Johan Galtung

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Johan Galtung

1930–2024

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

For Galtung, peace is not only the absence of war but also the absence of structural violence – avoidable harm built into unequal social structures, from hunger to lack of medical care; like medicine, peace research should diagnose, predict and treat, and conflicts should be transformed peacefully.

Placement

Sociology & Social Theory · Northern Europe · Politics & Law, Society & History, Ethics

Norwegian sociologist and mathematician who helped to found peace research as an academic field: peace is more than the absence of war; “structural violence” names the harm done by unjust social structures that cut lives short without any visible perpetrator.

Key ideas

Negative and positive peace
Structural violence
Cultural violence
Conflict transformation

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Influence

Influenced by 2

Mohandas K. Gandhi

influenced by
With Næss, Galtung reconstructed Gandhi’s norms of nonviolent struggle (Gandhis politiske etikk, 1955) and built on them his peace research (Peace by Peaceful Means, 1996). A. Næss and J. Galtung, Gandhis politiske etikk (1955); J. Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means (1996)
Evidence: AI draft
Mohandas K. Gandhi › 1869–1948
Arne Næss

influenced by
Working with Næss, Galtung systematised Gandhi’s ethics of conflict into norms and hypotheses following Næss’s analytic method (Gandhis politiske etikk, 1955). A. Næss and J. Galtung, Gandhis politiske etikk (1955); A. Næss, Gandhi and Group Conflict (1974)
Evidence: AI draft
Arne Næss › 1912–2009

Works

1969Violence, Peace, and Peace Research
Article in the Journal of Peace Research: violence is present whenever people are kept from realising their potential; besides personal violence there is structural violence built into unequal social structures, so peace means the absence of both.
1996Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization
Summary of his peace theory: it adds “cultural violence” – ideas that make direct and structural violence appear legitimate – and proposes ways of transforming conflicts creatively and without violence.

Position

Galtung is on the map as one of the founders of peace research as an academic discipline. His article of 1969 defined violence as the cause of the difference between what people could be and what they are: besides personal or direct violence there is structural violence, built into unequal social structures, which shortens lives through hunger, poverty or lack of medical care without an identifiable perpetrator. Correspondingly, “negative peace” is the absence of direct violence, “positive peace” the absence of structural violence and the presence of cooperation and justice. In 1990 he added “cultural violence”: ideas, from religion to ideology and science, that make the other forms of violence appear legitimate. Peace research should proceed like medicine, through diagnosis, prognosis and therapy, and conflicts should be transformed by creative and nonviolent means – a programme that drew on Gandhi, whose political ethics he had reconstructed with Arne Næss. He also described imperialism as a structural relation between centres and peripheries (1971). His concepts became standard in peace and development studies and well beyond. Statements he made in 2011–12 drew wide criticism for antisemitic stereotypes; they are set out under “Context & critique”.

Life & context

Johan Galtung was born on 24 October 1930 in Oslo. He took degrees in mathematics and sociology at the University of Oslo. As a conscientious objector he refused a civilian service that was longer than military service and spent six months in prison in 1954, where he worked on Gandhi’s political ethics. In 1959 he was among the founders of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), where he worked until 1969, and in 1964 he founded the Journal of Peace Research; from 1969 to 1977 he held a chair of conflict and peace research at the University of Oslo. He later taught at many universities around the world and in 1993 founded TRANSCEND, a network for conflict mediation and peace work. He received the Right Livelihood Award in 1987. He died on 17 February 2024.