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Toward a Socially Transformative Peace Psychology: Overview of the Symposium and Proceedings

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Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology

Part of the book series: Peace Psychology Book Series ((PPBS))

Abstract

Contemporary peace psychology is based on a consensus that the pursuit of sustainable peace requires the continuous crafting of harmonious and equitable human interactions and relations. The chapters in this volume are based on the 14th Biennial International Symposium on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace and address these twin foci of peace psychology. The first half of the volume consists of chapters that comport with the traditional focus of peace psychology on peacemaking or the pursuit of harmony in human relations. These chapters offer insights into peacemaking processes and the effects of violence on individual and collective well-being at various sites around the world. Chapters in the second half of the volume fulfil the mandate of Biennial Symposia; namely, to create more equity in the production of peace theory and praxis by bringing forward the voices of scholars and change agents that are often unheard in peace discourses. In particular, voices from the Global South are represented in the second half of the volume and most are from South Africa, the site of the symposium. Peace psychologists from the Global South call for a socially transformative kind of peace psychology that grapples with the problem of epistemic violence and manifest in the marginalisation of knowledge production from the Global South, thereby enlarging the scope of knowledge that is considered legitimate and placing social justice and an emancipatory agenda at the centre of praxis in peace psychology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Daniel J. Christie, Mohamed Seedat & Shahnaaz Suffla

  2. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Daniel J. Christie

  3. South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa

    Mohamed Seedat & Shahnaaz Suffla

Authors
  1. Daniel J. Christie
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  2. Mohamed Seedat
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  3. Shahnaaz Suffla
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel J. Christie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Mohamed Seedat

  2. South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa

    Shahnaaz Suffla

  3. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

    Daniel J. Christie

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Christie, D.J., Seedat, M., Suffla, S. (2017). Toward a Socially Transformative Peace Psychology: Overview of the Symposium and Proceedings. In: Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Christie, D. (eds) Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45289-0_1

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