Social Representations of a Controversial Peace Agreement: Subjective Public Meanings of the GRP-MILF MOA

Montiel, Cristina Jayme; Guzman, Judith M. de

doi:10.1080/01154451.2011.9723531

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Previous social constructionist research on peace processes and peace agreements has focused on differences in social representations of various groups, citizens, and political actors. For instance, Montiel and de Guzman (2011) demonstrated that the peace agreement in the Philippines was discussed in terms of the agreement’s constitutionality among the political elites, while the public was more concerned about participatory processes and public consultations. Similarly, in the Colombian peace process, while citizens represented peace as contingent on changes in socioeconomic conditions, government leaders rendered broader societal changes contingent upon peace (McFee, 2016).…”

Section: Social Representations Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Representing the peace/resolution process in Turkey: Mobilizing support for change or resisting it.

Avcı,

Cohrs,

Schreier

2024

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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In this article, we aim to describe the societal meaning-making process of peace processes. Peace processes as proposals for societal change toward peace are challenging because they require not only imagining a future but also reconstructing the conflict history and maintaining a sense of continuity in terms of identity. We look at how the diversity of social knowledge and dealing with this diversity in the meaning-making process can influence social change toward peace. In particular, we investigate how different ways of representing the peace process in Turkey define different forms of actions as appropriate or inappropriate. We conducted a critical discourse analysis of 34 articles from five ideologically different newspapers about the three most important events of the peace process. We identified the existence of three different social representations: (a) a political struggle for democratization, (b) a way to develop Turkey, and (c) a process of destruction and deception. The peace process is made familiar by drawing on various identity constructions, cultural resources, and argumentation strategies; political actors introduce new norms about political participation by using these features of the representations and attributing agency, rights, and duties to the people. We interpret how the way the peace process is represented functions to deal with representations of others and to claim support for or resistance to social change toward peace.

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Section: Social Representations Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Representing the peace/resolution process in Turkey: Mobilizing support for change or resisting it.

Avcı,

Cohrs,

Schreier

2024

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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“…Polemic representations, on the other hand, are antagonistic and arise during social conflict. These representations are evoked during social controversy and provide the subjective landscape of intergroup conflicts (Montiel & de Guzman, 2011). They tend to be contradictory and contested, as members of different social groups dispute the social meanings of a particular social object.…”

Section: Fragmented Social Representations Of a Territorial Peace Agrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fragmented Ethnopolitical Social Representations of a Territorial Peace Agreement: The Mindanao Peace Talks

Montiel

Guzman

Macapagal

2012

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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T his article examines fractures in the social representations of a contested peace agreement in the longstanding territorial conflict of Mindanao. We compared representational structures and discourses about the peace talks among Muslims and Christians. Study One used an open-ended survey of 420 Christians and Muslims from two Mindanao cities identified with different Islamised tribes, and employed the hierarchical evocation method to provide representational structures of the peace agreement. Study Two contrasted discourses about the Memorandum of Agreement between two Muslim liberation fronts identified with separate Islamised tribes in Mindanao. Findings show unified Christians' social representations about the peace agreement. However, Muslims' social representations diverge along the faultlines of the Islamised ethnic groups. Findings are examined in the light of ethnopolitical divides that emerge among apparently united nonmigrant groups, as peace agreements address territorial solutions. Research results are likewise discussed in relation to other tribally contoured social landscapes that carry hidden, yet fractured ethnic narratives embedded in a larger war storyline.Keywords: Mindanao, territorial conflict, ethnic identities, peace talks, social representations, hierarchical evocation methodThe southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines has been the politico-military arena of a longstanding territorial conflict (Bertrand, 2000;Buendia, 2005) often described as a Muslim-Christian clash (Milligan, 2001;Tan, 2000). However, Mindanao is not only the Philippine hotbed of territorial conflict, it is also a region in which several peace initiatives have taken place. authority over these defined territories. The public announcement of the MOA triggered a series of peaceful and armed protests among Christians, and counter-protests among Moro-associated forces. The Supreme Court eventually junked the peace agreement, and the Philippine president fired the government peace panel that she herself had constituted.This recent peace fiasco likewise called attention to divisions among Muslims. With this recent unsuccessful attempt to establish peace in Mindanao, we investigated the nature of the psychological fractures within the Muslim front. We looked at how different Islamised groups in Mindanao made sense of the Memorandum of Agreement. However, as social psychologists who are Christians, we reflexively acknowledge our perceptive limitations as we attempted to understand political meanings held by two different Islamised tribes in what has been labelled a Muslim-Christian conflict. We viewed our research question through the lens of social representations theory, because this theory lends itself well to illuminating the subjective landscape of social conflict.

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“…Based on its focus on the plurality and equality of meanings, a social constructionist approach to research on foreign aid also allows for the surfacing of participant voices that may otherwise be kept silenced or concealed (Hosking & Morley, 2004). Research in social representations has also examined the meanings of other controversial social objects, such as the public meanings of a contested peace agreement in Mindanao (Montiel & de Guzman, 2011); mining conflict (Baquiano & Montiel, 2011); poverty (Ortega Rubi, 2006); and peace, war and conflict (Sarrica & Contarello, 2004).…”

Section: A Social Constructionist Approach To Understanding Foreign Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Representations of Foreign Aid: Exploring Meaning-Making in Aid Practice in Sulu, Southern Philippines

Guzman

Montiel

2012

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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C onceptualising foreign aid as a controversial social object, this study utilised Social Representations Theory as a social constructionist framework to understand the meanings that arise from people's social interactions in relation to foreign aid practice in a particular historical, political and social context such as the province of Sulu in Southern Philippines. Key informant interviews and group discussions with representatives of various social groups involved in the practice of foreign aid in Sulu were conducted. Research data were examined using thematic analysis. Results showed two interrelated representational systems about foreign aid in the province. First, foreign aid was understood as a valuable resource for peace and development in Sulu. Second, based on narratives of aid practice in the province, the same social object was also represented as a profiteering enterprise that operates at various levels of the aid structure. Results are discussed in terms of meaning-making in aid practice; the possible psychological, social and political consequences of the social meaning of foreign aid as a profiteering enterprise; and the potential of these social representations for reflection, critique and transformation in the practice of foreign aid.

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Social Representations of a Controversial Peace Agreement: Subjective Public Meanings of the GRP-MILF MOA

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

Representing the peace/resolution process in Turkey: Mobilizing support for change or resisting it.

Representing the peace/resolution process in Turkey: Mobilizing support for change or resisting it.

Fragmented Ethnopolitical Social Representations of a Territorial Peace Agreement: The Mindanao Peace Talks

Social Representations of Foreign Aid: Exploring Meaning-Making in Aid Practice in Sulu, Southern Philippines

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