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Johan Galtung (Born 24th of October 1930 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian professor, working at the Transcend Institute. He is seen as the pioneer of peace and conflict research and founded the PRIO - International Peace Research Institute in Oslo. He is also one of the authors of an influential account of news values, the factors which determine coverage given to a given topic in the news media.
Academic Career
Galtung, after founding the institute, became head of research until 1966 and eventually Director in 1970. In 1964 he founded the Journal of Peace Research. From 1969 to 1977 he was the first professor of peace and conflict research in Scandinavia, employed at the University of Oslo. He has also had a lot of professorates at worldwide Universities, including Santiago in Chile, at the UN-university in Genève, and at Columbia, Princeton and the University of Hawaii in USA. He has also been entitled an emeritus at several other academical institutions.
Galtung in Public and his works
Galtung has had several positions of trust in international research councils and has been a consulent to several international organisations.
Moreover he has also written large quantities of empirical and theoretical articles, especially treating with issues of peace and conflict research. His works is engraved with his special ability of expression and his strong will of innovation and interdiscipline.
Galtung is frequently referenced in regard to concepts he introduced, or at least is commonly associated with:
- Structural violence - widely defined as the systematic ways in which a given regime prevents individuals from achieving their full potential. Institutionalized racism and sexism are examples of this.
- Negative vs. Positive Peace - introduced the concept that peace may be more than just the absence of overt violent conflict (negative peace), and include a range of relationships up to a state where nations (or any groupings in conflict) might have collaborative and supportive relationships (positive peace).
He has also distinguished himself in public debates, among others problems concerning the developing countries, matters of defence and in the Norwegian EU-debate.
Johan Galtung started the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), the first of its kind in Europe. He developed the Transcend Method.
In over 40 conflicts all over the world he participated as mediator, such as in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Caucasian area or Ecuador.
Publications
Gandhis political ethics (1955) (with philosopher Arne Næss)
Theory and Methods of Social Research (1967)
Members of Two Worlds (1971)
Peace, violence and imperialism (1974)
Peace Research Education Action (1975)
A Shaping Nightmare (1983)
Europe in the Making (1989)
Global Glasnost: Toward a New World Information and Communication Order? (1992) (With R. C. Vincent)
Johan without land (2000) (Selfbiography)
External links
Short biography (Valid 2005-01-26):
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