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In The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the conceptualisation of peace using adjectives, the authors suggest that thought is influenced by the availability of adequate words for a given cultural context. According to these specialists, given that peace means different things to different people and in different contexts, there is a gap in the debate on the conceptualisation of peace. There are many variations in the use of the concept of peace, based mainly on the use of adjectives such as ‘armed peace’, ‘negative peace’, ‘precarious peace’, ‘pre-peace’, ‘cold peace’, ‘total peace’, ‘fragile peace’, ‘long-lasting peace’, ‘technological peace’, ‘just peace’ or ‘active peace’, etc. These two experts come to the conclusion that the increased use of adjectives to qualify peace can aid our understanding of peace in the current context of globalisation.

Other contents

Coinciding with this year’s elections in Nigeria, the Journal of Conflictology opens this issue with an interview with the Nigerian political scientist Sadeeque Abubakar Abba. In turn, Bryan Nykon looks at the influence of films on our beliefs in the legitimacy of violence. Drawing on knowledge of the dynamics of conflict, Nykon sets out a series of suggestions to develop humanising elements in film.

The focus of the articles by Padraig McAuliffe and Paul van Tongeren is transitional justice. The latter presents a policy report on infrastructures for peace, which have recently been the centre of attention due to the fact that political violence is predicted to rise in the near future.

The Pioneer section looks at the idea of the ombudsman, a practice originating in Scandinavia that has become increasingly popular in different societies. Finally, the journal presents the work undertaken by Mediators Beyond Borders, an NGO that provides support to local peace-building in underserved areas and advocates the use of mediation in public policy disputes.

Journal of Conflictology

The Journal of Conflictology is an interdisciplinary open-access publication that promotes a wide conception of peace, examining the application of conflict resolution theories and disseminating knowledge on the practice of non-violence from a realistic and scientific point of view. The journal is published in English, but the website, titles and abstracts are in Catalan, English, French and Spanish.