Order Description
Here we will discuss the readings for Module One. You may start with questions that you found interesting from the introduction to each reading (posted under Readings for Module One), or you are welcome to start with a critical question or observation of your own.
After reading this introduction, go here https://academic.marion.ohio-state.edu/dchristie/Peace%20Psychology%20Book.html (Links to an external site.)and go to chapter eight, ?Social injustice? by Susan Opotow (2001).
Introduction to author and the reading
Susan Opotow (Links to an external site.) is a social and organizational psychologist.Her work examines the intersection of conflict and social justice, particularly in relationship to moral exclusion.
In this essay, Opotow explores what is involved in sustaining direct and structural violence.She highlights how distorted perceptions, thoughts, and moral decisions are implicated in sustaining violence.She builds on Johan Galtung?s work on structural and cultural violence, which we will read later in the semester (Unit 4).
Consider these questions to initiate dialogue in the Forum on Readings for Unit One (you are welcome to create your own questions):
1. On page two, Opotow suggests that ?ethnic cleansing? is a euphemism for mass murder, and that the term works to support direct violence while simultaneously hiding structural violence. What does she mean? Consider other common phrases that might work to justify direct violence while deflecting attention away from structural violence (for example, ?boys will be boys?).
2. Opotow discusses several tendencies to perceptual distortion that ?foster moral exclusion, structural and direct violence, and, ultimately social injustice? (p. 7). Choose one of these perceptual tendencies (pp. 4-7) and discuss an example of where you have seen them enacted.
3. Opotow suggests four strategies to foster ?inclusionary thinking? which are deeply relevant for conflict work (pp. 13-15). Choose one strategy and discuss how you have or could participate in this practice.
Further resources:
See also the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. (Links to an external site.)
If you are interested in exploring structural violence in more detail, consider reading the followingevocative example of challenging structural injustice in Haiti.The author, Paul Farmer, provides a vivid example of the importance of listening to the lives of those who are most impacted by violence, and suggests that interventions should place the lives of the most marginalized at the center of their projects (2004). Access the article here. (Links to an external site.)
References:
Farmer, P. (2004). An anthropology of structural violence. Current Anthropology, 45, 3, pp. 305-325.
Opotow, C. (2001). Social injustice. In Christie, D. J., Wagner, R. V., & Winter, D. A.(Eds.). Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21stCentury. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Retrieved fromhttps://academic.marion.ohio-state.edu/dchristie/Peace Psychology Book.html (Links to an external site.)
