The Peace Families

In the face of the reduction of peace to its mainly normative significance both in theory and practice and with the aim of highlighting and recovering the plurality of the concept of peace, during the past couple of decades Wolfgang Dietrich (2008, 2012) has developed a systematization of different variations of peace, the so-called five Peace Families. For Dietrich, these peace categories are subject to a temporal and spatial organization, which do not follow a chronological or civilizational path, but whose expressions are to be found in all continents at all times, while recognizing that there are predominant views in diverse contexts.

Precisely this plural outlook on peace serves the elicitive conflict worker: First, to recognize the tendencies and characteristics of the concepts that are prevalent in the context that occupies him/her; how these function and then to be aware of which other variations of peace might be left aside and whose recovery might help bringing back the system into a dynamic equilibrium. 

For a short explanation of each family, please click on the corresponding link below:

Recognizing that there are no prescriptive formulas, we might still be able to use the insights derived from our analysis of the peace families in order to recognize more easily the thematic emphases in the conflict narrative. 

See also suggested readings for themes