Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Promoting reconciliation through youth: Cross-community initiatives in Vukovar, Croatia.

2010; American Psychological Association; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10781910903487050

1532-7949

Ankica Kosic, Charles David Tauber,

Peace and Human Rights Education

This article provides a conceptual framework for mapping cross-community work and projects that have been designed in more recent years to assist the process of reconciliation among young people in the city of Vukovar (Croatia), and to analyze underlying socio-psychological assumptions of these interventions. The nature of initiatives is examined through the prism of some socio-psychological theories and, in particular, through Nadler and Shnabel's (2008) Need-Based Model, Allport's (1954) Contact Hypothesis, and Tajfel and Turner's (1986) Social Identity Theory. This study found that there are serious problems with the manner in which reconciliation has been approached by the local communities in Vukovar. This study aims to explore some socio-psychological factors in the process of reconciliation among young people in Vukovar (Croatia), and the role of civic organizations in promoting inter-group contact and dialogue.