Our Forum on Contested transitions and perspectives on peace – Deutungskämpfe im Übergang in the Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo Studies in Peace and Conflict) is now available & further contributions are welcome (in both German and English)!
Abstract
In times of transition, actors clash regarding the interpretations of the past, solutions to current problems, and visions for the future. This Forum examines these discursive contestations and their implications for political change (Deutungskämpfe im Übergang). Taking a historically-oriented peace and conflict studies perspective, it investigates how actors advocate for, negotiate, and seek to delegitimize views to drive – or resist – political change. This aims to better understand how transitions unfold and may lead to pathways of escalation or conflict transformation. Studying these processes from an interdisciplinary perspective in both historical and contemporary cases, and regarding conceptual and theoretical dimensions, the Forum advances research on contentious political changes and peace – a key issue in today’s contested times.
The Forum brings together contributions from members of the BMBF-funded research network Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions (Deutungskämpfe im Übergang), as well as from scholars beyond the network.
Guest editors: Florian P. Kühn (University of Bayreuth & Gothenburg) & Jan Sändig (University of Bayreuth)
Contributions
Sändig, Jan/Florian P. Kühn (2025): Contested transitions and perspectives on peace – Deutungskämpfe im Übergang, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 14(2): 295–305.
Parashar, Swati (2025): The ‘slow violence’ of famines, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 14(2): 307–318.
Weller, Christoph (2025): Deutungskämpfe: Begriffe, Konzept, Bearbeitung, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 14(2): 319–334.
Chojnacki, Sven (2025): Feldgebundene Deutungskämpfe: Strukturelle Analyse und reflexive Praxis, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 14(2): 335–349.
Zöhrer, Michaela/Christian Methfessel and Daniel Stahl (2024): Claims to Universal Norms and the Forging of Transnational Networks. Struggles over the Meaning of Gender-Based and Sexual Violence, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 13(2): 417–426.
Pauls, Christina (2024): Struggles over Memory? Decolonial memory activism as epistemic struggle against Eurocentrism, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 13(2): 437–447.
McEvoy, Bretton J./Jana Hönke (2024): Non-accountability as post-colonial harm: rethinking the responsibilities of arms producers, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 13(2): 427–436.
Schwarz, Alexander W./Florian P. Kühn and Julia Eichenberg (2024): Violence, change and continuity in times of transition, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ZeFKo) 13(2): 427–436.
Funding
Research for this Forum, including the workshop “All things change the same?” (University of Bayreuth, June 2023), were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, by now BMFTR) within the project “Bayerisches Zentrum für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung: Deutungskämpfe im Übergang” [grant number 01UG2204A-D].
