About and CV

Dear visitor and friend

Welcome to my blog, my virtual home, or – if you like – my official site.

Don’t be confused by the spelling of my name. I use Øberg for work related to Denmark where I was born, I live in Sweden since 1972 as Öberg and in my international life and on social media I use Oberg.

I moved in here in 2008 and during the first 6 years published only texts in Danish and Swedish.

From July 2014 it is also in English and contains materials from my social media posts and debates too.

Naturally, what you find here is a reflection of the fact that I am a peace researcher/teacher and art photographer- and the two are connected to some extent.

In addition I am citizen and may have things to say beyond those two professional fields.

So this blog is a diverse and integrated affair – the single best place, you may say, to find out who I am and what I do. It does not, however, contain all I produce; for that you must go to the various sites and social media where I publish myself.

Who I am you can see here.

Having lived the first good 20 years of my life in Denmark and, since 1972, in Lund Sweden – I feel I have some roots there, but the concept of global citizen suits me better.

I was so very lucky to meet Christina Spännar in 1983 and we have been together ever since and she is co-founder of TFF (1985). She had two children when we met, Joen (1968) and Matilda (1975). Joen is married to Charlotte and they have three girls. Matilda married  Magdalena Persson in 2014 and they have one boy. The family also includes the dog Mimi (2009).

My online presence is listed in the Sites menu –  all the websites, social media, blogs etc. that I am responsible for concerning peace and photographics; it’s about 30 with various activity levels but none neglected.

It goes without saying that I’d like to connect, be your friend or part of your circles on social media. Click also on I offer to see how you can make the best use of me.

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Danish, born 1951, lives in Lund, Sweden since 1971. Married to Christina Spännar, PhD in sociology, 2 children and 4 grandchildren. Two main life tracks: Academia and art.

Personal website, mainly in English, Danish and Swedish.

1. Peace and future researcher



• PhD in sociology 1981 at Lund University, docent or associate professor in peace and conflict research 1989 at Lund University. Honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) at the Buddhist Soka Gakkai University in Tokyo 1996.

• Co-founder and director of the independent TFF – The Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research (https://transnational.live) in Lund, Sweden since 1985.

• Visiting professor for over 20 years in peace and conflict studies in Japan, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland, part-time over the years.

• 3500 pages of published academic literature and more pages for public education, debate and newspaper columns and reviews. Several books in Danish, Swedish, English and other languages.

• Its mission is the UN Charter norm “peace by peaceful means” and to abolish war. It works with empirical analysis, criticism and constructive peace ideas and plans. TFF is a network of 60 eminent peace scholars, media people, retired militaries, diplomats, psychologists and others.

• The foundation is exclusively people-financed, and receives no funds whatsoever from governments or corporations, thus doing free research in a true sense.

• It does theoretical work and publications but also on-the-ground activities aiming at conflict analysis, peace proposal-making, education, mediation and media commentary, e.g. in Somalia/Somaliland, all parts of former Yugoslavia, Georgia, Burundi, Iraq, Iran, Syria and China.

• Jan Oberg has received a number of awards for peace research and practice, and has been nominated over several years for the Nobel Peace Prize.

2. Art photographer

• Oberg’s parents were collectors of now classical contemporary American and European art in the 1960s and 1970s, his father was also a gallerist. So he grew up with art and acquired his first camera at the age of 7 and assisted his father in the gallery and preserved the collection after his parents’ death.

• In 2003 – after his pictures from Iraq attracted at least as much attention as his writings from there – he decided to work with photography as a parallel activity.

• In 2009 he opened Oberg PhotoGraphics in Lund with his own studio and has held exhibitions there continuously. His main categories are art photography, abstract photography, documentary work from conflict zones (of hope, not of violence), collage, and more.

• In this field he is self-taught and constantly experimenting with techniques, mixed and print media.

• You’ll find categories of his art photography on his homepage.

• Jan Oberg is also a photo and art blogger writing about other artists’ works, and he uses Instagram and here his profile on Linkedin.

Main projects 2017-2021

In 2018 Oberg’s two life tracks come together in a joint TFF/Oberg PhotoGraphics project called ”Silk Peace Art Road” (SPAR) project
which stretches from Shanghai to Venice along the new Silk Roads (Belt And Road Initiative, BRI) where he was invited by the Global Art Affairs Foundation to exhibit at Palazzo Mora in the context of the Venice Art Biennale 2019.

Here all his web places (https://janoberg.me/bizcard).

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Velkommen til min blog

Bloggen hér er – sammen med de andre indslag hér – er mit virtuelle hjem. Jeg flyttede ind i det i foråret 2008.

Jeg staver mit navn i relation til sted. Jeg bruger Øberg i danske sammenhænge, da jeg er født dér, Öberg for mit arbejde i Sverige hvor jeg har boet siden 1972 og Oberg i mit internationale liv, inkl på sociale medier.

De første 6 år var det en dansk-svensk sproget blog. Fra juli 2014 indeholder den også engelske tekster samt poster fra en del af de sociale medier, jeg er på.

Da jeg er fredsforsker/underviser og kunstfotograf handler det meste naturligis om de ting, men der findes skam også mange andre temaer. Man er jo også medborger og menneske på andre måder end den professionelle.

De første godt 20 år af mit liv boede jeg i Århus – hvor jeg kom til verden – og i København, og fra 1972 har jeg boet i Lund i Sverige. Man kan sige at det er Danmark hvorfra min verden udgår. Mine andre lande er, indtil videre, Sverige, det tidligere Jugoslavien, Somalia, Japan, Burundi, Iran og Kina.

I 1983 var jeg så utroligt heldig at møde Christina Spännar og vi har levet sammen lige siden og hun er medstifter af TFF – den Transnationale Stiftelse for Freds- og Fremtidsforskning  (1985). Hun havde to børn, Joen (1968) og Matilda (1975). Joen er gift med Charlotte og de har tre piger. Matilda giftede sig i 2014 med Magdalena Persson og fik en søn i 2016. Familien omfatter også hunden Mimi (2009).

Mere om mig hér. Du kan også finde mig på Facebook og andre sociale medier hvor vi naturligvis kan være i kontakt med hinanden.

Da jeg fyldte 60 – den 13. januar 2011 – havde Sydsvenska Dagbladet et portræt, som jeg er nok så fornøjet med.

Kig Dig omkring – god fornøjelse!

Lund 2008, last updated in October 2020, new design theme “Olsen”