The volume begins with an overview by Herbert Kelman discussing reconciliation as distinct from related processes of conflict settlement and conflict resolution. Following that, the first section of the volume focuses on intergroup reconciliation as consisting of moving beyond feelings of guilt and victimization (i.e., socio-emotional reconciliation). These processes include acceptance of responsibility for past wrongdoings and being forgiven in return. Such processes must occur on the background of restoring and maintaining feelings of esteem and respect for each of the parties. The chapters in the second section focus on processes through which parties learn to co-exist in a conflict free environment and trust each other (i.e., instrumental reconciliation). Such learning results from prolonged contact between adversarial groups under optimal conditions. Chapters in this section highlight the critical role of identity related processes (e.g., common identity) and power equality in this context. The contributions in the third part apply the social-psychological insights discussed previously to an analysis of real world programs to bring reconciliation (e.g., Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda, Israelis and Palestinians, and African societies plagued by the HIV epidemic and the Western aid donors). In a concluding chapter Morton Deutsch shares his insights on intergroup reconciliation that have accumulated in close to six decades of work on conflict and its resolution.

With insightful chapters from key social psychologists and peace scholars, this handbook offers an integrative and extensive overview of critical questions, issues, processes, and strategies relevant to understanding and addressing intergroup conflict.

This book sheds an illuminating light into the psyche of people involved in macro-level destructive intergroup conflicts. It also describes the changes in the socio-psychological repertoire that are necessary to ignite the peace process. Finally, it elaborates on the nature and the processes of peace building, including conflict resolution and reconciliation.

Publisher Description

"This book provides an overview of current social psychological scholarship on collective victimhood. Drawing on different contexts of collective victimization-such as due to genocide, war, ethnic or religious conflict, racism, colonization, Islamophobia, the caste system, and other forms of direct and structural collective violence-this edited volume presents theoretical ideas and empirical findings concerning the psychological experience of being targeted by collective violence in the past or present. Specifically, the book addresses questions such as: How are experiences of collective victimization passed down in groups and understood by those who did not experience the violence personally? How do people cope with and make sense of collective victimization of their group? How do the different perceptions of collective victimization feed into positive versus hostile relations with other groups? How does group-based power shape these processes? Who is included in or excluded from the category of "victims", and what are the psychological consequences of such denial versus acknowledgment? Which individual psychological processes such as needs or personality traits shape people's responses to collective victimization? What are the ethical challenges of researching collective victimization, especially when these experiences are recent and/or politically contested? This edited volume offers different theoretical perspectives on these questions, and shows the importance of examining both individual and structural influences on the psychological experience of collective victimhood-including attention to power structures, history, and other aspects of the social and political context that help explain the diversity in experiences of and responses to collective victimization"--

We all long for peace within ourselves, families, communities, countries, and throughout the world. We wonder what we can do about the multitude of con?icts currently wreaking havoc across the globe and the continuous reports of violence in communities as well as within families. Most of the time, we contemplate solutions beyond our reach, and overlook a powerful tool that is at our disposal: forgiveness. As a genocide survivor, I know something about it. As the genocide unfolded in Rwanda in 1994, I was devastated by what I believed to be the inevitable deaths of my loved ones. The news that my parents and my seven siblings had indeed been killed was simply unbearable. Anger and bitterness became my daily companions. Likewise, I continued to wonder how the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda could possibly reconcile after one of the most horrendous genocides of the 20th century. It was not until I came to understand the notion of forgiveness that I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Common wisdom suggests that forgiveness comes after a perpetrator makes a genuine apology. This wisdom informs us that in the aftermath of a wrongdoing, the offender must acknowledge the wrong he or she has done, express remorse, express an apology, commit to never repeating said harm, and make reparations to theextentpossible.Onlythencanthevictimforgiveandagreetoneverseekrevenge.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume discusses the effects, models and implications of history teaching in relation to conflict transformation and reconciliation from a social-psychological perspective. Bringing together a mix of established and young researchers and academics, from the fields of psychology, education, and history, the book provides an in-depth exploration of the role of historical narratives, history teaching, history textbooks and the work of civil society organizations in post-conflict societies undergoing reconciliation processes, and reflects on the state of the art at both the international and regional level. As well as dealing with the question of the ‘perpetrator-victim’ dynamic, the book also focuses on the particular context of transition in and out of cold war in Eastern Europe and the post-conflict settings of Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine and Cyprus. It is also exploring the pedagogical classroom practices of history teaching and a critical comparison of various possible approaches taken in educational praxis. The book will make compelling reading for students and researchers of education, history, sociology, peace and conflict studies and psychology.