Measuring the global research landscape on nonviolence (Ahiṃsā) over three decades (1991–2021)

Abstract

This study employs bibliometric methods to measure the productivity of authors, organizations, and countries engaged in research on nonviolence according to preferred channels for dissemination, composition of collaborative teams, and overall research performance based on data drawn from the Elsevier Scopus database. The researchers identify three major developmental stages of nonviolence research over the course of three decades (1991–2021) and found that annual research productivity in nonviolence research has grown at a slow pace in stage 1 (1991–2000), at a moderate pace in stage 2 (2001–2010), and at a fast pace in stage 3 (2011–2021). Based on the keyword frequency and their co‐occurrence relationships, three major topical theme clusters emerged; the first theme cluster relates to religion and spirituality, the second theme cluster relates to nonviolence, peace, and conflict, and the third theme cluster relates to political tactics, law, and social movements. Authorship patterns in nonviolence research show a single authorship trend as most of the publications have been published by single authors (71.57%).