Newly published book The Social Psychology of Everyday Politics edited by Associate Professor Caroline Howarth and Dr Eleni Andreouli features chapters by PhD candidate Geetha Reddy and Dr Ilka Gleibs, and PhD candidate Sandra Obradovic and Associate Professor Caroline Howarth

Gleibs, Ilka H.

Howarth, Caroline

Obradović, Sandra

Reddy, Geetha

LSE Research Online

20/10/2016New publication: The social psychology of everyday politicsblogs.lse.ac.uk /psychologylse/2016/10/20/new-publication-the-social-psychology-of-everyday-politics/Newly published book The Social Psychology of Everyday Politics edited by Associate Professor CarolineHowarth and Dr Eleni Andreouli features chapters by PhD candidate Geetha Reddy and Dr Ilka Gleibs, andPhD candidate Sandra Obradovic and Associate Professor Caroline Howarth. Associate Professor, Caroline Howarth, along with Eleni Andreouli ofOpen University, have recently published an edited book exploring theways in which politics are a part of, and shape, everyday lifeexperiences, from interpersonal interactions, intergroup relations andour attitudes, and beliefs about the institutions that surround us. Thebook is divided into three interrelated parts which focus on 1) thepolitics of intercultural relations, 2) political agency and social change,and 3) political discourse and practice. It offers a diverse range oftopics and scholarly contributions, all offering their unique insight intounderstanding present socio-political phenomena, from the micro- tothe macro-level.The book also features two chapters by other members of thedepartment. Dr Ilka Gleibs and PhD candidate Geetha Reddy explorethe topic of globalisation from a social and political psychologyperspective, while PhD candidate Sandra Obradovic, alongsideCaroline Howarth tackle the topic of reconciliation.In their chapter titled ‘Everyday Reconciliation’, Sandra Obradovic andCaroline Howarth propose the concept of ‘everyday reconciliation’ to“focus on the ways in which our daily encounters with social andpolitical representations of the past can be re-interpreted to create morenuanced images of conflicts and foster more critical and aware future generations.” The authors argue that thisperspective, complimentary to other top-down and bottom-up approaches to reconciliation, allows us to take intoconsideration the ‘messier’ nature of social reality, not often considered in theories of reconciliation. By drawing onexamples from the Israel-Palestine conflict, former Yugoslavia, holocaust survivors in Brazil, post-conflict Rwandaand Sierra Leone, the chapter offers an extensive overview of the literature on reconciliation, proposing anintegrated perspective on reconciliation that focuses not only on inter-group reconstruction but also on intra-groupprocesses such as generational dialogue and coming to terms with a shameful past.‘The social and political psychology of globalisation and global identities’ by Ilka Gleibs and Geetha Reddy focuseson the social and political psychology of globalisation to examine how the psychological impact of globalisation onindividuals is situated in a socio-political context and the described tensions. Using a multi-level perspective (macroto micro levels), the authors examine the interaction between the changing system on macro-level—for examplethrough global business, international regulations, global mobility—and the individual on the micro-level. They adopta broad definition of globalisation, which allowed for the observation of a tension between assimilation (becomingone and creating a ‘global’ culture or democracy) and fragmentation and localisation (the focus on smallunits/communities with a distinct ‘identity’) that have an influence on how individuals negotiate their own identitiesand how they relate to others. The authors argue that speaking of one ‘global identity’ in the singular or the idea of a‘global culture’ and a ‘global identity’ is a practical impossibility. Instead it might be more fruitful to think of it as a1/3multidimensional concept that takes into account the fluidity and dynamics of ‘global identities’ that recognises theprocess of ‘hybridisation’ (Croucher, 2009), intersectionality (Gillespie, Howarth, & Cornish, 2012), and a moredifferentiated perception of political context and culture (Bilewicz & Bilewicz, 2012; Tripathi & Mishra, 2012). Thusthey propose that if one wants to examine the formation of ‘global identities’ and how globalisation impacts onidentity processes, our understanding of a global space should be built around the fact that we can expectdisagreement and tensions but also acknowledge the inherent connectivity and interdependence. This is discussedusing a number of different examples that ground themselves in any given socio-political context, and drawresearchers to not simply focus on how individuals negotiate their local and global cultures or on individualdifferences in identification but rather how individuals integrate the social aspects of the different contents and socio-political realities of what global identities mean in different contexts.  Sandra Obradović is a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychological and BehaviouralScience at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She obtained herBA in Sociology at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and her MSc in SocialPsychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her researchinterests focus on exploring the connections between history, national identity and socio-political change. Specifically, her current research considers how these phenomena interactin the context of Serbia and its progress towards EU integration, exploring how both thepublic and political side of this debate attempt to maintain a sense of continuity in times ofchange. Geetha Reddy is a 4th year doctoral candidate pursuing a PhD in Psychology at theDepartment of Psychological and Behavioural Science, supervised by Dr Ilka Gleibs. Herresearch focus is on diversity and multiculturalism, researching ethnic identity constructionsand negotiations among individuals in Singapore and Malaysia. Her other researchinterests include perspective taking among individuals, the socio-cultural determinants ofhealth related behaviour as well as safety culture within public health systems. Dr Ilka Gleibs is an Assistant Professor in Social and Organisational Psychology at theDepartment of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics.Previously she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter and as aLecturer in Experimental Social Psychology at the University of Surrey. She obtained a PhDfrom the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (Germany), and has a range of interests insocial psychology but focuses mainly on social identity dynamics. 2/3Caroline Howarth is Associate Professor in Social Psychology at the LSE. She specialisesin developing a critical social and political psychology of intercultural relations. In herteaching and research she examines questions of identity, inclusion, reconciliation,prejudice, conflict and collaboration. She has over 50 publications on these topics in arange of international journals. She has been invited to speak at conferences around theworld, from Melbourne to Cape Town to Sao Paulo. She is an editor for PoliticalPsychology and is a consultative editor for Papers on Social Representations. She isdedicated to making Social Psychology relevant to a fairer, more inclusive world.Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics3/3

New publication: the social psychology of everyday politics

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