Interdisciplinary Center for Peace and Conflict Research in Bavaria

Research program – Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions

When tyranny ends, when societies come to terms with their past, when values change, people contest what these transitions mean. How these interpretational struggles unfold is essential for societal peace in the present and future.

In the research network Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions („Deutungskämpfe im Übergang“) we examine such contestations from an interdisciplinary perspective.

In particular, we focus on meaning struggles over peace strategies by non-state actors, over violence, and over universal rights and diversity.

Our network promotes diverse methodologies, interdisciplinary exchange, and institutionalization of peace and conflict research in Bavaria. We strive for societal and political impact in the region and beyond by sharing results with political actors, academia, and the broader public.

Scholars from the Universities of Augsburg, Bayreuth, and Erlangen-Nuremberg, and from Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Munich-Berlin) are collaborating, coordinated at the University of Bayreuth.

Our guiding question

How do struggles over meaning contribute to peace?

Research Areas

Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions

News

Two days of insightful discussions on our research findings and future planning for Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions: Impressions […]
Dietmar Süß from Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions, together with Sybille Steinbacher, recently published an edited volume on the […]
We kindly invite you to the following event (in German): Holocaust-Erinnerung, Antisemitismus und Nahostkonflikt. Überlegungen […]
Freshly published article by our co-coordinator Florian P. Kühn within the School of Blogal Studies, […]
From 28-30 October 2024, our research network gathered 17 participants for the 2nd workshop for […]
Jan Sändig and Jana Hönke, members of Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions, recently published a new article (together with […]

Picture attribution: Stop the war coalition by Chris Beckett (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); Hiroshima by Jan Sändig, Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions; Diversity/rainbow flag by Benson Kua (CC BY-SA 2.0)