The Nonviolence and Peace Movements Commission of the International Peace Research Association is committed to promoting social scientific research on how unarmed movements mobilize and practice nonviolence and civil resistance; producing knowledge about peace activism, nonviolence and civil resistance that is useful to practitioners; advancing the pedagogy of nonviolence and peace activism; and facilitating contacts and cooperation between scholars, educators, and practitioners across the globe. 

The commission sees a need to develop concepts, theories, empirical studies within the field, as well as our methodological tools for research.

The Nonviolence and Peace Movements Commission is particularly interested to further critical research that challenges dominant views and discourses within the academia and among activists, in the interest to contribute to the development of our understanding. We are encouraging research on:

1.   Combination of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent constructive work

2.   Nonviolent social movements and culture

3.   Comparisons and interrelations of nonviolent and violent resistance

4    Links between peace activism and justice

Mechanisms through which nonviolent action promotes social change and civil resistance to structural violence, economic inequalities and resource inequalities. 

Commission Conveners:

*   Stellan Vinthagen, USA/Sweden

*    Vidya Jain, India