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, or when values change, we observe that people contest meanings in times of transition. How these struggles unfold is essential for societal peace in the present and future.

In the research network Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions we examine these conflicts 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.

The overarching goal is to establish a Bavarian Center for Peace and Conflict Research. The center will promote interdisciplinary exchange and connect peace and conflict researchers in Bavaria. Thereby, the network aims at increasing the social and political impact of peace and conflict research in the region and beyond.

Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions (“Deutungskämpfe im Übergang”) is a joint project of scholars from the Universities of Augsburg, Bayreuth and Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Munich-Berlin), coordinated at the University of Bayreuth.

Our guiding question

Under which circumstances do struggles over meaning contribute to peace?

Research Areas

Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions

News

As part of the doctoral students’ forum at the 54th German Historians’ Day, Alexander Schwarz […]
Die Bayerische Wissenschaftsallianz für Friedens-, Konflikt- und Sicherheitsforschung ist ein im Aufbau befindliches, mit Mitteln […]
Kein Frieden ohne Konflikt? Bayerisches Netzwerk erforscht die Rolle von Deutungskämpfen in Gesellschaften weltweit Kürzlich […]
First workshop for PhD candidates in peace and conflict studies in Bavaria 26-28 October 2023 […]
Vom 21.-23. Juli 2023 veranstaltet der ASKA e.V. (Alumni und Studierende der Konfliktforschung Augsburg) zusammen […]
All things change the same? Inception workshop of Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions 21-23 June 2023, University of Bayreuth […]

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)