Sustaining Peace Studies: A Sociological Inquiry into the Future of Peace Studies in Australia

Australian peace studies is currently facing significant challenges, including diminishing funding, reduced institutional recognition, and pressures to compromise progressive political commitments. Over the past two decades, numerous peace research and peacebuilding centres in Australia have been closed due to neoliberal restructuring, shifts in cultural attitudes, and changing government funding priorities. Despite these challenges, the discipline’s core objectives — understanding approaches to conflict prevention and peacebuilding, promoting positive peace, principled and strategic nonviolence, and social justice — remain vital for theorising and facilitating global conflict transformation. In this context, the University of Melbourne’s Initiative for Peacebuilding (IfPB) has emerged as a multidisciplinary research group dedicated to advancing peace research, education, and practice. While the Initiative has achieved some progress in the past three years, it remains acutely aware of the precarious status of programs within the Australian academic landscape. This paper reflects on the state of peace studies in Australia and employs a sociological lens to explore the future of peace research initiatives like IfPB. We prioritize sociological frameworks, particularly conflict theory—which examines social structures—and symbolic interactionism, which focuses on discursive formations. Drawing on our experiences in supporting, designing, implementing, and evaluating IfPB's efforts, we argue that social structures and symbolic capital are critical determinants in the sustainability of such initiatives. We propose that understanding the interplay between these factors, rather than treating them in isolation, can illuminate the emergence and ongoing viability of the IfPB. Furthermore, we contend that integrating sociological perspectives enhances our epistemic toolkit, as peace researchers and peacebuilders, enabling more robust engagement with knowledge production and critical inquiry into everyday peacebuilding, positive peace, and pressing issues related to violence and conflict transformation.