University of Granada’s Institution of Peace and Conflicts Investigation

The University Institute of Peace and Conflict Research of Granada University arose as a result of the concerns of a group of professors from different disciplines of the University of Granada whose had in common the will to delve into peace and conflicts studies.

The institute bring together the efforts of the faculty, the investigation staff and the student body, aiming to analyze the causes of violence as much as the conditions required for peace, with the intention of searching for behavioral alternatives which can induce to a model of society and international relations based on cooperation, respect of human rights and the existence of material and social condition for peace.

Since the beginnings, the Institute has been characterized by an inter and trans disciplinary methodology, defining itself as a center pointed towards a transversal investigation within the university field, since the study of the different requests of peace, as much as the ways in which violence is present in our societies, can be reached only through a multidimensional and integrative knowledge.

Its main purpose in to promote peace culture, meaning by this concept something much more complex than the absence of war. It means a positive peace able to reunite the conditions necessary for a fair and sustainable human development, oriented to the satisfaction of human basic needs. This extension of the concept of Peace run parallel to the the violence one, meaning by that everything which is avoidable and obstacles human development.

Institute’s funding, in agreement with the norm of the University Institutions of Investigation of UGR, come from the fundings allocated for the University of Granada, from the external projects and contracts funding obtained in national and european calls and, in its own case, from what had been stipulated in the program-contracts with the University.

Aims

The institute has as fundamental task the education of researchers focused on specific themes concerning peace and conflicts. In order to achieve this objective, its main aims in this area are:

To Provide axiological, epistemological and methodological elements about peace and violence.
To Analyze causes, structures and dynamics of conflicts as well as alternative ways of regulation and relations between peace and violence.
To Establish causal relations and mediations between different levels and contexts where is practiced pacific and/or violent regulation of conflicts.
To Concretize the conditions necessary for human right assurance, delving into the contents of human basic needs.
To Analyze social realities and educational contexts in order to elaborate, develop and valorize consistent proposals of education for peace.
To Delve into the study of interrelationships between conflicts regulation, peace and violence.
To Study and plan a future provided by peace conditions.

Docents Aims

To provide analysis, judgments and alternatives to promote education for peace in educational processes.
To create forums about mothods of conflicts regulation.
To provide resources for the analysis and comprehension of present realities and construction of pacific future for the faculty and the student body.

Social Tasks and Advising

To Advise the institutions and organizations which demand it in the subject studied and within its field of competence.
To favour debates about pacific regulation of conflicts and participate in the forums created for that.
To participate in the processes of negotiation and mediation in which its presence is requested.

The Melilla Institute

The University of Granada counts on a small Campus in the city of Melilla, a spanish city located in North Africa in which coexist different ethnical and cultural groups: among them, the more representatives are the european — prevalently christians — the Riffean one, — mainly composed by muslims — and the jewish hebrew one. This location, clearly multicultural, results particularly attractive for social and educational investigation, especially from an intercultural perspective.

Web Page

This web page is actually in development and serves as backup copy of the information contained in the web page of the Granada’s University Institute for Peace and Conflicts, which is the official web site. For updated information please redirect to it.