Project Information
Project Title
"Dealing with separatism conflict in Indonesia: Examining an interactive model of conflict de-escalation and resolution"
Institute
VU University Amsterdam - Social and Organizational Psychology
PhD Student
Ali Mashuri
Supervisor(s)
Dr. Esther van Leeuwen (VU University Amsterdam), prof.dr. Mark van Vugt (VU University Amsterdam), prof.dr. Kipling Williams (Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN)
Period
1 September 2013 - 1 September 2017
Funding
NFP - Netherlands Fellowship Programmes
Summary
Despite the widespread prevalence of separatist movements, there is a striking lack of psychological research into the majority’s responses to separatism. Research into the majority’s response to separatism is important since the question whether the process of separatism is a peaceful or violent one depends as much on the separatist movement’s actions as on the majority’s response to those actions. At the core of the current project lies a newly developed conceptual framework in which we propose that the separatist movement's motives, the strength of their call for separation, the majority's response to this call, and the separatist movement's response to the majority's actions, are mutually influencing each other. To test this model, the first part of this project will investigate the motives underlying separatist movements. The second part will examine how the majority group experiences separatism threat and responds to it at a cognitive, affective and behavioural level. The third part will zoom in on the separatist group’s responses to violent and peaceful actions from the majority, and examine factors contributing to the escalation and de-escalation of separatism conflict. The fourth part will seek to examine the effectiveness of a salient common identity, while simultaneously acknowledging important subordinate identities, for separatism conflict resolution
« back