17-19 September 2008 at the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) at the University of Tromsø, Norway. The conference is held in collaboration with the Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI), Finland

First Call for Papers


Conference theme
This year’s conference addresses the critical and timely issues of theories and methodologies in peace and conflict studies and peace education, including restorative justice as a means to solve civil and criminal conflicts at individual, national and international levels.

European countries face several kinds of unrest and threats due to juvenile delinquency, victimisations in high conflict or post conflict areas, terrorism, high crime rates, high recriminalisation rates, increasing costs of overcrowded prisons and decreasing local and national public participation in civil life. Norway is the European country that has more than two decades of experience with a national, state funded municipally organised, Mediation and Reconciliation Service (NMS) (Konfliktrådet).
This conference focus on the development of an alternative to the general societal response to such unrests and threats; Restorative Justice (RJ) is a theory and a practice of conflict resolution within civil and public societal sectors, involving people in democratic processes for peace building. The Working Party on Restorative Justice with the UN peace building commission is concerned with RJ in peace building in general.

Conference goals
- to discuss if, how and to which extent restorative justice is applicable (or non applicable) in various cultural/social/historical contexts, and whether commonalities can be identified within the different regions in the world under analysis.
- to investigate and analyse how marginal and/or minority social groups experience social conflict and coping ways to dealing with conflicts, tensions and violence on a family and wider group level;
- to discuss RJ as new area for peace studies and peace education at different societal levels, as well as for preventing and resolving ongoing or the aftermath of mass conflicts and violence.

Examples of the types of issues likely to be explored are:

• Restorative justice as a tool for the handling of conflicts at group, national and international levels
• Peace education methodologies
• Peace research methodologies
• Justice and conflict
• Visualising conflict and peace
• Societies at peace
• Societies of justice
• Peace research as a trouble making exercise and the peace researcher as a troublemaker

Keynote speakers
Ivo Aertsen, Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
More information here
Heather Strang, Director, Centre for Restorative Justice, Australian National University, Canberra ACT Australia and Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge UK
More information here and here

Submission information
Please email abstracts of proposed papers and queries about papers to Ida Hydle at ida.hydle@sv.uit.no and Frank Möller at frank.moller@uta.fi by 15th July 2008. Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words with double space pages. All accepted presentations will be publishes in a conference report that will be part of the ‘CPS Working papers’.


The conference fees are the following:

Full conference package: NOK 1500. The full package entitles the participants admission to all presentations, coffee breaks, lunch, conference dinner and social arrangements.

Presentations only: NOK 400 (special student fee NOK 200). Entitles the participants admission to all presentations and coffee breaks.

For further information see: http://uit.no/cps

Online Registration


Accommodation
• Thon Polar Hotels, Phone +47 77 75 17 00
• Rica Grand Nordic Hotel , Phone +47 77 75 37 77
• Rica Ishavshotel, Phone +47 77 66 64 00
• Choice Comfort Hotel Saga, Phone +47 77 60 70 00
• Choice Clarion Hotel Bryggen, Phone +47 77 78 11 00
• Choice Clarion Collection Hotel With, Phone +47 77 66 42 00

Other alternatives