The Mendacity of Reconciliation in an Age of Resentment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2789901 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David W Mcivor (0000-0002-2309-4762, Oregon State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1133-1155 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ajes.12198 |
| OpenAlex | W2766996030 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
The political ideal of reconciliation has gained increased prominence in recent decades, in part due to political experiments such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and other formal or informal truth or reconciliation processes. Here, I argue that there is a fundamental mendacity to reconciliation, given stubborn asymmetries of social power and disrespect. Reconciliation as an ideal carries an impetus towards resolution that covers over the necessary role that conflict plays in political struggles-including the role that conflict plays within struggles for reconciliation. Nevertheless, despite the mendacity of reconciliation, its meaning still holds political value. Reconciliation implies an orientation towards social repair, which even the strongest critics of reconciliation cannot bring themselves to reject. Some lies are worse than others, and some lies might be noble or necessary. Reconciliation is the latter-a fiction that is less pernicious than its absence. In this light, the task is to locate means of political reconciliation that do not obscure the conflicts and asymmetries of social life but enable social actors to face up to these conflicts and to discover novel ways to repair the damage that they can do
Conflict resolution · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Ideal (ethics) · Law and economics · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Resentment · Social conflict · Social science · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Forgiveness and Related Behaviors · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
Unspeakable Truths
Public Things
No Future Without Forgiveness
Breaking the Cycles of Hatred
The Dialectical Imagination
Trauma and Forgiveness
Post-Racial or Most-Racial
Conflict Is Not Abuse
Reconciliation after Genocide, Mass Killing, or Intractable Conflict
The praise of ressentiment
The War on Solicitation and Intersectional Subjection
The cunning of recognition
The Original Meaning of “Democracy
Political Reconciliation Through a Struggle for Recognition
The Mendacity of Reconciliation in an Age of Resentment
Publics and Counterpublics
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,11 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2017 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |