educating for human security and survival: emergencies in ecology, energy, economy
AUGUST 11-19, 2012 * JAPAN
The 2012 International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) will be hosted at the National Women’s Education Center (NWEC) near Tokyo, Japan, from August 11-19, 2012. This year’s Institute is being organized in partnership with the National Peace Academy (home of the IIPE secretariat) and the Global Campaign for Peace Education Japan (GCPEJ) cooperating with a consortium of other national organizations invested in furthering peace education in Japan including the Society for Building a Culture of Peace.
For thirty years, IIPE has brought together educators, professional workers and activists in the field of peace education, gathered from around the world to exchange experiences and learn with and from each other in an intensive short-term learning community that embodies the practices and principles of critical, participatory peace pedagogy. IIPE 2012 participants, many whom will be drawn from Japan and S.E. Asia, will join with representatives from all other world regions. This residential learning exchange will weave together experiential and theoretical contributions of participants to illuminate diverse views, explore educational applications, and assess possibilities for practical steps toward a less violent and more just world security system.
EDUCATING for HUMAN SECURITY & SURVIVAL: EMERGENCIES in ECOLOGY, ENERGY, ECONOMY
Japan’s recent coping with the environmental disasters of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the consequent nuclear meltdown resulting in ecological health crises and economic emergencies are relevant issues for people everywhere. In light of these concomitant crises, the IIPE 2012 peace learning community will inquire into human security possibilities for addressing current global emergencies in ecological imbalance, energy reconfiguring, and gapping economic inequities. Human security and sustainability are fundamental to peace as “a long-term and gutsy project…[that] requires social conditions that foster individual and societal well-being…surfaces differing perspectives and needs…[and] is an opportunity to rethink and reshape the prevailing status quo.”
IIPE participants are invited into an inquiry on how peace education and participatory learning communities can contribute to the human security and integrity of societies-regional, local and global; and what values, capacities, skills and practices can support protection, prevention and provision in emergencies. The IIPE program will comprise thematic and interrelated participant-led presentations, workshops and discussions with some special emphasis on learning from the Japanese experience. Sub-themes such as human security, the abolition of nuclear weapons, gender imbalance, capacity building, youth participation, and Japan-U.S. and Japan-Asia relations and their potential contributions to positive alternatives to the present interstate security system will be incorporated into the learning exchange.
Science educator Dr. Willard Jacobson asked, “What are our societal responsibilities? What responsibilities do we have for those who have less than enough? What responsibilities do we have to for the generations to come?” These questions can help formulate human security alternatives to the dominant security concepts and policies that effect emergency prevention, protection and provision for current global emergencies. Peace, human well-being and ecological sustainability are also under severe threat from multiple current wars and militarized conflict zones, the arms trade and proliferation of nuclear weapons, and rampant violence committed by state and non-state actors.
By challenging predominant assumptions of mainstream security thinking, IIPE 2012 will open the space to reconsider national, global and human security from a foundation of core principles of peace: principles of human dignity and well-being, human rights and social justice, diversity and inclusion, non-coercive forms of social and political order, ecological responsibility, and democratic participation. IIPE founder Dr. Betty Reardon points out that a newly evolving security system discourse would necessitate processes that engage human imagination to redress real world problems (Reardon). “Our work is inspired by a vision of a transformed global society, a human future for all the Earth’s people and a healthy future for our shared planet.”
The understanding of human security in facing emergencies-both natural and man-made-is further informed by the National Peace Academy’s principled understanding of peace as “the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.” This core principle is derived from the civil society document, the Earth Charter, which “posits a cosmopolitan imperative of peace as right relationships and a holistic pedagogy of peace.”
Japan’s recent crises have shown the world that relationship of Earth and human society must be thought of bi-directionally-that humans must take care of the environment and natural resources of the Earth that sustain human society. At the same time, human society must provide preventative, protective and responsible provisions in the face of climate change and natural disasters. IIPE 2012 offers participants an opportunity to deliberate on these peace education issues in a community of inquiry, interpretation, shared reasoning, and learning. Multiple voices will be engaged in conceptualizing, strategizing, and practicing an alternative way that might allowing all peoples to realize the full range of their humanity.
ABOUT THE IIPE
The IIPE was founded in 1982 by Dr. Betty Reardon and faculty colleagues at Teachers College Columbia University and has been held annually in different parts of the world. For 30 years the IIPE has been providing unique short-term, residential, cooperative learning experiences in peace education. The IIPE is not structured like a conference, but rather as a “learning community” in which the organizers and participants work together to nurture an inclusive, highly interactive learning environment. It is an intensive multicultural and cooperative learning experience in which participants learn from and with each other about substantive peace issues and interactive teaching approaches. The IIPE is also an opportunity for networking and community building among those who educate and work for a culture of peace in the host region and around the world.
The National Peace Academy is the home of the IIPE secretariat and coordinates the annual IIPE program.
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Essential Information |
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WHEN August 11-19, 2012 APPLICATION DUE DATE April 10, 2012 PARTICIPATION FEES $750 USD – International Participants (includes Aug. 11 overnight stay in Tokyo hotel plus 2 additional meals) |
