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Political Imagination, Otherness and the European Crisis
Auteur(s)
Date de parution
2015-11-27
In
Europe's Journal of Psychology
Vol.
4
No
11
De la page
557
A la page
564
Revu par les pairs
1
Mots-clés
Résumé
“Germany caused this problem. And they're eventually going to give every single migrant German passports - they will all be flooding the UK within 5 years. And they'll all be voting for the Labour party. And we'll be trapped in the EU by non-indigenous British voters for eternity” (Lewis, commenting on the article ‘German interior minister calls for limits on migrants to EU’ published by Yahoo News, 9 September 2015)
All those following media reports in Europe over the past seven years will be forgiven for thinking that the continent is in perpetual crisisi. Whether a social, economic or political one, the same formula seems to apply: collective frustration over the current state of affairs; sense-making about the situation; finding culprits, preferably from outside one’s group or nation; protesting, more or less vocally, and moving on to the next crisis. At each stage of the ‘process’ a plethora of journalists, economists, sociologists and political scientists readily offer their views, lament or denounce the status quo, compare what happens here and now with what happened then and there, and generally accompany social movements as they unfold. What can psychologists contribute to these debates?
In this editorial we argue that a psychological perspective is not only needed but fundamental for understanding current events. Lewis’s comment, included as a suggestive motto, captures the essence of what psychology, we believe, can contribute with. The short quote is overloaded with evidence of various psychological processes applied to the migration crises and its effects on the UK (presumably Lewis being a resident of this country). There is evaluation (‘Germany caused this problem’), anticipation (‘they’re eventually going to give every single migrant German passports’), causal thinking (‘they will all be flooding the UK within 5 years’), generalisation (‘they’ll all be voting for the Labour party’), and in/out-group dynamics (‘we'll be trapped in the EU by non-indigenous British voters for eternity’). All these mobilised for political aims, since an implicit argument is being built here that Germany should not receive migrants, migrants should not get German passports and move to the UK, the fate of the country should not be determined by ‘non-indigenous’ voters and (perhaps) the Labour party should stop wanting Britain trapped inside the EU. Still, rarely do psychologists write about political implications; they are more comfortable instead focusing on the nature and mechanisms involved in making evaluations, generalisations and in thinking in general, particularly its biases and heuristics (see Kahneman, 2011). While this is a worthwhile enterprise in its own right, we believe it to be falling short of the full potential this discipline has to study, address, and contribute to social change.
As follows, we will introduce imagination as a key psychological concept for theorising social change and define the notion of political imagination. We briefly discuss different elements included in this definition and, in particular, outline the relation between politics and imagination. In the end, we offer some reflections on both the ‘dark’ and ‘bright’ sides of political imagination as it participates in the construction of society in the spirit of nationalism and exclusion or, on the contrary, mobilises people to fight for just and democratic political processes. By understanding the dynamic of political imagination, psychologists would have a lot to contribute to current social debates in Europe.
All those following media reports in Europe over the past seven years will be forgiven for thinking that the continent is in perpetual crisisi. Whether a social, economic or political one, the same formula seems to apply: collective frustration over the current state of affairs; sense-making about the situation; finding culprits, preferably from outside one’s group or nation; protesting, more or less vocally, and moving on to the next crisis. At each stage of the ‘process’ a plethora of journalists, economists, sociologists and political scientists readily offer their views, lament or denounce the status quo, compare what happens here and now with what happened then and there, and generally accompany social movements as they unfold. What can psychologists contribute to these debates?
In this editorial we argue that a psychological perspective is not only needed but fundamental for understanding current events. Lewis’s comment, included as a suggestive motto, captures the essence of what psychology, we believe, can contribute with. The short quote is overloaded with evidence of various psychological processes applied to the migration crises and its effects on the UK (presumably Lewis being a resident of this country). There is evaluation (‘Germany caused this problem’), anticipation (‘they’re eventually going to give every single migrant German passports’), causal thinking (‘they will all be flooding the UK within 5 years’), generalisation (‘they’ll all be voting for the Labour party’), and in/out-group dynamics (‘we'll be trapped in the EU by non-indigenous British voters for eternity’). All these mobilised for political aims, since an implicit argument is being built here that Germany should not receive migrants, migrants should not get German passports and move to the UK, the fate of the country should not be determined by ‘non-indigenous’ voters and (perhaps) the Labour party should stop wanting Britain trapped inside the EU. Still, rarely do psychologists write about political implications; they are more comfortable instead focusing on the nature and mechanisms involved in making evaluations, generalisations and in thinking in general, particularly its biases and heuristics (see Kahneman, 2011). While this is a worthwhile enterprise in its own right, we believe it to be falling short of the full potential this discipline has to study, address, and contribute to social change.
As follows, we will introduce imagination as a key psychological concept for theorising social change and define the notion of political imagination. We briefly discuss different elements included in this definition and, in particular, outline the relation between politics and imagination. In the end, we offer some reflections on both the ‘dark’ and ‘bright’ sides of political imagination as it participates in the construction of society in the spirit of nationalism and exclusion or, on the contrary, mobilises people to fight for just and democratic political processes. By understanding the dynamic of political imagination, psychologists would have a lot to contribute to current social debates in Europe.
Autre version
http://ejop.psychopen.eu/article/view/1085/pdf
Type de publication
Resource Types::text::journal::journal article
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