Collective violence and the culture of peace: researching the social psychology of memory and social reconciliation

This monograph aims to disseminate the results of various research studies carried out in the field of social and community psychology. The studies focus on efforts to build a culture of peace in post-conflict contexts and societies that have suffered collective and socio-political violence, with multiple and persistent human rights violations. Six studies on the psychosocial effects of transitional justice rituals from Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Basque country, Chile, and Ecuador compose this issue. This issue presents a series of results regarding the effects of reparation rituals and Truth Commissions, combining different methods and analysis strategies, including general population surveys, newspaper and social media content analysis, community intervention assessments and qualitative documentary analysis. Finally, two review books were included. First, a Peace Psychology Book that explores the implications and difficulties faced by societies that have experienced large-scale collective violence. Second, the problem of human rights violations and how to confront them, socio-political conflicts and the building of a culture of democracy and peace in Latin America are transversal axes of the chapters of this second book.

Género, ideología política-religiosa y expresión emocional en víctimas reportadas en el Informe de la Comisión de la Verdad de Ecuador: un análisis exploratorio

El presente estudio explora las diferencias por género en aspectos relacionados con la ideología político-religiosa y la expresión emocional en personas que son reportadas en el Informe de la Comisión de la Verdad de Ecuador (ICVE), que recopiló la información de vulneraciones de derechos humanos en el periodo 1983-2008. Participaron 64 víctimas directas, evaluando la percepción por ideología política-religiosa, la valoración del trabajo de la Comisión, la afectividad y la compartición social de las emociones. Los resultados identifican diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre hombres y mujeres en las variables de edad, ideología, evaluación del ICVE e inhibición social (todas las p < .05). Se discuten las implicancias que promovería un análisis de género en fases posteriores al trabajo de Comisiones de Verdad en América Latina. Received: 05 October 2021Accepted: 29 November 2021

Colombian Transitional Justice: The media discourse of the Peace Agreement and perceptions regarding its institutions

Colombia had the longest internal armed conflict in Latin America, and its government reached a peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas in 2016. This article explores the transitional justice social representations during the signing of the peace agreement (study 1) and their implementation, during 2019-2020 (study 2). The first study analyzes the news related to the institutions created from the peace agreement during 2016. The second study explores different psychosocial variables associated with its two most controversial institutions, the Truth Commission (TC) and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) during 2019-2020, after the beginning of its work. The findings revealed that news articles from two principal Colombian newspapers illustrate two anchoring categories of transitional justice with an emphasis on victims, while the political position of the newspaper suggests possible disagreements on what peace entails. Surveys showed that political position and victimization are crucial for the approval and support of the TC and the JEP, as well as correlated with the level of media consumption regarding these institutions. Received: 17 September 2021Accepted: 15 November 2021

López-López, Wilson, and Laura Taylor, eds. 2021. Transitioning to Peace: Promoting Global Social Justice and Non-violence. Cham: Springer. Peace Psychology Book Series. 328 p.

Frequently, the transition to peace seems impossible for groups affected by collective violence. The search for a peaceful society, where the memory, the victims' suffering, and the perpetrators' responsibilities coexist, requires titanic efforts in multiple dimensions that may seem unattainable. These efforts are the focus of the book “Transitioning to Peace: Promoting Global Social Justice and Non-Violence” edited by two distinguished scholars in the social and political psychology field with contributions from over twenty researchers from all continents

Collective violence and construction of peace culture in the Basque Country: two experiences of memory, recognition and forgiveness

Post-conflict societies must confront the past and build a culture of peace. Two interventions are presented here in the context of the Basque Country after the cessation of violence. The first, an intervention with the participation of victims of terrorism, where participants (N = 280 Mage = 19.83 SD = 1.29) were assigned to intervention and control groups. Results showed that participation in the programme produced more favourable attitudes towards intergroup forgiveness, intergroup empathy, and the mediating effect of self-transcending emotions. Second, the Citizenship Processes programme of memory and recognition (N = 31 Mage = 19.48 SD = 3.91). Results showed an increase in forgiveness, intergroup empathy and a change in outgroup emotions from before to after the intervention. The impact of both programmes was medium-high and the relevance of combining narratives that avoid competitive victimisation and promote peaceful intergroup attitudes is discussed. Received: 14 September 2021Accepted: 22 November 2021

Transitional Justice measures implemented in Argentina: their psychosocial impact

Terrorism carried out by State forces is the most reprehensible action to be taken because the power and resources of a country are used to generate terror. Such power and resources are aimed at reaching certain political goals instead of serving the citizens. Transitional Justice has raised complex debates related to democratisation, human rights and the reconstruction of the State and its institutions after periods of severe social conflict. After the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), different transitional justice mechanisms were implemented to cope with the consequences of the State’s collective violence: Truth Commission, criminal trials, institutional reforms, as well as reparatory gestures. A descriptivecorrelational study of group difference was developed, with a non-experimental cross-sectional design. It was aimed at analysing the psychosocial impact of transitional justice measures taken in Argentina. The study was conducted on a non-probabilistic sample composed of 576 participants. Findings support the effectiveness of combined Transitional Justice measures, the weakness of recognition of criminal acts and apologies, and significant differences in terms of violence affectation. Received: 20 September 2021Accepted: 25 November 2021

Zúñiga, Claudia, and Wilson Lopez-Lopez, ed. 2021. Political psychology in Latin America. Washington: American Psychological Association. 268 p.

The book is part of the Psychology in Latin America series of the American Psychological Association (APA) edited by Judith Gibbons and Patricio Cumsille. The book presents a series of chapters written by Latin American researchers from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador and Peru on different topics relevant to political psychology in Latin America. The problem of human rights violations and how to confront them, socio-political conflicts and the building of a culture of democracy and peace are transversal axes of the chapters of this book.

Social representations of Brazilian Truth Commission on news comments

The study investigated the social representations of the Brazilian Truth Commission from the news comments about its final report released in December 2014. Method: Comments (N = 322) were collected in the three major newspapers websites in Brazil: “Folha de São Paulo”, “O Globo” and “O Estado de São Paulo” during the 48 hours following the report’s publication. They were submitted to a lexical analysis on the software Radicalized discourses justifying the violations and narratives denying the existence of a dictatorship were observed. Discussion: Results were in line with social media theories about online behavior, but they do not corroborate previous research on the social representations of the military regime and Truth Commissions in South America. Received: 15 September 2021Accepted: 22 November 2021

Catástrofe sociopolítica y dictadura chilena (1973-1990): lugares y memoria en Concepción, región del Biobío, Chile

Este estudio indaga, desde el enfoque de la historia reciente, en la dictadura chilena (1973-1990), entendida como catástrofe sociopolítica en cuatro lugares de la ciudad de Concepción: piedra recordatoria a la «Vicaría de la Solidaridad Penquista» del Arzobispado de Concepción, el memorial «23 de agosto», el memorial del Cementerio General y el memorial «Detenidos Desaparecidos y Ejecutados Políticos de la Región del Biobío». El supuesto es que la relación entre territorio y memoria permite configurar diferentes formas de catástrofe sociopolítica. Se investigan las dimensiones espaciales, simbólicas y funcionales de los lugares, buscando explorar las complejidades y singularidades de los significados y prácticas que ha producido la dictadura como catástrofe sociopolítica. La metodología es de tipo cualitativo y utiliza una estrategia documental. Se revisaron fuentes primarias de relatos ya publicados, fuentes secundarias, que comprenden archivos, de tipo académico y de medios de comunicación y documentos en formato visual. Recibido: 30 septiembre 2021Aceptado: 23 noviembre 2021

Eichler, Jessika. 2019. Reconciling indigenous peoples’ individual and collective rights: participation, prior consultation and selfdetermination in Latin America. New York: Routledge. 196 p.

El libro de Eichler reflexiona profundamente sobre la relación entre los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas y los derechos individuales de sus miembros, particularmente, de aquellos que conforman los sub-grupos minoritarios como son las mujeres, niños y ancianos, a quienes se les ha otorgado protección especial en el derecho internacional de los derechos humanos. Complementariamente a esta reflexión teórica, se presenta un estudio empírico de Bolivia, permitiendo a la autora a ofrecer un marco reconciliatorio de los derechos colectivos e individuales necesario para cambiar la perspectiva del ejercicio de los derechos de participación, consulta y auto determinación de los pueblos indígenas.