Peter Becker Award for Peace Counts on Tour

 

The Peter Becker Award for Peace and Conflict Studies 2008/2009 of the Phillipps University of Marburg has been presented to the Peace Counts on Tour project. The award of ten thousand euros is one of the most coveted social science honors in Germany.

Peace Counts on Tour is sponsored by the Institute for Peace Education Tübingen (IFT), Zeitenspiegel, and the Culture Counts Foundation. The project?s goal is to heighten awareness of the processes leading to escalation in regions affected by violent conflict, to promote peaceful conflict resolution, and to draw attention to new ways both of dealing with ongoing conflict and of approaching conflict resolution. The project links current findings in peace and conflict resolution research with modern peace education techniques and constructive journalism.

The core of the worldwide tour is the multimedia exhibit "The Successes of the Peacebuilders," with its array of features on best practice examples for peacebuilding researched and published by Peace Counts and formatted for educational purposes by IFT. The collective knowledge on successful methods serves as a source of inspiration to those seeking to resolve conflicts on the ground. When the exhibition is opened in a new venue, local peacebuilders are invited to speak, and during its run, the IFT holds workshops for selected target audiences including activists, NGO employees, and youth groups. The program uses a "Peace Education Package" which was initially tested in Germany and has proven its value worldwide. In cooperation with its partner organization Zeitenspiegel, Peace Counts also conducts workshops for local journalists and photographers.