About

Programme Summary

This programme of research is both conceptual and substantive, seeking to interrogate the term itself as well as undertake empirical research to explore compromise as a social practice. We begin from the premise that compromise is no different in the settings in which it occurs but is easier to access in some locations than others. Therefore, the empirical driver is the study of victims of communal conflict, where compromise operates in extremis, in the view that this throws into higher relief the processes that garner and sustain it. Methodologically this is called the optimal case study approach. The conceptual driver is our wish to get beyond the lay view of compromise as a 'feeling' or 'spirit' and to identify and analytically separate the dimensions that constitute it.

Conceptually we envisage compromise to involve emotions, behaviours and relationships. Key research questions can be asked about each (which emotions, what behaviours, what sorts of relationship) as well as about the link between them (is it possible to separate feelings from the behaviours by which they are enacted, does it require reciprocity, is it necessarily interpersonal or can it adhere to groups).

We also conceptualize compromise as being mediated within people's repertoire of stress responses by other affective-relational responders: hope-anticipation, forgiveness-redemption and memory-remembrance. Compromise involves hope-anticipation of the future, forgiveness-redemption for perpetrators and forms of memory-remembrance of the conflict that transcend divided memories.

This is an ambitious programme of empirical research that consists of six linked projects designed to address the processes and resources that develop and sustain feelings of compromise amongst victims of communal conflict. The programme will deliver cross-national, multi-method data, covering contemporary and historical conflicts.

In the contemporary period the geographical spread covers Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka, while historically we explore the cases of Spain after Franco, Sierra Leone and Colombia. The methodological range extends to surveys, secondary data analysis of data sets, qualitative interviews, and documentary and historical analysis.

Inter-disciplinarity is its hallmark: sociology (Brewer, Hayes), political science (Hayes), psychology (Teeney, McGivern, Dudgeon), criminology (Shearing) and religious studies (Asian Institute of Missiology).

This team will be expanded by the appointment of younger staff, in the form of PDFs (3) and PhD students (5), which brings added value to the programme by assisting career development.

Public outputs cover the full range of academic publishing, seminar workshops, popular forms of writing and a radio/television series. The latter is the main form of public dissemination. Outputs will appear throughout the length of the programme.