Positive Peace Pillars and Sustainability Dimensions: An Analytical Framework

Abstract

Despite broad recognition that peace and sustainability are interrelated, the pathways of their relationship remain ambiguous or nascent at best. We synthesized the literature relevant to the linkages between the two by framing our analysis around the pillars of positive peace and the dimensions of sustainability. Our review reveals that while the existing studies describe the conditions where peace and sustainability considerations interact, empirical evidence of their causal linkages appears limited. Nevertheless, this framing enabled us to consider some of the environmental, social, economic, and institutional conditions that influence the relationship between peace and sustainability. It also shows how our understanding of the peace–sustainability nexus can benefit from integrating environmental sustainability as one of the pillars of positive peace and negative peace as one of the dimensions of sustainability. This review presents opportunities for epistemic communities to navigate the factors and contexts that influence the pursuit of peace and sustainability.

Positive peace and environmental sustainability: Local evidence from Afghanistan and Nepal

“…In a country-level study, Fisher et al (2021) presented a composite index of peace, environment, and sustainability and found that countries with cooperation-enabling institutions are more likely to provide basic human needs, promote individual freedoms, and address generational equity while meeting economic, political, social, and environmental sustainability goals. As Simangan et al (2021) argue, these aspects of sustainability fit within the framing of positive peace.…”

Art Therapists as Activists in Social Movements

“…Her analysis of several case studies in which social movements redirect and transform violence offers a bridge to the role of social movements in peacebuilding. In particular, her findings exemplify notions of positive peace , which Galtung (1964) originally defined as “integration of human society” rather than the absence of violence (p. 2) and that continue to inform contemporary peacebuilding with emphases on justice (Grayling, 2020), human rights (Hvidsten & Skarstad, 2018), and sustainability (Simangan et al, 2021).…”

“…By establishing connections among social movements, activist art, and positive peacebuilding strategies, art therapists can be considered viable partners in peace.By establishing connections among social movements, activist art, and positive peacebuilding strategies, art therapists can be considered viable partners in peace. Given expansions in peacebuilding from diplomacy and treaties to community development and grassroots reconciliations (Simangan et al, 2021), art therapists can be an important resource. Figure 6 diagrams our framework for supporting social movements by linking the four strategies to activist and protest art conceptualizations with parallels to peacebuilding tactics across stages of conflict (Wood, 2015).…”

State asset management paradigm in the quasi-public sector and environmental sustainability: Insights from the Republic of Kazakhstan

“…The economic perspective of sustainable development emphasizes the maintenance of various types of capital (Kevin, 2010;Costanza, 2020;Porreca, 2020). Sustainability is a synergistic phenomenon; that is, it is formed in the interaction of economic, environmental, and social spheres and types of capital (Illankoon et al, 2017;Eklova, 2020;Simangan et al, 2021). However, the social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainability tend to be mutually exclusive in practice, which creates threats for Morelli (2011) paid attention to such an aspect of economic sustainability as the inclusion in it of an analysis to minimize social costs and compliance with environmental asset protection standards.…”