practices reduce the chance for elitism among students in later grades and
encourage cooperation among groups.[56]
Teachers use a number of techniques to help build classroom communities:

Using games designed to build community

Involving students in solving problems

Sharing songs and books that teach community

Openly dealing with individual differences by discussion

Assigning classroom jobs that build community

Teaching students to look for ways to help each other

Utilizing physical therapy equipment such as standing frames, so students

who typically use wheelchairs can stand when the other students are
standing and more actively participate in activities

Encouraging students to take the role of teacher and deliver instruction

(e.g. read a portion of a book to a student with severe disabilities)

Focusing on the strength of a student with special needs

Create classroom checklists

Take breaks when necessary

Create an area for children to calm down

Organize student desk in groups

Create a self and welcoming environment

Set ground rules and stick with them

Help establish short-term goals

Design a multi-faced curriculum

Communicate regular with parents and/or caregivers

Seek support from other special education teachers

[57]

Inclusionary practices are commonly utilized by using the following team-teaching

models:

One teach, one support:

In this model, the content teacher will deliver the lesson and the special education teacher
will assist students individual needs and enforce classroom management as needed.

One teach, one observe:

In this model, the teacher with the most experience in the content will deliver the lesson and
the other teacher will float or observe. This model is commonly used for data retrieval during
IEP observations or Functional Behavior Analysis.

Station teaching (rotational teaching):

In this model, the room is divided into stations in which the students will visit with their
small groups. Generally, the content teacher will deliver the lesson in his/her group, and the
special education teacher will complete a review or adapted version of the lesson with the
students.

Parallel teaching:

In this model, one half of the class is taught by the content teacher and one half is taught by
the special education teacher. Both groups are being taught the same lesson, just in a smaller
group.

Alternative teaching:

In this method, the content teacher will teach the lesson to the class, while the special
education teacher will teach a small group of students an alternative lesson.

Team teaching (content/support shared 50/50):

Both teachers share the planning, teaching, and supporting equally. This is the traditional
method, and often the most successful co-teaching model. [58]
Children with Extensive Support Needs

For children with significant or severe disabilities, the programs may require what are termed
health supports (e.g., positioning and lifting; visit to the nurse clinic), direct one-to-one aide
in the classroom, assistive technology, and an individualized program which may involve the
student "partially" (e.g., videos and cards for "visual stimulation"; listening to responses)in

the full lesson plan for the "general education student". It may also require introduction of
teaching techniques commonly used (e.g., introductions and interest in science) that teachers
may not use within a common core class.
Another way to think of health supports are in terms of a range of services that may be
needed from specialists, or sometimes generalists, ranging from speech and language, to
visual and hearing (sensory impairments), behavioral, learning, orthopedics, autism, deafblindness, and traumatic brain injury, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's Dr.
Paul Wehman.[59] As Dr. Wehman has indicated, expectations can include post secondary
education, supported employment in competitive sites, and living with family or other
residential places in the community.
In 2005, comprehensive health supports were described in National Goals for Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities as universally available, affordable and promoting inclusion, as
supporting well-informed, freely chose health care decisions, culturally competent, promoting
health promotion, and insuring well trained and respectful health care providers.[60] In
addition, mental health, behavioral, communication and crisis needs may need to be planned
for and addressed.

Collaboration Among the Professions

Inclusion settings allow children with and without disabilities to play and interact every day,
even when they are receiving therapeutic services. When a child displays fine motor
difficulty, his ability to fully participate in common classroom activities, such as cutting,
coloring, and zipping a jacket may be hindered. While occupational therapists are often called
to assess and implement strategies outside of school, it is frequently left up to classroom
teachers to implement strategies in school. Collaborating with occupational therapists will
help classroom teachers use intervention strategies and increase teachers awareness about
students needs within school settings and enhance teachers independence in implementation
of occupational therapy strategies.
As a result of the 1997 re-authorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA), greater emphasis has been placed on delivery of related services within inclusive,
general education environments. [Nolan, 2004] The importance of inclusive, integrated
models of service delivery for children with disabilities has been widely researched indicating
positive benefits. [Case-Smith& Holland, 2009] In traditional "pull out" service delivery
models, children typically work in isolated settings one on one with a therapist, Case-Smith
and Holland(2009) argue that children working on skills once or twice a week are "less likely
to produce learning that leads to new behaviors and increased competence." [Case Smith
&Holland, 2009, pg.419]. In recent years, occupational therapy has shifted from the
conventional model of "pull out" therapy to an integrated model where the therapy takes
place within a school or classroom.
Inclusion administrators have been requested to review their personnel to assure mental
health personnel for children with mental health needs, vocational rehabilitation linkages for

work placements, community linkages for special populations (e.g., "deaf-blind", "autism"),
and collaboration among major community agencies for after school programs and transition
to adulthood.[61][62] Highly recommended are collaborations with parents, including parentprofessional partnerships in areas of cultural and linguistic diversity (e.g., Syracuse
University's special education Ph.D.'s Maya Kaylanpur and Beth Harry).

Selection of Students for Inclusion Programs in Schools

Educators generally say that some students with special needs are not good candidates for
inclusion.[63] Many schools expect a fully included student to be working at or near grade
level, but more fundamental requirements exist: First, being included requires that the student
is able to attend school. Students that are entirely excluded from school (for example, due to
long-term hospitalization), or who are educated outside of schools (for example, due to
enrollment in a distance education program) cannot attempt inclusion.
Additionally, some students with special needs are poor candidates for inclusion because of
their effect on other students. For example, students with severe behavioral problems, such
that they represent a serious physical danger to others, are poor candidates for inclusion,
because the school has a duty to provide a safe environment to all students and staff.
Finally, some students are not good candidates for inclusion because the normal activities in a
general education classroom will prevent them from learning.[33] For example, a student with
severe attention difficulties or extreme sensory processing disorders might be highly
distracted or distressed by the presence of other students working at their desks. Inclusion
needs to be appropriate to the child's unique needs.
Most students with special needs do not fall into these extreme categories, as most students
do attend school, are not violent, do not have severe sensory processing disorders, etc.
The students that are most commonly included are those with physical disabilities that have
no or little effect on their academic work (diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, food allergies,
paralysis), students with all types of mild disabilities, and students whose disabilities require
relatively few specialized services.
Bowe says that regular inclusion, but not full inclusion, is a reasonable approach for a
significant majority of students with special needs.[33] He also says that for some students,
notably those with severe autism spectrum disorders or mental retardation, as well as many
who are deaf or have multiple disabilities, even regular inclusion may not offer an appropriate
education.[33] Teachers of students with autism spectrum disorders sometimes use antecedent
procedures, delayed contingencies, self-management strategies, peer-mediated interventions,
pivotal response training and naturalistic teaching strategies.[64]

Relationship to Progressive Education

Some advocates of inclusion promote the adoption of progressive education practices. In the
progressive education or inclusive classroom, everyone is exposed to a "rich set of activities,"

and each student does what he or she can do, or what he or she wishes to do and learns
whatever comes from that experience. Maria Montessori's schools sometimes named as an
example of inclusive education.
Inclusion requires some changes in how teachers teach, as well as changes in how students
with and without special needs interact with and relate to one another. Inclusive education
practices frequently rely on active learning, authentic assessment practices, applied
curriculum, multi-level instructional approaches, and increased attention to diverse student
needs and individualization.

Arguments for Full Inclusion in Regular Neighborhood

Schools
Advocates say that even partial non-inclusion is morally unacceptable.[65] Proponents believe
that non-inclusion reduces the disabled students' social importance and that maintaining their
social visibility is more important than their academic achievement. Proponents say that
society accords disabled people less human dignity when they are less visible in general
education classrooms. Advocates say that even if typical students are harmed academically by
the full inclusion of certain special needs students, that the non-inclusion of these students
would still be morally unacceptable, as advocates believe that the harm to typical students'
education is always less important than the social harm caused by making people with
disabilities less visible in society.[65]
A second key argument is that everybody benefits from inclusion. Advocates say that there
are many children and young people who don't fit in (or feel as though they don't), and that a
school that fully includes all disabled students feels welcoming to all. Moreover, at least one
author has studied the impact a diversified student body has on the general education
population and has concluded that students with mental retardation who spend time among
their peers show an increase in social skills and academic proficiency.[66]
Advocates for inclusion say that the long-term effects of typical students who are included
with special needs students at a very young age have a heightened sensitivity to the
challenges that others face, increased empathy and compassion, and improved leadership
skills, which benefits all of society.[67]
A combination of inclusion and pull-out (partial inclusion) services has been shown to be
beneficial to students with learning disabilities in the area of reading comprehension, and
preferential for the special education teachers delivering the services.[68]
Inclusive education can be beneficial to all students in a class, not just students with special
needs. Some research show that inclusion helps students understand the importance of
working together, and fosters a sense of tolerance and empathy among the student body.[69]

Positive Effects of Inclusion in Regular Classrooms

There are many positive effects of inclusions where both the students with special needs
along with the other students in the classroom both benefit. Research has shown positive
effects for children with disabilities in areas such as reaching individualized education
program (IEP) goal, improving communication and social skills, increasing positive peer
interactions, many educational outcomes, and post school adjustments. Positive effects on
children without disabilities include the development of positive attitudes and perceptions of
persons with disabilities and the enhancement of social status with nondisabled peers.[70]
Several studies have been done on the effects of inclusion of children with disabilities in
general education classrooms. A study on inclusion compared integrated and segregated
(special education only) preschool students. The study determined that children in the
integrated sites progressed in social skills development while the segregated children actually
regressed.[71]
Another study shows the effect on inclusion in grades 2 to 5. The study determined that
students with specific learning disabilities made some academic and affective gains at a pace
comparable to that of normal achieving students. Specific learning disabilities students also
showed an improvement in self-esteem and in some cases improved motivation.[72]
A third study shows how the support of peers in an inclusive classroom can lead to positive
effects for children with autism. The study observed typical inclusion classrooms, ages
ranging from 7 years old to 11 years old. The peers were trained on an intervention technique
to help their fellow autistic classmates stay on task and focused. The study showed that using
peers to intervene instead of classroom teachers helped students with autism reduce off-task
behaviors significantly. It also showed that the typical students accepted the student with
autism both before and after the intervention techniques were introduced.[73]

Criticisms of Inclusion Programs of School Districts

Critics of full and partial inclusion include educators, administrators and parents. Full and
partial inclusion approaches neglect to acknowledge the fact most students with significant
special needs require individualized instruction or highly controlled environments. Thus,
general education classroom teachers often are teaching a curriculum while the special
education teacher is remediating instruction at the same time. Similarly, a child with serious
inattention problems may be unable to focus in a classroom that contains twenty or more
active children. Although with the increase of incidence of disabilities in the student
population, this is a circumstance all teachers must contend with, and is not a direct result of
inclusion as a concept.[74]
Full inclusion may in fact be a way for schools to placate parents and the general public,
using the word as a phrase to garner attention for what are in fact illusive efforts to education
students with special needs in the general education environment.[75]
At least one study examined the lack of individualized services provided for students with
IEPs when placed in an inclusive rather than mainstreamed environment.[76]

Some researchers have maintained school districts neglect to prepare general education staff
for students with special needs, thus preventing any achievement. Moreover, school districts
often expound an inclusive philosophy for political reasons, and do away with any valuable
pull-out services, all on behalf of the students who have no so say in the matter.[77]
Inclusion is viewed by some as a practice philosophically attractive yet impractical. Studies
have not corroborated the proposed advantages of full or partial inclusion. Moreover, "push
in" servicing does not allow students with moderate to severe disabilities individualized
instruction in a resource room, from which many show considerable benefit in both learning
and emotional development.[78]
Parents of disabled students may be cautious about placing their children in an inclusion
program because of fears that the children will be ridiculed by other students, or be unable to
develop regular life skills in an academic classroom.[79]
Some argue that inclusive schools are not a cost-effective response when compared to
cheaper or more effective interventions, such as special education. They argue that special
education helps "fix" the special needs students by providing individualized and personalized
instruction to meet their unique needs. This is to help students with special needs adjust as
quickly as possible to the mainstream of the school and community. Proponents counter that
students with special needs are not fully into the mainstream of student life because they are
secluded to special education. Some argue that isolating students with special needs may
lower their self-esteem and may reduce their ability to deal with other people. In keeping
these students in separate classrooms they aren't going to see the struggles and achievements
that they can make together. However, at least one study indicated mainstreaming in
education has long-term benefits for students as indicated by increased test scores,[80] where
the benefit of inclusion has not yet been proved.

Broader Approach: Social and Cultural Inclusion

As used by UNESCO, inclusion refers to far more than students with special educational
needs. It is centered on the inclusion of marginalized groups, such as religious, racial, ethnic,
and linguistic minorities, immigrants, girls, the poor, students with disabilities, HIV/AIDS
patients, remote populations, and more. In some places, these people are not actively included
in education and learning processes.[81] In the U.S. this broader definition is also known as
"culturally responsive" education, which differs from the 1980s-1990s cultural diversity and
cultural competency approaches [82] ,[83] and is promoted among the ten equity assistance
centers of the U.S. Department of Education, for example in Region IX (AZ, CA, NV), by the
Equity Alliance at ASU. Gloria Ladson-Billings[84] points out that teachers who are culturally
responsive know how to base learning experiences on the cultural realities of the child (e.g.
home life, community experiences, language background, belief systems). Proponents argue
that culturally responsive pedagogy is good for all students because it builds a caring
community where everyone's experiences and abilities are valued.

Proponents want to maximize the participation of all learners in the community schools of
their choice and to rethink and restructure policies, curricula, cultures and practices in schools
and learning environments so that diverse learning needs can be met, whatever the origin or
nature of those needs.[85] They say that all students can learn and benefit from education, and
that schools should adapt to the physical, social, and cultural needs of students, rather than
students adapting to the needs of the school. Proponents believe that individual differences
between students are a source of richness and diversity, which should be supported through a
wide and flexible range of responses. The challenge of rethinking and restructuring schools to
become more culturally responsive calls for a complex systems view of the educational
system (e.g.see Michael Patton[86]), where one can extend the idea of strength through
diversity to all participants in the educational system (e.g. parents, teachers, community
members, staff).
Although inclusion is generally associated with elementary and secondary education, it is
also applicable in postsecondary education. According to UNESCO, inclusion "is
increasingly understood more broadly as a reform that supports and welcomes diversity
amongst all learners."[81] Under this broader definition of inclusion, steps should also be taken
to eliminate discrimination and provide accommodations for all students who are at a
disadvantage because of some reason other than disability.
Integrated Education brings children and staff from Catholic and Protestant traditions, as well
as those of other faiths, or none, together in one school. For the past 30 years, in a deeply
divided society, Integrated schools have been an alternative to an educational system in which
most children attend largely religiously separated schools.
Integrated Schools differ from other schools in Northern Ireland by ensuring that children
from diverse backgrounds are educated together every day in the same classrooms. Through
their Admissions Criteria they enrol approximately equal numbers of Catholic and Protestant
children, as well as children from other religious and cultural backgrounds.
It is important to note that Integrated schools are not secular but are essentially Christian in
character and welcome all faiths and none. In Integrated Primary Schools Catholic children
are offered Sacramental preparation at P4 and P7. At the same time, Protestant children can
generally avail of the Delving Deeper programme to develop their own faith knowledge.
Integrated Education aims to provide children with a caring and enhanced educational
experience. Empowering them as individuals is a priority for staff so that as they grow and
mature, theyll be able to affect positive change in the shared society we live in.

6.1.1 The four models

In the international discussion, attitudes, assumptions and the perception of disability are
generally grouped into four models. DPOs worldwide have sought to promote two of these,
the social model and the rights-based model.

The Charity Model

The Charity Model of disability and its associations (adopted from Harris and
Enfield, 2003, p. 172)

The Charity Model sees people with disabilities as victims of their impairment. Depending on
the disability, the disabled persons cannot walk, talk, see, learn, or work. Disability is seen as
a deficit. Persons with disabilities are not able to help themselves and to lead an independent
life. Their situation is tragic, and they are suffering. Consequently, they need special services,
special institutions, such as special schools or homes because they are different. People with
disabilities are to be pitied and need our help, sympathy, charity, welfare in order to be looked
after. Sometimes people with disabilities themselves adopt this concept, in which case they
usually feel unable and have a low sense of self-esteem.

The Medical Model

The Medical Model of disability and its associations (adapted from Harris and
Enfield, 2003, p. 172)

The Medical (or Individual) Model considers people with disabilities as persons with physical
problems which need to be cured. This pushes people with disabilities into the passive role of
patients. The aim of a medical approach is to make people with disabilities normal which
of course implies that people with disabilities are in some way abnormal. The issue of
disability is limited to the individual in question: in case of disability, the disabled person has
to be changed, not society or the surrounding environment.
According to the Medical Model, persons with disabilities need special services, such as
special transport systems and welfare social services. For this purpose, special institutions
exist, for example hospitals, special schools or sheltered employment places where
professionals such as social workers, medical professionals, therapists, special education
teachers decide about and provide special treatment, education and occupations.

The Social Model

The Social Model of disability and its associations (adapted from Harris and
Enfield, 2003, p. 172)

The Social Model regards disability to be a result of the way society is organised.
Shortcomings in the way society is organised mean that people with disabilities face the
following types of discrimination and barriers to participation (see figure):

Attitudinal: This is expressed in fear, ignorance and low expectations

(influenced by culture and religion);

Environmental: This results in physical inaccessibility affecting all aspects

of life (market and shops, public buildings, places of worship, transport,
etc.); and

Institutional: This means legal discrimination. Persons with disabilities are

excluded from certain rights (e.g. by not being allowed to marry or to have
children), or from school, etc.

These three types of barriers make people with disabilities unable to take control of their own
lives. According to the Social Model, a disability not only depends on the individual but also
on the environment, which can be disabling or enabling in various ways. Is a person in a

wheelchair still disabled if s/he can drive a car or motorbike and if her/his home, workplace
and other buildings are accessible?
Integrating people with disabilities means overcoming different types of barriers
(STAKES, 2003, p. 29.)

The Rights-based Model

The Rights-based Model and its associations

This model is closely related to the Social Model. It focuses on the fulfilment of human
rights, for example the right to equal opportunities and participation in society. Consequently,
society has to change to ensure that all people including people with disabilities have
equal possibilities for participation. It is a fact that persons with disabilities often face a
denial of their basic human rights, for example the right to health (physical and
psychological) or the right to education and employment. Laws and policies therefore need to
ensure that these barriers created by society are removed. The Rights-based Model states that
support in these areas is not a question of humanity or charity, but instead a basic human right
that any person can claim. The two main elements of the rights-based approach are
empowerment and accountability. Empowerment refers to the participation of people with
disabilities as active stakeholders, while accountability relates to the duty of public
institutions and structures to implement these rights and to justify the quality and quantity of
their implementation.

Application of the models

The four models listed above simply categorise four ways in which people classify
"disability" and how they see people with disabilities. Everybody uses one of the models or a
mixture of them consciously or unconsciously. These models influence our thinking, our
way of talking and our behaviour.
The following chart provides some examples of how people with disabilities tend to be seen
by other persons and what consequences this could have.
Examples
Situation Charity Model
Young
women
using a
wheelchair

"What a pity, this

beautiful woman
is bound to a
wheelchair, she'll
never be able to
marry, have
children and care

Medical Model

Social Model

Rightsbased
Model

"Oh, this poor

woman, she
should go to a
doctor and discuss
with him if there is
a therapy which
could enable her

"The community
really should
build ramps in
front of public
buildings, so that
persons like her
can participate in

"When she
gets a job,
her employer
will have to
build
accessible
rooms. This

for her family."

to walk again, like

social life."
everybody else."

"Look at this poor

confused man; he
"Perhaps there is
seems to be
some medicine or
Man with mentally retarded,
treatment which
an
it would be better
could improve his
intellectual for him to live in a
perception. He
disability fostered home,
should try a
where somebody
psychiatrist."
will take care of
him."

Parents
with a
hearingimpaired
daugther

"It's a good
solution that he
lives with his
brother, so he is
surrounded by
non-disabled
people."

"We should all

"I'm sure in a few learn sign
"It must be very
years there'll be a language, so that
sad having a child
hearing aid
we can
and knowing that
available which
communicate
she will never be
will make this child with this child
able to live on her
able to hear
and all other
own."
better."
hearing-impaired
people."

is her right!"

"Where does
he want to
live? Let's go
and ask
him!"

"When this
child grows
up, she'll
study at
university, if
she wants
to."

Create an Inclusive & Positive Class Climate

Characteristics

A positive and inclusive classroom climate is linked to academic achievement, while poor
class climate reduces academic achievement and can be detrimental to students in other ways.
In positive and inclusive classrooms teachers are welcoming and work towards developing a
positive rapport with all students. They address negative behaviours promptly and often have
visuals to support the specifics of their inclusive and positive classroom (rules of behaviour,
how to work in groups, character education information, etc.).

Inclusive and positive classroom climates are learning environments where students feel
valued, respected and part of the classroom community and are thus ready to learn.
They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Carol Buchner
Strategies
Develop and maintain a positive rapport with all students. (Get to know their
names quickly, find out their likes and hobbies, greet them at the door each day,
provide them a procedure to speaking privately with you, be supportive of their
learning academically, behaviourally, socially and emotionally).
Interact with students positively and use humour. Develop a sense of
collaboration.
Use team building activities and consider establishing a common goal or
responsibility for the class (looking after milk orders, class pet, fund raising,
social issue, etc.).
Have well established and posted class rules and consequences and regularly
teach and review them with students.
Speak in a calm and positive way even when addressing negative situations.
Have a sign for getting the class attention to avoid yelling (flick the lights,
hand up, etc.).
Follow up immediately on all reports of bullying/negative behaviour and involve
administration and other supports.
Be aware of potential bullying that students may not report and address it.
Directly teach lessons on social and emotional skills and character education.
Circulate frequently among the students and check in to ensure on-task and
understanding.

 Reinforce that making mistakes is how everyone learns.

Learn along with student and explicitly demonstrate problem solving
processes.
Identify students who need increased support and communicate them to the
school team.
Involve community supports for whole class presentations.
Be in frequent contact with parents, administration and other teachers.
Enlist school counseling supports (Child and Youth Worker, Social Worker,
Counselor, etc.).
Be aware of increased behaviours and report to parents and school team.
Provide opportunities for success and rewards for pro-social behaviours.

Role of
Parents &
Teachers in

Inclusive
Education
** Mr. Ashish Sharma,

Lecturer

Ram-Eesh Institute
of Education,
Greater Noida.

Inclusive
education is the
provision of
services to
students with
disabilities in
their

neighbourhood
schools with
necessary
support
services and
supplementary
aids for both
children and

teachers. It is
the system in
which all
children from a
given
community
learn together
in the same

local school
including
children with
learning
difficulties,
special need or
disabilities. It
involves all

children
learning
together with
peers in the
society from a
very beginning.
Provision of
such a form of

education
inculcates the
feeling of
confidence in
the minds of
disabled
children and
offers them

access to
formal system
of education.
Education for
disabled
children is not
only
humanitarian

but also
utilitarian
value. Proper
education
generally
enables a
disabled child
to overcome

his disabilities
and make him
a useful citizen.
It is a process
that runs in two
directions, to
prepare the
disabled

person to
become the
part of society
and to prepare
the society, to
accept them.

By stating this,
Smitha, N.R.
and Sujatha
Acharya have
suggested that
Inclusive
education
means a

philosophy of
education that
prompts the
education of all
pupils in
regular school.

According to
them the
principles of
this philosophy
are based on
following
assumptions:

All children
have a right to
learn and play
together.

Children
should not be
discriminated
against by
being excluded
or sent away
because of

their
disabilities.

There are no
reasons to
separate
children during

the duration of
their schooling.
Similarly
according to
Donna, Lene;
Principal of
senses

Inclusive
Education for
Samoa,
Inclusive
education is a
process where
by the school

systems,
strategic
plans and
policies adapt
and change to
include
teaching
strategies for a

wider range of
children and
their families.
Considering
various
definitions and
concepts of

Inclusive
education, we
find out that
inclusive
education is
based on
simple idea
that every child

and family is
valued equally
and deserves
the same
opportunities
and
experiences
about the

children with
disabilities
whether it is
mild or severe,
hidden or
obvious. It is
about building
friendship,

membership
and having
opportunity
just like
everyone else.
Some
policymakers
and

educationists
accepted it as
the
responsibility
of everyone
involved in
child education
i.e. teachers,

parents,
administrators,
community and
government.
The partial
elements
necessary for
Inclusive

Education is to
get off the
group access
for all and
flexible
teaching
methods- from
traditional

large group
lecturing to
child centred
and interactive
teaching
learning
method to
continue and

grow. This
requires
political will,
perhaps some
physical
changes to
school,
material inputs

different
evaluation
tools,
reorienting the
parent
education,
administration
and monitoring

what goes
beyond score
cards,
classrooms and
into the
community.

Inclusive
Education is
not new for our
Indian
education
system. In the
ancient system
of education all

children were
taught together,
be it under a
shady tree or in
the Gurukul
(school),
whether
normal, gifted

or physically or
intellectually
disabled and
were seen as
worthy of the
benefits of
education, each
according to

his abilities. It
was inclusive
education in
the truest
sense. There
were no special
schools
catering

exclusively to
specific
disabilities or
learning
difficulties. So,
in India, we
have a rich
cultural legacy

for inclusive
education and
India has
always been
and is still
today an
inclusive
society in the

sense that a
very wide
variety of
cultural and
religious
beliefs exist
side by side.
Even today,

small rural
schools provide
education for
all children
under one roof,
little realizing
that

they are
following a
system of
education
newly
rediscovered in
the west
termed

Inclusive
Education.
In a report for
UNICEF,
Bengt
Lindqvist, the
United Nations
Special

Rapporteur on
Human Rights
and Disability,
provided the
following
challenge: As
education is a
fundamental

right for all,

enshrined in
the Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights,
and protected
through various
international

conventions,
this is a very
serious
problem. In a
majority of
countries, there
is a dramatic
difference in

the educational
opportunities
provided for
disabled
children and
those provided
for nondisabled

children. It will
simply not be
possible to
realize the goal
of
Education for
All
if we do not a

chieve a
complete
change in the
situation.
Seeing
this in 2000
, World
Declaration on

Education for
All
was adopted
which affirmed
the notion of
education as a
fundamental
right and

established the
new
millennium
goal to provide
every girl and
boy with
primary school
education by

2015. It also
clearly
identified
Inclusive
Education as
one of the key
strategies to
address issues

of
marginalization
and exclusion.
The
fundamental
principle of
EFA is that all
children should

have the
opportunity to
learn and the
fundamental
principle of
Inclusive
Education is
that all children

should have the

opportunity to
learn together.
Inclusive
education
happens when
children with
and without

disabilities
participate and
learn together
in the same
classes. With
the references
to various
research

studies and
discussions
with our
experienced
colleagues, it
has shown that
when a child
with

disabilities
attends classes
alongside peers
who do not
have
disabilities,
good things
happen. For a

long time,
children with
disabilities
were educated
in separate
classes or in
separate
schools. People

got used to the

idea that
special
education
meant separate
education. But
we now know
that when

children are
educated
together,
positive
academic and
social
outcomes occur
for all the

children
involved.
Inclusive
education
occurs when
there is on
going
advocacy,

planning,
support and

Gender and Hidden Curriculum

Introduction
Sociologists would argue that although there are clear biological differences
between the male and female sexes gender roles are heavily influenced by
processes of socialisation operating in the family, the school, the mass media etc.
With regard to the formal education system it is necessary to distinguish between
the formal curriculum of the individual academic subjects and the Hidden
Curriculum which is a set of values, attitudes and norms that is implicitly
conveyed to pupils by teachers' actions and by the organisational processes
operating inside schools. When the Hidden Curriculum operates in a gender
specific fashion and is combined with other points mentioned toward the end of
these notes, it is sometimes said that a school is operating according to a gendered
regime.
You should note that the hidden curriculum may be analysed from competing
sociological perspectives.

Functionalist sociologists who approve of males and

females adopting traditional "instrumental " and "expressive
roles" respectively would approve if the hidden curriculum
reinforces traditional gender roles since these gender roles
are assumed to be "functional" society as a whole.

Marxists would argue that the hidden curriculum helps to

reproduce an exploitative, unequal, unjust capitalist class
structure in a capitalist system which must be overthrown
by revolutionary means .

Feminists would oppose the hidden curriculum insofar as it

contributes to the perpetuation of gender inequality.
However liberal feminists might tend to argue that
educational reforms are gradually eroding some of the most
discriminatory aspects of the hidden curriculum whereas
radical and Marxist feminists would argue that despite some
reform the hidden curriculum still contributes to the

continuation of patriarchy and/or class inequality.

In social action perspectives it is argued that the overall

structural power of the socialisation process to influence
individual behaviour is rather less than is suggested in more
structural theories which suggests that even if a hidden
curriculum does exist its actual influence on human
behaviour may be relatively limited.

In this document I concentrate on describing some elements of the hidden

curriculum. Differing sociological perspectives on the hidden curriculum will be
considered in more detail in a separate document.'

New Link April 2013 : Click here for BBC item on increasingly sexualised
culture

The Hidden Curriculum may reinforce traditional gender roles in the following
ways.

In First and Middle Schools the fact that the vast majority of
teachers are women may help to reinforce the children's
impression that it is women who are especially suited to
looking after and teaching young teaching although this may
also have had the effect of encouraging girls relative to boys
with their reading skills.

In Mixed secondary schools men are over-represented and

women under-represented on the higher teaching scales and
women are more often employed in positions which are seen
as subordinate seen in subordinate such as dinner ladies and
school cleaners

It has been argued that in the past many teachers supported

traditional gender roles and that they were likely to praise
girls and boys for so-called "feminine" and " masculine"
qualities respectively .

Girls and boys might be asked to help around the school in

gender specific ways for example as when boys move
furniture and girls serve coffee at parents'' evenings.

Differences in boys and girls school uniform rules could be

seen as emphasising gender differences. For many years

girls have not been allowed to wear trousers to school

although they are perhaps more comfortable than
skirts/dresses in a school environment.

Although this point is perhaps on the margin between the

Formal curriculum and the Hidden Curriculum boys and girls
may have been encouraged to opt for gender specific
subjects and may have been given gender specific career
advice. Thus girls were encouraged towards Arts and
Humanities and Domestic Science and away from sciences
other than biology and away from woodwork and metalwork
while boys were encouraged especially to opt for science,
technology, metal work and woodwork..

There is evidence that some male teachers may flirt with

older female pupils and also that they may sometimes
identify with "laddish" behaviour thereby reinforcing gender
stereotypes.

[Additionally these final points do not relate to the Hidden Curriculum but they do
have a bearing on girls' experiences of school. Firstly there are arguments that in
the past girls did show some fear of academic success on the grounds that it might
reduce there attractiveness to boys preferring in some cases to "play dumb". Also
problems arise as a result of double standards in relation to sexual activity
whereby this is encouraged and admired in men but frowned upon in women. Thus
sexually active men might be described as "studs" etc whereby sexually active
women might be insulted in any number of ways.]

The position of female students in schools and in society generally is changing

and it may be necessary to modify some of the above points.

Teachers are now more familiar with issues of equality of

opportunity and are less likely to accept traditional gender
roles without question.

Subject and career advice is less likely to reflect traditional

gender roles.

In any case the National Curriculum in 1988 made sciences

compulsory for all students at GCSE level..

As mentioned the fact that so many First and Middle School

teachers are women may be to the advantage of girls.

Also in relation to the bracketed points it may that double standards in relation to
sexual activity are on the decline and that high female academic ability is not a
barrier to relationships with boys many of whom would respect girls'
achievements.