Remembering Johan Galtung (24 Oct 1930 – 17 Feb 2024)

JOHAN GALTUNG MEMORIAL, 11 Mar 2024

Magnus Haavelsrud, et al. – TRANSCEND Media Service

Johan died on 17 Feb 2024 in Oslo. He was 93 years old. We miss a great man, who broke down the walls between university disciplines in a constant search to understand people and society from a perspective from below and from within. He was a pioneer in making peace an object in academic research, being a main actor behind the new Peace Research Institute in Oslo in 1959. Galtung argued that behavioral change is a path to structural change and vice versa.

In a lecture in Tromsø in the 70s, students were asked whether he was actor- or structure-oriented in his social research. With the chalk, he drew a vertical line in the middle of the board with the headings “actor” and “structure” on either side of the line – then he ran back and forth between them shouting “both parts” – to great cheers from the students. And this is the core of any understanding of structure – a structure consists of relations among actors, regardless of whether they are states or people. Without actors, there is no structure. And changing the actors’ behavior can lead to a change in structures!

Consequently, Galtung took an interest in educational issues early on in the 60s: he supported research into children´s and youth’s political socialization and understanding of peace, conflict and war. In 1968 he was involved in the formation of the Peace Education Committee (Commission from 1974) in the International Peace Research Association which received UNESCO’s Peace Education Prize in 1989. In 1999, he participated in the establishment of the Global Campaign on Peace Education, which has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1998 the UN published his very important manual for use in conflict transformation by peaceful means. Facilitation of conflict transformation for children and young people was developed in the Sabona program – cf. www.transcend.org. He was not awarded a royal appreciation in Norway. Our proposals for the King´s Medal of Merit in March 2022, and for the Order of St. Olav (Grand Cross, Commander or Knight) in February 2023, were stopped without a rationale in the King’s Council of Orders. Our nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in the last 3 years met the same fate as the many nominations in previous years. Our nomination last December for the Honorary Award in the Norwegian Foundation Freedom of Expression is still a possibility!  Galtung will in any case be appreciated in the continuation of his work the world over.

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Magnus Haavelsrud, professor emeritus of educational science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim

Vidar Vambheim, Associate Professor retired, Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø

Randi Rønning Balsvik, professor emeritus of history, Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 11 Mar 2024.

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