Over the past twelve months, our student team has developed The Visualising Peace Library, an online database of bibliographic references designed to promote cross-disciplinary conversations about peace and peace-building.
The Visualising Peace Library has two core aims. Firstly, it represents a footprint for our various research projects – in particular, our Museum of Peace and a series of reports, blogs, short firms and interactive tools published on our project website. Secondly, it is designed not just to reflect the research that we have been doing but also to stimulate and expand future research. In bringing together a wide range of publications, from different disciplines and sectors, we aim to stretch (not reinforce) habits of studying, learning and thinking about peace.
Inevitably, it is a work-in-progress, reflecting our team’s personal interests and diversity of approaches. With each semester of development, we add new entries and update cross-references. Our aim is not to offer comprehensive coverage of all areas of Peace Studies; we could never fulfil that ambition. Instead, our goal is to introduce researchers to studies of peace and peace-building that they may not have come across before – either because they sit outside their subject area or because they sit outside academia itself. We have deliberately sought out reports, podcasts, blogs and other publications that reflect and influence what peace practitioners do, with a view to encouraging more dialogue between theory and practice. Similarly, through our tagging and cross-referencing systems, we have tried to build pathways between publications on (for instance) medieval conflict resolution and 21st-century peace-building theory, or research into the ethics of peace journalism and the goals of peace education (to take just a couple of examples). Our hope is that visitors who follow up individual cross references or explore the range of items tagged under our cross-cutting categories will encounter ideas and approaches that take them out of their comfort zone and get them exploring peace in new ways.
We are building a growing portfolio of blogs and presentations to complement the resources we have gathered together in the Visualising Peace Library. Students from different disciplines have taken time to highlight particular items or connections and contrasts between items which have struck them as offering fresh insights into peace or peace-building. We hope that you find these stimulating, as you explore the wider Library. As always, please let us know what you think and share any suggestions for new contributions with us!