ABSTRACT

Scholarly debates about how we conceptualise, theorise and measure peace have recently intensified, yet exactly how peace scholars translate these theoretical innovations into concrete methodological tools and practices is less clear. We argue that pluralism, temporality and the role of affect are three recent focal points in current scholarly debates that aim to further our conceptual understanding of peace. Taking these theoretical developments seriously requires us to consider our methodological tools to approach each one, but these concepts also point to methodological issues on their own. This special issue aims to investigate our assumptions about peace, and how these in turn shape the way we approach the study of peace, in terms of both research design and data collection as well as in the process of writing up and disseminating findings, all departing from these three specific challenges. As such, this special issue contributes to efforts of making peace beyond the absence of war more researchable.

摘要

关于我们如何对和平进行概念化、理论化和衡量的学术辩论最近愈演愈烈，但和平学者究竟如何将这些理论创新转化为具体的方法论工具和实践尚不清楚。我们认为，多元主义、时间性和情感的作用是当前学术辩论中最近的三个焦点，旨在进一步加深我们对和平的概念理解。认真对待这些理论发展需要我们考虑我们的方法论工具来处理每一个问题，但这些概念本身也指向方法论问题。本期特刊旨在调查我们对和平的假设，以及这些假设如何反过来影响我们研究和平的方式，无论是在研究设计和数据收集方面，还是在撰写和传播研究结果的过程中，所有这些都背离了这三个具体的挑战。因此，本期特刊有助于在没有战争的情况下使和平更具研究性。