Dr. Laura Villanueva is a transdisciplinary practitioner-scholar in Ecosystem-Based Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation, and Regenerative Reconciliation. She pioneers the “Ecosystem Turn,” an emerging paradigm that reconceptualizes peacebuilding and reconciliation as adaptive, regenerative, and systemic. Her innovative approach is shaped by 18 years of experience with Satoyama (里山), the traditional Japanese rural landscape concept that emphasizes a sustainable balance between human activities and semi-natural ecosystems through centuries of integrated management practices. Through this perspective, she interprets the harmonious coexistence exemplified in these traditional landscapes, providing valuable principles for addressing societal tensions and restoring social balance. This framework also offers a responsive model for developing sustainable and regenerative lifestyles in modern contexts. Laura Villanueva holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, where she served as Executive Director of the Center for Peacemaking Practice (2014–2020) and Dean’s Fellow for Practice (2014–2018).
In Jena, Dr. Villanueva serves as the founder and director of Satoyama for Peace: Ecosystems for Peace and Reconciliation (S4P:EPR), housed in 2023 at the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies (JCRS), Friedrich Schiller University Jena. S4P:EPR advances the academic study and practice of peace and reconciliation through the lens of the Ecosystem Turn. Integrating research, policy, and grounded implementation, it connects and supports human ecosystems across scales. The initiative seeks to design scalable frameworks that bridge diverse and interdependent ecosystems—social, cultural, environmental, and institutional—empowering communities to heal fractured relationships and co-create inclusive, regenerative futures. She concurrently serves as Director of Practice in Peace, Conflict Transformation, and Reconciliation at the JCRS, collaborating with Prof. Dr. Martin Leiner, her Peace Partner, on his Academic Alliance for Reconciliation in the Middle East and North Africa (AARMENA). She contributes as a visiting scholar and editorial collaborator at the JCRS.
Drawing from her doctoral research and extensive engagement with Satoyama ecological philosophy applied across diverse international contexts, Villanueva introduces a new paradigm—the 'Ecosystem Turn'—that reconceptualizes peace and reconciliation as embedded within ecosystems i.e. interdependent networks of human and non-human life. As a paradigm, it challenges static, anthropocentric models of peace, proposing a dynamic, co-evolutionary approach grounded in the interdependence of people, place, and planet. As a methodology, it offers participatory, scalable practices rooted in ecological knowledge and cultural context. Sustainable peace is then not built in isolation, but rather emerges within and through ecosystems, challenging siloed approaches that constrain sustainability, scalability, and systemic impact. Villanueva’s theoretical framework informs her applied work with S4P:EPR, demonstrating how ecosystem-based methodologies can be scaled across diverse contexts, including municipal, religious, governmental, rural, urban, and digital settings. She is currently expanding upon this approach in a forthcoming book.
In 2012, she coined the term Satoyama for Peace, a peace-oriented framework grounded in sustained engagement with a specific Japanese Satoyama landscape. This concept innovatively applied Japanese ecological wisdom to peacebuilding, advancing a plural, interconnected understanding of peace as holistic and dynamic. In 2014, her research into a Mexican civilian-led virtual community identified it as an emergent Zone of Peace (ZoP), distinguished by its sanctuary function and distributed legitimacy. This led to the articulation of Virtual Infrastructures for Peace (VI4P) in a 2018 book chapter, where digital platforms were theorized as potentially peace-sustaining architectures—digital ecosystems that foster connectivity, adaptability, and the enactment of collective agency in constrained environments where peacebuilding is driven by digitally-enabled agency and networked legitimacy. This same year, she initiated a scholarly inquiry for a book chapter examining Colombia’s rural human networks and the sustainability of peace infrastructures in post-agreement contexts. The chapter, published in 2022, introduced the Human Networks Building Peace (HNBP) framework, analyzing the evolution of rural and rural-urban human networks over four historical periods and assessing their effectiveness, longevity, and potential as informal peace infrastructures supporting agreement implementation. In 2018, she identified a critical paradigm shift in her work—from localized initiatives to transnational human networks that cross borders, cultures, and systems. This shift prompted the need to develop both an ecosystemic framework to navigate complex conflict environments through diverse perspectives and a methodological response that enables horizontal scaling across sociocultural contexts and vertical alignment with policy structures. Together, these innovations would address systemic fragmentation and support the emergence of resilient, adaptive systems for peace and reconciliation.
She introduced the concept of the Century of Ecosystems to frame a new era in which ecosystems are positioned as foundational to peacebuilding and reconciliation. In response to the polycrisis, she proposes a systems-based architecture: a regenerative global ecosystem for peace and reconciliation that integrates local and global initiatives through a dynamic network of ecosystem exchanges and interventions designed to be adaptive. This framework would support the emergence of pathways toward systemic renewal, integral human well-being, and human flourishing.
As an international practitioner-scholar, Dr. Villanueva has served as peace advisor and founding member of several organizations—including networks for women at the intersection of peacebuilding and technology, advancing integrated peace and reconciliation-driven socio-economic regeneration in post-conflict settings, and multi-stakeholder platforms advancing ecosystem-based approaches. With a portfolio spanning Latin America, Europe, East Africa, and regions across West, South, and East Asia, her pioneering methodology has garnered recognition at academic, institutional, both formal and grassroots civil society levels internationally.
Central to Dr. Villanueva’s vision is trust, not only as an interpersonal dynamic, but as a regenerative force within ecosystems. She understands trust as kizuna (絆)—a Japanese concept describing enduring, relational bonds—that link personal transformation to collective healing, enabling peace and reconciliation processes to adapt to interconnected global challenges.