Victims as moral beacons: victims and perpetrators in Northern Ireland

Conflict, transition and education for ‘political generosity’: learning from the experience of ex-combatants in Northern Ireland

“…Thirdly, the narratives of former combatants can raise questions concerning the needs of victims. As in other transitional societies, the concept of victimhood in Northern Ireland is deeply contested (Brewer and Hayes 2011) and the processes required to acknowledge and attend to their suffering are bound up in the tensions between justice and reconciliation discussed at the outset of this article. Extracts from the narratives, such as those below, are used to prompt reflection and challenge perspectives on how the term 'victim' is defined, notions of 'a hierarchy of victimhood' and the relationship between personal and societal reconciliation: Victimhood isn't just the victim of an activity.…”

Microaggression and Moral Cultures

“…9 Competitive victimhood is a kind of moral polarization that increases with the social dis tance between the disputants (Andrighetto et al 2012, see also Black 1998. It also increases with partisanship: For example, respondents who described themselves as vic tims of Northern Ireland's "Troubles" were more likely to place the blame for the conflict entirely on the opposing faction rather than assigning blame to both (Brewer and Hayes 2011). Sometimes adversaries in a conflict agree about the victim status of third parties, and in these cases they may each claim or compete for the victims' support In debates about u.s. human rights policy toward China in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, for example, both sides viewed Chinese dissidents as having "moral authority" and argued about who accurately represented their position (Chan 2011: Chapter 4).…”

Constructing “Ideal Victim” Stories of Bosnian War Survivors

“…It could be seen as an abstraction or a social type (Åker-ström, 2001;Bartov, 2000;Brewer & Hayes, 2011Christie, 1986;Confino, 2005;Holstein & Miller, 1990;Kidron, 2004Kidron, , 2012Maier, 1993;Moeller, 1996;Olick, 2005;Olick & Demetriou, 2006). According to Holstein and Miller (1990) and Åkerström (2001), victimhood could also be seen as a product of moral creativity.…”

“…For a specific category to achieve victim status, there must be some common interest that acts on behalf of the victims; in other words, there must be someone who has an interest in ensuring that the category achieves victim status. These activities sometimes take place on an institutional level and could be transferred to an individual level, as a conversation topic, for instance (Åkerström, 2001;Androff, 2012;Bartov, 2000;Brewer & Hayes, 2011Christie, 1986;Confino, 2005;Delpla, 2007;Fischer & Petrović-Ziemer, 2013;French, 2009;Helms, 2007;Holstein & Miller, 1990;Kiza, Rathgeber, & Rohne, 2006;Kidron, 2004Kidron, , 2012Maier, 1993;Moeller, 1996;Stefansson, 2007;Steflja, 2010;Stover & Shigekane, 2004;Olick, 2005;Olick & Demetriou, 2006;Webster, 2007;White, 2003;Zarkov, 2007;Zdravković-Zonta, 2009).…”

“…In the eyes of the perpetrators, this war victim was a deviator who did not respect the current social order (or rather the current disintegration of social order according to victim's perspective) and therefore should be punished. Interviewee dramatizes the described situation, aiming at presenting the perpetrators' actions as morally despicable and the victim position as a typical example of submission and weakness (Åkerström, 2001;Androff, 2012;Bartov, 2000;Brewer & Hayes, 2011Christie, 1986;Delpla, 2007;Confino, 2005;Fischer & Petrović-Ziemer, 2013;French, 2009;Helms, 2007;Holstein & Miller, 1990;Kidron, 2004Kidron, , 2012Kiza, Rathgeber, & Rohne, 2006;Maier, 1993;Moeller, 1996;Olick, 2005;Olick & Demetriou, 2006;Stefansson, 2007;Steflja, 2010;Stover, Shigekane, 2004;Webster, 2007;White, 2003;Zarkov, 2007;Zdravković-Zonta, 2009). The image of the perpetrators and victim does not seem to exist merely as a construction of the mind.…”