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EASP – European Association of Social Psychology

New Publication: Self-Censorship in Contexts of Conflict and Peace: Theory and Research

20.11.2017, by Sibylle Classen in publication

Edited by Daniel Bar-Tal, Rafi Nets-Zehngut and Keren Sharvit; Springer 2017; ISBN: 978-3-319-63378-7

Book Cover
Book Cover

This groundbreaking volume explores the concept of self-censorship as it relates to individuals, organizations and societies and functions often as a obstacle to free flow of information. Defining self-censorship as "an act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles", the volume introduces self-censorship as one of the socio-psychological mechanisms that obstructs proper functioning of democratic societies and often serves as a barrier to peace-making . Moreover, it analyzes this socio-psychological phenomenon specifically in the context of intractable conflict, providing much evidence from Israel in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in addition to evidence from other case studies of conflicts and political violence worldwide.

Moving from the micro to the macro level, the collected chapters put the individual as the focal unit of psychological analysis while embedding the individual in multiple levels of context including families, organizations, and societies. Following a firm conceptual explanation of self-censorship, a selection of both emerging and prominent scholars describe the ways in which self-censorship factors into families, organizations, the educational system, academia, the military forces, the media, the culture, and the legal system. Finally, the volume concludes by looking at the ways in which harmful self-censorship in societies can be overcome, and explores the future of self-censorship research. In doing so, this volume solidifies self-censorship as an important phenomenon of social behavior with major individual and collective consequences, while stimulating exciting and significant new lines of research in the behavioral sciences.

Conceptually carving out a new area in social and political psychology, Self Censorship in Contexts of Conflict: Theory and Research will appeal to psychologists, sociologists, legal scholars, political scientists, education and media scholars, peace and conflict researchers as well as to practitioners, and all those with a wish to understand the personal and societal functioning of individuals in the real world.

Content outline

  • Forword by Daniel Bar-Tal
  • Preface by Daniel Bar-Tal, Rafi Nets-Zehngut, and Keren Sharvit

Chapters

  • 1 Self-censorship: Conceptual Framework
    Daniel Bar-Tal
  • 2 Self-censorship in the Family: The Double-edged Sword of Family Secrets
    Alona Roded and Amiram Raviv
  • 3 Self-censorships in organizations
    Krystyna Adamska
  • 4 Self-censorships as a socio-psychological barrier to peacemaking
    Boaz Hameiri, Daniel Bar-Tal and Eran Halperin
  • 5 Self-censorship of narratives of political violence: Four international case studies
    Rafi Nets-Zehngut and Sagi Elbaz
  • 6 Self-censorship of narratives of political violence in media
    Sagi Elbaz, Rafi Nets-Zehngut, Tamir Magal, and Guy Abutbul
  • 7 Self-censorship in the armed security forces
    Tamir Magal
  • 8 Between solidarity and openness: Self-censorship in education
    Soli Vered, Efrat Ambar, Shai Fuxman, Eman Nahhas Abu Hanna, and Daniel Bar-Tal
  • 9 Self-censorship of narratives of political violence in the academia
    Rafi Nets-Zehngut and Shai Fuxman
  • 10 Self-censorship in fiction texts
    Yuval Benziman
  • 11 Self-censorship in emerging democracies: A legal perspective
    Ofer Shinar Levanon
  • 12 Speaking out despite the fear of harm to the self or the group
    Ruthi Pliskin, Amit Goldenberg, and Daniel Bar-Tal
  • 13 Self-censorship: Conclusion
    Keren Sharvit