Resistance to Repression and Violence: Global Psychological Perspectives

Democratic backsliding, increased great power competition, hate speech and violence, mass atrocities and genocides, civil wars, revolution and counter-revolution, reactionary movements against women’s and minority rights, advancements in surveillance, censorship, and policing technologies, and war--the 21st century has become increasingly repressive and dangerous for political participation across the globe. At the same time, there has been increased protest and a proliferation of resistance movements. This seeming paradox has raised many questions among publics, academics, and policy makers, including: What motivates people to resist at the risk of their lives and livelihoods? What actions do people choose to resist repression and oppression and why, and when do resistance strategies change? What causes people to come together or fall out over whether and how to resist? When and why does resistance under repressive conditions escalate or fade away?

This edited volume presents our current state of knowledge as well as new research and theorizing on these questions about the psychology of resistance in violent and repressive contexts. The chapters in this volume represent a broad range of diverse contexts and contemporary as well as historical experiences of repression, violence, and resistance in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America--from cyberwars to civil wars, from police and state repression to pogroms and genocide. Taken together, this volume highlights the importance of considering the sociopolitical and historical contexts of resistance, the heterogeneity and complexity of psychological paths to resistance, and the variety of strategies people adopt to enact resistance to violence and repression.

Fouad Bou Zeineddine is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich and Associate Editor for Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. Previously, he was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology and held academic positions in Austria, Qatar, Egypt, and South Africa. His research focuses on the psychology of resistance and resilience, and how they relate to social dilemmas and socio-ecological systems. He also studies inequities in the systems of knowledge production in modern social science. He has published research on a variety of topics in biology, psychology, and political science.

Johanna Ray Vollhardt is Associate Professor of Psychology at Clark University. She is a co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology and has served as Vice President and on the Governing Council of the International Society of Political Psychology. Her research addresses how people make sense of their communities’ experiences of collective violence and oppression, and on the psychology of resistance during genocide and other violent, repressive contexts. She is a recipient of the International Society of Political Psychology’s Erik Erikson Early Career Award and Best Dissertation Award, and the Gert Sommer Award for Peace Psychology.