Description
Reconciliation studies are concerned with the processes of rebuilding and improving damaged relationships after major wrongdoings. They focus on factors such as law, economics, and international relations, as well as on elements such as emotions and ethics, culture and religion, media and education. Reconciliation research therefore requires a transdisciplinary approach, to analyse both the procedures leading to the recognition of truth as well as those in which justice is administered; both the impact of public apologies and cooperation agreements; both the implementation of memory policies and civil society initiatives; both the outcomes of trauma therapy and intergenerational encounter groups. While on the surface the relationships in question are those between states, groups, organisations, and individuals, at a deeper level reconciliation always addresses and involves many axes of damaged relationships: those with others (intergroup); those with one's own group (intragroup); those
