Cultures of Peace

Renowned sociologist Elise Boulding offers an eminent collection of essays that emphasizes her study of civil society over the past fifty years. While most media and academic attention focuses on the extreme violence in today’s society, Elise Boulding notes an equally significant presence of cultures and societies of peace. Here, in a volume that represents a life’s work, she revisits her theme of the connection among family, community, and government and offers enriching perspectives and advice on how to fuel the process of peace.

Boulding examines structural violence in terms of the major institutional obstacles to a more peaceful future: the tension between the states and the people trapped inside them, the tension between the techno-sphere and the biosphere, and between global systems and local know-how. She describes social movements around the world that are developing alternative ways of handling the great diversity of human biospheric needs on the planet. In addition, Boulding brings together her experiences “to empower the peace building activities if we are to do better in the twenty-first century than we have done in the twentieth century.”

The book will be of interest to scholars of peace studies, international relations, and the environment, as well as human rights activists and policy makers.