Dr. Michael Karlberg is a professor and chair of Communication Studies at Western Washington University. His scholarship examines prevailing conceptions of human nature, power, social organization, and social change – and their implications for the pursuit of peace and justice. He has published in such journals as Peace and Change, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, and the International Journal of Peace Studies. His first book, Beyond the Culture of Contest, examines the socially unjust and ecologically ruinous consequences of organizing dominant social institutions and practices in a competitive manner. His most recent book, Constructing Social Reality builds on that work by examining the relativism, cynicism, and materialism the culture of contest gives rise to and how this undermines struggles to construct more peaceful and just social forms. His current research explores theories of social change and their translation into movement practice.