The theatre of violence: narratives of protagonists in the South African conflict

This profound and deeply compassionate study aims to reach into the complexities of political violence in South Africa between 1960 and 1994, and to expand our understanding of the patterns of conflict that almost drew South Africans into a vortex of total disintegration during the apartheid era. This book is used in the teaching of critical and social psychology at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. While many accounts have focused on the victims of state repression, this unique volume documents the often contradictory and confusing stories of those who acknowledge having committed some dreadful deeds. Individuals on various sides of the apartheid divide, from state security structures to the ANC, PAC and grassroots, activists, tell their own stories. The central focus is to give an account of the actions of the perpetrators, here depicted as competing protagonists in an arena of violence. It examines the violence forensically, through its public and popular representations, academically and, finally, through the narrative approach, drawing on a rich analysis of stories from different sides. The authors also offer the first critical examination of the TRC's amnesty process, show how media representations of perpetrators inform public perceptions, and scrutinise international scholarly writings on the issue of political violence. Suggestive and intriguing, The Theatre of Violence opens a fresh examination of the erstwhile taken-for-granted understandings and attempts to address a range of questions that are often not considered, and perhaps cannot be considered, in a dispassionate way. It is in many ways an optimistic study, holding out the possibility of a society that can understand and take steps to minimise the perpetration of gross violations of human rights

Racialisation and the micro-ecology of contact

This article reviews and comments on the six articles presented in the special focus section of this issue of the journal on ‘Racial isolation and interaction in everyday life’. Taken together, the articles call for a reinterpretation of the spaces of contact in everyday life, with a new focus on the ‘micro-ecology’ of racialised divisions. Contributions are made in three areas: (a) meta-theory, with a turn to materiality, (b) new methodologies, and (c) understandings of racial segregation and contact. The contact hypothesis is reconsidered with new emphases on relations between bodies–space–time. A ‘relational model’ is given in efforts at explanation

Social identity theory and the authoritarian personality theory in South Africa

Social identity theory assumes that individuals and collectives apply identity management strategies in order to cope with threatened social identities. It is argued here that an integration of social identity theory and the authoritarian personality theory may help to investigate identity management strategies for minority and majority groups. It was intended to investigate predictors of identity management strategies applied by students at the University of Cape Town. Analyses are based on a questionnaire survey of 457 university students. Results only partially confirmed assumptions derived from social identity theory. Group identification and perceptions of legitimacy were related to the individual identity management strategy, “individualisation”, while the collective strategy “social competition” was associated with collective efficacy and authoritarianism. Perceptions of instability and authoritarianism predicted preferences for “temporal comparisons”. ‘Superordinate recategorisation’ was only very weakly predicted by group identification. The study indicated that social identity theory and the authoritarian personality theory might play different roles in preferences for identity management strategies. While social identity theory appears better in explaining individual identity management strategies, the authoritarian personality theory might be better in explaining collective strategies

Treatment of Ion-Atom Collisions using a Partial-Wave Expansion of the Projectile Wavefunction

We present calculations of ion-atom collisions using a partial-wave expansion of the projectile wavefunction. Most calculations of ion-atom collisions have typically used classical or plane-wave approximations for the projectile wavefunction, since partial-wave expansions are expected to require prohibitively large numbers of terms to converge scattering quantities. Here we show that such calculations are possible using modern high-performance computing. We demonstrate the utility of our method by examining elastic scattering of protons by hydrogen and helium atoms, problems familiar to undergraduate students of atomic scattering. Application to ionization of helium using partial-wave expansions of the projectile wavefunction, which has long been desirable in heavy-ion collision physics, is thus quite feasible

The aura of silence: a psychosocial analysis of stigma amongst students working In the field of HIV And AIDS at the University of Cape Town

Eleven white, well-educated students from the University of Cape Town, all actively involved in the field of HIV/AIDS, were interviewed through a freeassociative-narrative method. This study sought to explore these students’ perceptions of and associations with HIV/AIDS and those infected, in an attempt to assess the extent to which stigma may occur amongst these students. To the authors’ knowledge, no other studies exploring HIV/AIDS-related stigma have been done on young adults who are actively engaging with, and highly educated on, issues around HIV and AIDS. The accounts revealed that underneath the overt denials of fear, the epidemic does seem to evoke various fears and anxieties for these students. Through their constructions of HIV/AIDS, the participants tend to ‘other’ the epidemic and those infected and thus distance themselves from a sense of threat. Such representations therefore appear to serve a protective function, enabling the participants to defend themselves from the anxieties they experience surrounding the epidemic. In line with psychosocial understandings of HIV/AIDS stigma, the results from this study indicate that this ‘atypical’ group of students may possess certain stigmatizing tendencies. This points to the fact that HIV/AIDS stigma may not be the product of a lack of education or ‘faulty’ thinking. There were however multiple, often contradictory and conflicting voices heard throughout the interviews. Many participants expressed an awareness of, and uneasiness with, their ‘othering’ and potentially stigmatizing tendencies. It is in this space, that the potential for change, and stigma reduction may exist. The findings from this study thus have both theoretical and practical implications for conceptualizing, and challenging HIV/AIDS stigma

Initial-State Correlation Effects in Low-Energy Proton Impact Ionization

In this paper, we will report on fully differential cross sections (FDCS) for single ionization of helium by 75 keV proton impact for fixed ejected electron energies and different momentum transfers. These measurements show major discrepancies in the absolute magnitude between experiment and the theoretical, 3DW (three-distorted-wave) model. The 3DW model treats the collision as a three-body process (projectile, ion, ejected electron), and for the scattering plane it has accurately predicted the FDCS for higher energy C6+ impact ionization of helium. The lack of agreement between the 3DW model and experiment for low energy collisions suggests that a three-body model may not be appropriate for lower collision energies. We will present a four-body model that includes full initial-state correlation

Precollision and Postcollision Electron-Electron Correlation Effects for Intermediate-Energy Proton-Impact Ionization of Helium

We report fully differential cross sections (FDCS) for the single ionization of helium by a 75 keV incident energy proton. Previous three-body distorted wave (3DW) calculations for this collision system are in poor agreement with the absolute magnitude of the experimental measurements. The 3DW approximation treats the four-body problem as an effective three-body problem in which the passive electron does not participate in the collision. We have developed a full four-body approach in which the passive electron fully participates in the collision. It will be shown that the FDCS is very sensitive to the treatment of the passive electron-ejected electron interaction. Results of our full four-body approach will be compared with recent absolute experimental measurements

Kinematically Complete Experiment on Single Ionization in 75-keV P+He Collisions

We have measured and calculated fully differential single-ionization cross sections for the complete three-dimensional space in 75 keV p+He collisions. Several signatures of the projectile-residual-target-ion interaction, some of which are not observable for fast projectiles and for electron impact, are revealed. Some of these features are qualitatively reproduced by our calculations if this interaction is accounted for. However, overall the agreement between theory and experiment is not very good. Thus, our understanding of effects caused by the projectile-residual-target-ion interaction appears to be rather incomplete

Angular Distributions from Photoionization of H₂⁺

A study is made of the differential cross sections arising from the photoionization of H2+. Previous studies indicated surprising differences in the shapes of the angular distributions calculated from exterior complex scaling and 2C methods. To further explore these differences, we have calculated the angular distributions from the photoionization of H2+ using an independent two-body Coulomb function (2C) method and a distorted wave approach. As a final test, we also present calculations using a time-dependent technique. Our results confirm the discrepancies found previously and we present possible reasons for these differences

Unexpected Higher-Order Effects in Charged Particle Impact Ionization at High Energies

Most of the experimental and theoretical studies of electron-impact ionization of atoms, referred to as (e, 2e), have concentrated on the scattering plane. The assumption has been that all the important physical effects will be observable in the scattering plane. However, very recently it has been shown that, for C6+-helium ionization, experiment and theory are in nice agreement in the scattering plane and in very bad agreement out of the scattering plane. This lack of agreement between experiment and theory has been explained in terms of higher-order scattering effects between the projectile and target ion. We have examined electron-impact ionization of magnesium and have observed similar higher-order effects. The results of the electron-impact ionization of magnesium indicate the possible deficiencies in the calculation of fully differential cross sections in previous heavy particle ionization work