Many violences, many peaces: Wolfgang Dietrich and Jenny Pearce in conversation

This conversation between two peace scholars who have been deeply involved in Latin America and influenced by their experience and research in the region, discusses how this has shaped their understanding of peace and violence. The conversation ranges from their early research and human rights work during the revolutionary civil wars of Central America, to encounters with indigenous cosmovisions of the region, to experiences of the military dictatorships and struggles for democracy of the Southern Cone and Andean countries. This leads to the themes of many peaces (Dietrich) and many violences (Pearce). In the process of the dialogue, they emphasise how each acknowledges the significance of the material inequalities that generate violence in the region. However, each has reached their understanding of ‘transrationality’ (Dietrich) and ‘emotional enlightenment’ (Pearce), as ways of thinking about peace, including but beyond the material.