Cultivating Transformative Reconciliation


Book Description

Are Truth and Reconciliation Commission processes enough to achieve reconciliation? This volume discusses issues that arise once the task of reconciliation emanates from the limited scope of a specific Truth and Reconciliation Commission and into the larger society and political system that originated it. Scholars spanning several research fields, from law to history to theology, discuss how transformative reconciliation can be cultivated in a society, using decolonization and other perspectives, along three lines: by specifying transformative issues and processes in law and politics, by criticizing historical perspectives on the past and its concepts as deliberations of the status quo, and by instilling the inherent dynamics of truth and reconciliation processes as permanent features within broader society. The volume embarks on an investigation of the Norwegianization policy, a historical framework that brought injustices upon minority groups, such as the Sámi and Kvens (Norwegian Finns) in Norway, and parallel groups in Sweden and Finland. It extends its exploration to analogous unjust policies in South Africa, Canada, and various other contexts. Within the complex web of cultural, social, political, and economic struggles stemming from colonial policies, the roles of religion, politics, research institutions, and civil society are critically examined.







Roads to Reconciliation


Book Description

The past two decades have witnessed the end of several civil wars and authoritarian regimes. In a period shaped by the ideal of democratization, in which more countries are emerging from deep-rooted conflicts, international attention is turning to the question of how societies with a grievous past face issues of accountability and reconciliation. How do societies deal with a past characterized by gross human rights violations? What kinds of processes—judicial as well as non-judicial—are most likely to generate a sense of reconciliation? Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book provides a systematic and comparative analysis of reconciliation processes in various societies that in recent years have made a transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, or from war to relative peace. Revisiting case studies from Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia through a lens of comparative analysis, shedding new light on how societies have dealt with their violent pasts, Roads to Reconciliation is essential reading for both scholars and practitioners concerned with human rights, transitional justice, or peace building.




Social Healing


Book Description

Social Healing draws on a transdisciplinary approach—bringing sociology, philosophy, psychology, and spirituality together—to understand health, social suffering and healing in our contemporary world. It shows how we can transform the present discourse and reality of social suffering by multi-dimensional movements of social healing. The author argues for the need for a new art of healing in place of the dominant and pervasive technology and politics of killing. It discusses manifold creative theories and practices of healing in self, society, and the world as well as new movements in social theory, philosophy, and social sciences which deploy creative methods of art and performance in healing our psychic and social wounds. It explores the spiritual, social, ethical, and political dimensions of health and healing. This pioneering work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of social theory, sociology, politics, philosophy, and psychology.




Responsible Research Practice


Book Description

This book explores ways in which creative research practice can be explicitly and mindfully geared to make a difference to the quality of social and ecological existence. It offers a range of examples of how different research methods can be employed (and re-tuned) with this intention. The book suggests that what Romm names "active" research involves using the research space responsibly to open up new avenues for thinking and acting on the part of those involved in the inquiry and wider stakeholders. The book includes a discussion of a range of epistemological, ontological, methodological and axiological positions (or paradigms) that can be embraced by inquirers implicitly or explicitly. It details the contours of an epistemology where knowing is recognized to be grounded in social relations, as a matter of ethics. While focusing on discussing the “transformative paradigm” and attendant view of research ethics, it considers to what extent the borders between paradigms can be treated as being permeable in creative and active inquiries. Apart from considering options for enhancing responsible research practice during the process of inquiry (and reconsidering mixed-research designs) the book also considers options for responsible theorizing that is inspirational for pursuing goals of social and ecological justice.




Reconciliation and Transformation


Book Description

The need for reconciliation and the significance of renewal are fundamental aspects of a person’s life, and they are also essential to Christian faith. In the Christian tradition in the West the concept of reconciliation has been extensively discussed, whereas the Eastern church has put more emphasis on deification (Greek: theōsis), in this book called transformation. By combining these two concepts, this book seeks to bring together the Western and Eastern traditions of Christianity and thereby contribute to a deeper understanding of reconciliation and transformation. The book also addresses several issues that often surface in Jewish-Christian dialogue, such as the role that cross theologies have played in the anti-Jewish Christian discourse.










Transformative Sustainability Education


Book Description

This book lays out the principles and practices of transformative sustainability education using a relational way of thinking and being. Elizabeth A. Lange advocates for a new approach to environmental and sustainability education, that of rethinking the Western way of knowing and being and engendering a frank discussion about the societal elements that are generating climate, environmental, economic, and social issues. Highlighting the importance of Indigenous and life-giving cultures, the book covers educational theory, transformation stories of adult learners, social and economic critique, and visions of changemakers. Each chapter also has a strong pedagogical element, with entry points for learners and embodied practices and examples of taking action at micro/meso/macro levels woven throughout. Overall, this book enacts a relational approach to transformative sustainability education that draws from post humanist theory, process thought, relational ontology, decolonization theory, Indigenous philosophy, and a spirituality that builds a sense of sacred towards the living world. Written in an imaginative, storytelling manner, this book will be a great resource for formal and nonformal environmental and sustainability educators.




Korean Women, Self-Esteem, and Practical Theology


Book Description

This book offers a critical-constructive study of Korean women’s self-esteem from a feminist practical theological perspective. Jaeyeon Lucy Chung recognizes two different and yet related problems: the absence of scholarly work on women’s self-esteem from non-white, non-Western groups in the field of practical theology, and the lack of attention to the low self-esteem prevalent in Korean women’s sociocultural and religious context. Chung employs in-depth interview studies while drawing on theoretical resources of psychology, theology, and cultural studies to develop a relational-communal theory of self-esteem, and a systematic, communal understanding of pastoral care practice. The project offers insights into the life experience of Korean women, especially self-esteem, and it reveals some of the ways self-esteem can be fostered.