Kanttekeningen

Peace research: quo vadis? : enkele beschouwingen over de afbakening van het onderzoeksterrein

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Abstract

Peace research: quo vadis? - In this article the author examines why peace research is so often confronted with epistemological problems regarding the scope of the discipline, the delimitation of its boundaries. Attention is paid to the changes that have characterized its field of interest so far and to new perspectives already announced. The author rejects the opinion that a lack of consensus on this topic is at present the key problem within peace research, the major element behind all the difficulties which peace research is currently facing to deal with. In view of the different opinions developed on this matter, the conviction arises that coexistence is more than indicated here. It is believed that the different approaches of most peace studies are not only to be regarded as being complementary, but as actually contributing to a larger (pyramidal) entity. At the present stage a certain pluralism is considered beneficial. Every attempt to define strict bounds is rejected. Finally the author proposes that each time energy is spent on epistemological questions relating to peace research, attention should be diverted to the second element that characterizes a discipline : the appropriate methodology.

How to Cite:

Coelmont, J., (1986) “Peace research: quo vadis? : enkele beschouwingen over de afbakening van het onderzoeksterrein”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 31(3), 218–228. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94930