Wolfgang Dietrich (political scientist)
Wolfgang Dietrich (born 13 September 1956 in Tyrol) is an Austrian peace researcher and political scientist.
Dietrich was educated in Austria and England, received a Ph.D. in history and literature at the University of Innsbruck/Austria, in 1980 and a LL.D. at the same university in 1984. In 1990 he was promoted to the degree of "Universitätsdozent" (Adjunct Professor) in Political Science according to the Austrian Law of Higher Education (UOG).2015 the University of Innsbruck promoted him to a Honorary Professor.
He was chair person of the Austrian section of Amnesty International from 1989 to 1991, director of the European Peace University from 1995 to 1998 and academic director of the Austrian Institute for Latin America[1] from 1995 to 2007, before he committed full time to the development of Peace Studies Innsbruck.
There he was founding director of the MA Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation in 2001 and founder of the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies, a groundbreaking epistemological approach to peace and conflict research. In 2017 he became head of the then new founded Unit for Peace and Conflict Studies, 2018 co-director of the Research Center for Peace and Conflict INNPEACE at the University of Innsbruck. He retired from all these positions in 2021 in the context of severe critiques. The University of Innsbruck declared in october 2021, shortly after the retirement of its chair, that despite its original name MA Program, the "Course [Lehrgang] in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation" should be given a clearer institutional form, with a regular academic title to obtain ("Regelstudium").[2]
Since 2008 he is UNESCO Chairholder for Peace Studies[3] and member of the Austrian UNESCO commission.[4]
2015 the Association of the Alpine States (ARGE ALP) appointed him Peace Ambassador of Alpine Region.
Dietrich began his career as academic peace worker in Central America and Latin America, later in India, Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia. He worked and taught also at many Universities in the USA and Europe. During the last years of his career he worked mainly in the Middle East.
His focus is applied conflict transformation, peace philosophy, cultures of peace and peace education.
His about 300 academic writings have been published in many also non-European languages.
Research focus
Dietrich's research focuses on the history of peace studies, peace and development, peace and postmodernity, cultures of peace, theories of peace, peace and world system theory, as well as the contributions of humanistic psychology to peace studies.
The best known and most quoted of his early contribution to peace studies is the Call for Many Peaces published in 1998 and republished in 2006.[5] Therein Wolfgang Dietrich dissolves the notion of a homogenous, universal peace in the plurality of the many peaces and thus establishes an approach, which is founded in respect towards the Other. Peace is thus thought in the sense of "many peaces" as a noun with a plural. He asserts that what peace means differs on closer inspection from culture to culture and the connotations and etymological interpretations of the concept of "peace" do not coincide in different languages, but are an expression of the plurality of worldviews and perceptions of the societies speaking those languages.
Since 2008 Dietrich[6] distinguishes between the energetic, moral, modern, post-modern and trans-rational understanding of peace. He advocates the so-called trans-rational approach, which combines the mechanistic understanding of modern peace with those cosmovisions which are energetically oriented towards the establishment and maintaining of harmonious relations between humans, nature and cosmos.
From there he derives his culture-sensitive call for an elicitive approach to conflict transformation, folloing here peace researchers such as Adam Curle or John Paul Lederach. Conflict work to him means facilitating the exploration and creation of new options by the conflicting parties instead of prescriptive conflict resolution by external experts.
In his last book under the German title Der dies Das Frieden. Nachmerkungen zur Trilogie über die vielen Frieden (2021) he developed this approach farther and argues now that peace should neither be considered an abstract essence, expressed in a singularentantum noun as all modern European languges do, nor the relational plural that he advocated until then, but as interacting dynamics of the web of existence, expressed better in verbs - as numerous extra-European langugaes do.
This approach has been didactically implemented and practically applied at the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies.[7] in his time of director. Nevertheless, in relationship to the extracurricular "Course [Lehrgang] in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation", the central university administration said, shortly after the retirement of its original chair in 2021, and in the context of servere public critiques, that it better should be changed to get an institutional academic form ("Regelstudium").[8]
Selected bibliography
- Der die das Frieden. Nachbemerkung zur Trilogie über die vielen Frieden, Wiesbaden, Springer VS, 2021.
- Conviviality, Ego, Team and Theme Behavior in Transrational Peace Education in: Journal of Peace Education 16:3 (2019) Transrational Perspectives in Peace Education. pp.252-273 [Taylor and Francis Online]
- Elective Conflict Mapping, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
- Elicitive Conflict Transformation and the Transrational Shift in Peace Politics , London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
- Interpretations of Peace in History and Culture, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
- (Ed.): The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
- (Ed.): Schlüsseltexte der Friedensforschung/Key Texts of Peace Studies/Textos claves de estudios para la paz, Wien, LIT Verlag, 2006.
- Farewell to the One Peace, in: Peace Review, Journal of Social Justice, San Francisco, Volume 14/1, 2002.
Sources
- LAI - Lateinamerika-Institut
- "Lehrgang für Frieden, Entwicklung, Sicherheit und internationale Konflikttransformation ... in ein Regelstudium überführt", The President of the Universität Innsbruck, Dr. Tilmann Märk, at the university's press conference, October 12, 2021, quoted by: Benedikt Mair, Von Esoterik war nie die Rede, Tiroler Tageszeitung, Innsbruck October 13, 2021. Cf. Tiroler Tageszeitung October 6, 2021, Tiroler Tageszeitung October 7, 2021, Tiroler Tageszeitung October 10, 2021, ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Company) 12.10.2021.
- University of Innsbruck - UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies
- Austrian UNESCO Commission
- A Call for Many Peaces, in: Dietrich/Echavarría/Koppensteiner (eds.): Key Texts of Peace Studies, Vienna, LIT Verlag, 2006. pages 282-305
- Dietrich, Wolfgang: Variationen über die vielen Frieden; Vol.1:Deutungen; VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Wiesbaden, 2008
- University of Innsbruck - Peace Studies
- "Lehrgang für Frieden, Entwicklung, Sicherheit und internationale Konflikttransformation ... in ein Regelstudium überführt", Tilmann Märk (Rektor, University of Innsbruck), in: B. Mair, Uni Innsbruck reagiert auf Causa Peace Studies, Tiroler Tageszeitung, October 13, 2021. Cf. in relationship to the public discussion on the pedagogical approach, including some not officially confirmed student reports on physical and emotional violence and Post-Traumatic Stress in the program: Mein Professor der Guru, Tiroler Tageszeitung October 6, 2021, Missstände bei Uni-Lehrgang: Land finanzierte Peace Studies, Tiroler Tageszeitung October 7, 2021, Nach schweren Vorwürfen: Aufklärung in der Causa Peace Studies gefordert, Tiroler Tageszeitung October 10, 2021, Konflikt um Kurs zur Konfliktforschung, ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Company) 12.10.2021.