Résultat de la recherche
Cultural Psychology and Politics: Otherness, democracy and the refugee crisis
What does psychology have to offer to the pursuit of actualised democracy? Starting from the assumption – that we share with Moghaddam – that psychology has an important role to play in this regard, we propose to develop a cultural psychological perspective on the topic. To do so, we first revisit four common assumptions about democracy through the lens of cultural psychology. We then present the notion of political imagination as a tool to unpack how (the democratic) self, others and societies are imagined and constructed in discourse. We apply this notion to a series of four examples stemming from the on-going refugee crisis, and we illustrate how the psychological categories proposed by Moghaddam can be used to defend a vision of society that excludes others. Finally, we turn towards the concept of perspective taking, and we conclude that psychology’s contribution should focus on self-other relations – not just on the idealised, democratic self – as these are simultaneously political, psychological and ethical.
Collective Memory and Social Sciences in the Post-Truth Era
The past has never been as relevant for the present as it is in today’s Post-truth world. Not just because many of our political leaders are promising to bring us back to a past that never existed – the Great America of Trump, the Lost Empire of Farage or the French Resistance of Le Pen – but because it seems more and more likely that they are bringing us back to the past as it actually happened – a past where populism successfully brought nationalist leaders to power. In this context, it seems particularly crucial to understand how we relate to our history, how we learn from it and the consequences it may have for the world we live in. These are the questions this special issue explores by adopting a cultural psychological perspective on collective memory – the lay representations of history – and proposing both theoretical and empirical contributions. In this editorial, we will try to first make the case for the political and social importance of collective memory. Second, we will argue why theoretical discussions – not just empirical research – are necessary to tackle these issues. Third, we will discuss the role we believe cultural psychology should play in the current context and the dangers of turning it into a field disconnected from social and political realities. Finally, we will present the contents of this issue and how we hope it tackles some of the problems raised in this editorial.
Collective remembering: new developments and future perspectives
From discussions in the media about this year’s 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War to debates about the content of school history textbooks, collective memory is a topic that permeates public and scientific forums alike. What we remember and, most importantly, how we remember the past, seems fundamental for the way in which we come to understand our present and imagine our future as individual, groups, and societies (Liu & Hilton, 2005). And yet, the debate concerns not only the content of collective memory but the concept of collective memory itself, its definition, applicability, and its future (Brockmeier, 2010). Collective remembering can be broadly defined as the process by which discourses on the historical past are produced. Beyond the questions of ‘who’ does the remembering, ‘how’, and ‘for what purposes’, this broad understanding might sound like a solid starting point for this research area. However, it is not so much shared definitions that unify the field, but rather a critique of old approaches to collective memory, accused of turning it into static, reified representations about the past (Wertsch, 2002). Beyond this critique, important questions remain concerning the content of collective memory (is it a narrative, a form of meaning-making, a representation?), its functions (is it a way to define ourselves, to give meaning to the world, to imagine what may come next?), and its boundaries (does it concern only recent events, only the past of one’s social group, or does it refer to a global understanding of history?). Answers to such questions tend to vary from researcher to researcher. However, they are not always contradictory and could actually complement each other. This makes dialogue between scholars all the more important for understanding and articulating the different aspects of collective memory. In addition, there is also value in looking ‘outwards’ for inspiration, beyond the area of collective memory. Plagued by a narrow definition of memory in psychology (as recall), the field of collective memory tends to operate with a broader understanding of what remembering is. From a sociocultural perspective, to remember involves much more than memory alone (Wagoner, 2015) and engages one’s imagination and creativity in a complex act of future-making. As such, it becomes important to have an inter-disciplinary dialogue between collective memory scholars and colleagues working in related fields within social and cultural psychology. This special issue aims to bring together a small group of junior and senior researchers who share both a common interest for collective remembering and connected topics, as well as a set of theoretical assumptions about the social and cultural nature of human activity and the future-oriented nature of constructing meaning about self and world. Its primary aim is to open up a space for discussion between cultural psychologists interested in how discourses on history are used and produced and for their theoretical and practical consequences.