Justice, conflict and wellbeing are large topics that occupy researchers from a variety of disciplines, as well as laypeople and policy makers. The three concepts are closely connected: conflict often (though not always) impairs wellbeing, whereas justice often (though not always) enhances it; perceived injustice is a common source of conflict, at multiple levels and calls for justice are a common response to conflict. In addition, each construct has subtypes, such as distributive and procedural justice, individual and group conflict and physical and psychological wellbeing. Although there are established traditions of research on the topics in multiple disciplines, there is little cross-fertilization across disciplines. This volume brings together researchers from social, clinical and educational psychology; law and political science. The unifying theme is how injustice and conflict pose threats to wellbeing, at the micro (individual) and macro (groups and societies) levels. Multi- and interdisciplinary research are at the vanguard of science in the twenty-first century and the present work applies multi and interdisciplinary perspectives to the important real-world topics of justice, conflict and wellbeing.
"In a rather innovative project, the editors of Justice, Conflict and Wellbeing created a book addressing the three vast topic areas of the book's title. Each of these overarching topics is presented in several chapters. There are two key points to understand about this book. First, each chapter is quite well written and well researched and the style is academic rather than clinical and tight rather than chatty. Second, the content of each chapter and of the entire book, as well as the individual chapter authors' styles and purposes, are divergent, not integrated, and not intended to cohere neatly. How you evaluate these givens depends upon your personal taste."
Susan G. Goldberg, PsycCRITIQUES
February 8, 2015, Vol. 60, No. 6, Article 6
Susan G. Goldberg, PsycCRITIQUES
February 8, 2015, Vol. 60, No. 6, Article 6