The Future of TRANSCEND
TRANSCEND News, 30 Oct 2023
Diane Perlman, Ph.D. - TRANSCEND Media Service
30 Oct 2023 – It is high time to plan for the future of TRANSCEND. Johan just turned 93. A few weeks ago, Antonio C. S. Rosa, Marilyn Langlois and I spent precious time together bonding in Porto, Portugal where Antonio lives.
He has been Johan Galtung’s closest associate, and through TMS he singlehandedly keeps TRANSCEND alive with often problematic financial support. Marilyn and I, TR Conveners for U.S. East and West Coast respectively, were charged by Johan to create a Galtung Institute and sell his books in the USA.
With the world now gripped with a paradigm and a deep culture that Johan calls DMA-Dualism, Manichaeism, Armageddon, his life’s work is more needed than ever, as are his Analysis, Diagnosis, Prognosis and Therapy through the TRANSCEND Method of conflict transformation.
There is minimal awareness and understanding of the field of “conflict resolution.” There is a belief that it doesn’t work and such and such conflict cannot be resolved. We need to raise consciousness and make a distinction with the approach of “conflict transformation,” which creates a new reality that addresses the legitimate goals of all parties. Perhaps this conflict cannot be resolved; it can only be transformed.
Johan Galtung – October 2023
We invite all guest editorialists and friends of TRANSCEND to think about the value of this body of work and how we can promote it more widely and sustain it financially. We are free to re-envision our structure and practices. For example, Johan chose for us to be a network of conflict transformation practitioners, not an organization. He did not agree to make official statements on current events. Although we sold books from TRANSCEND University Press, he did not wish to sell e-books. We could rethink some of these.
Here are some ideas. Please revise and/or add your own. You may post your replies in Join the Discussion! below.
- Identify a core group – including the guest editorialists and other people with affinity to Johan;
- Let’s plan an online, zoom tribute for Johan;
- Hold a zoom organizing meeting to strategize and explore ideas;
- Actively expand the readership of TMS through all of our networks, and invite contributions;
- Select the best, most accessible of Johan’s books and writings and find ways to promote them;
- Set up a way to sell e-books and hard copies. Many TRANSCEND University Press books exist in PDF format and can possibly be sold as e-books and/or Print on Demand;
- Select and organize videos of Johan and categorize in ways they can be used in classes or workshops;
- Revive TRANSCEND Peace University and develop some core courses. The Learn Desk (https://www.learndesk.us) is a platform that we can use to create courses and also sell e-books (without the commission of Amazon) and generate income;
- Find an administrative person to help with this;
- Hold monthly zoom events analyzing current events from the TRANSCEND perspective;
- Create small modules to get Johan’s work into curricula of conflict studies programs, graduate and undergraduate, as well as programs in international relations, political science, and so on;
- Hold a major conference on Johan’s lifetime achievements, the history, legacy and future of conflict transformation;
- Write statements on current events and crises as they arise from a TRANSCEND perspective;
- Embed this body of work in think tanks and other organizations;
- Find ways to reorganize and build a presence and a new platform redesigning the website to integrate all of the above.
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Diane Perlman, PhD is a clinical and political psychologist, devoted to applying knowledge from psychology, conflict studies and social sciences to designing strategies and policies to reverse nuclear proliferation, to drastically reduce terrorism, reduce enmity, and to raise consciousness about nonviolent strategies for tension reduction and conflict transformation. She is a visiting scholar at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, is active in Psychologists for Social Responsibility, the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, and on the Global Council of Abolition 2000. Some of her writings can be found on her websites, www.consciouspolitics.org and www.SanityandSurvival.com. Email: dianeperlman@gmail.com
Tags: Conflict Mediation, Conflict Transformation, Johan Galtung, Peace Journalism, TRANSCEND Media Service, TRANSCEND Method, TRANSCEND Network
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 30 Oct 2023.
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Dear Antonio,
I am available to actively think with others and act for the intellectual legacy of Johan Galtung. I am one of his closest friend and still very often in contact with him and his daughter.
Please reply so we may discuss a couple of things for a zoom meeting with interested people from our network.
Kind regards,
Kees
Prof. Dr. Kees (CG) van der Veer
Tel: +31 6 29070050
E-mail cg.vanderveer@gmail.com
Dear Kees, thanks for this. Let’s wait for more possible reactions in the same spirit.
Take care.
Antonio
Dear Antonio and Diane, please do include me in. Let us think in what ways I can help from India, while remembering I am 87. Happy to be in on any Zoom meeting. Johan has been a key figure in my life, changed it, enriched it, gave my life meaning.
Dear Vithal, thank you for the readiness in assisting with Johan’s legacy; at least this corner of it. We shall be in touch. I hope all is well in beautiful Coimbatore.
Later,
Antonio
Aloha.
Great idea.
From Hawaii, we have incorporated Transcend International – Hawaii. with the idea of assisting in circulating Johan’s and other articles from TMS. We would like to be supportive of the efforts mentioned by Diane and would be glad to be included in any Zoom meeting. We also have a website http://www.hawaiianperspectives.org in which we have included the results of some of Johan’s teachings, adopted to the Hawaii circumstance. We could create a category within that website which focus on the Transcend Method, etc. Lot to work on.
a hui hou
Poka Laenui
My dear Poka, my gratitude to you too, not only for this but for your unconditional, permanent support for everything TRANSCEND since you, Johan and Dieter incorporated it in Hawaii in 1993. A history of 30 years… and counting.
Aloha and a big Mahalo!
A hui hou,
Antonio