57 min
#14: Emotions in IR, the mobilization of hate and collective resilience during the COVID pandemic with Dr. Sandra Penic Bariscope
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- Politics
Welcome to the final episode for this semester with Dr. Sandra Penic, senior researcher at the Departement of Political Science and International Relations as well as the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva. In this conversation we’re diving into all things emotions: anger, hope, fear, empathy, hate and solidarity – and how and why we can experience them collectively. Emotions have been underlying many of our conversations here on the podcast, especially when talking about populism and the us vs. them discourse in our western democracies, so we’re really thrilled to have an expert to give us context on the role that emotions play in our societies and international relations more broadly speaking. Sandra Penic reminds us that hate is neither inevitable nor natural and that we’re all responsible to foster solidarity as a norm and she calls upon politicians to acknowledge the collective resilience in our societies, that need though to be accompanied by policies that support people to be in fact respectful of covid-measures (not everyone has the means). This conversation provides insights from a heap of research, amongst others on the War in the Former Yugoslavia, which our guest experienced as a child.
Dr. Sandra Penic completed her diploma in (social) psychology at the university of Zagreb and got her PhD in 2014 on “collective victimization and collective guilt in the former Yugoslavia” at the University of Lausanne. Before joining UNIGE, she worked on a large interdisciplinary multi-method research project on collective memories in conflict-torn societies called the Pluralistic Memories Project. She has published extensively on collective violence and its impact on people's attitudes and emotions as well as the role of conflict memories in the processes of conflict transformation most notably, in the former Yugoslavia, Palestine, Burundi and Sri Lanka. Amongst other things, Dr Sandra Penic teaches the BARI-course on emotions and international relations.
We hope you learn as much from the conversation as we did and feel inspired to collectively fight for a better world!
Thank you to all of you listening for your time and interest throughout this whole season and do send us any feedback you have over on Instagram @bariscope_ccc.
Stay critically curious,
Lea & Lukas
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(02:49) - what are emotions and are there such things as « universal emotions »?
(10:13) - What are the predictors for experiencing collective emotions?
(13:17) - How do groups and social identities form?
(18:48) - We’ve seen violent episodes throughout human history, where hate is so strong between groups that it leads to mass violence. Is hate an inevitable or even natural emotion for humans to feel?
(24:20) - What are the conditions for hate to become the prevalent emotion within a group? How hate is mobilised and violence is legitimised.
(31:37) - How did interethnic hatred in the Former Yugoslavia go from myth to reality?
(36:59) - On Sandra Penic’s childhood experience during the Croatian War (as a refugee), how her city is divided by ethnicity today and why she got interested in social psychology.
(41:09) - Sandra Penic’s evaluation of the emotional landscape in our society right now and why humans are not antisocial during crisis. An introduction into collective resilience.
(45:39) - Can societies be collectively resilient for two or three years (as in throughout the whole pandemic)? What determines if a society is collectively resilient over a long period of time?
(48:23) - The psychological burden during our current crisis and what for policies should be adopted to allow people to respect the covid-measures (spoiler: comprehensive support packages).
(53:15) - Dr. Sandra Penic’s three tips to her 20 year old self
Welcome to the final episode for this semester with Dr. Sandra Penic, senior researcher at the Departement of Political Science and International Relations as well as the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva. In this conversation we’re diving into all things emotions: anger, hope, fear, empathy, hate and solidarity – and how and why we can experience them collectively. Emotions have been underlying many of our conversations here on the podcast, especially when talking about populism and the us vs. them discourse in our western democracies, so we’re really thrilled to have an expert to give us context on the role that emotions play in our societies and international relations more broadly speaking. Sandra Penic reminds us that hate is neither inevitable nor natural and that we’re all responsible to foster solidarity as a norm and she calls upon politicians to acknowledge the collective resilience in our societies, that need though to be accompanied by policies that support people to be in fact respectful of covid-measures (not everyone has the means). This conversation provides insights from a heap of research, amongst others on the War in the Former Yugoslavia, which our guest experienced as a child.
Dr. Sandra Penic completed her diploma in (social) psychology at the university of Zagreb and got her PhD in 2014 on “collective victimization and collective guilt in the former Yugoslavia” at the University of Lausanne. Before joining UNIGE, she worked on a large interdisciplinary multi-method research project on collective memories in conflict-torn societies called the Pluralistic Memories Project. She has published extensively on collective violence and its impact on people's attitudes and emotions as well as the role of conflict memories in the processes of conflict transformation most notably, in the former Yugoslavia, Palestine, Burundi and Sri Lanka. Amongst other things, Dr Sandra Penic teaches the BARI-course on emotions and international relations.
We hope you learn as much from the conversation as we did and feel inspired to collectively fight for a better world!
Thank you to all of you listening for your time and interest throughout this whole season and do send us any feedback you have over on Instagram @bariscope_ccc.
Stay critically curious,
Lea & Lukas
-----
(02:49) - what are emotions and are there such things as « universal emotions »?
(10:13) - What are the predictors for experiencing collective emotions?
(13:17) - How do groups and social identities form?
(18:48) - We’ve seen violent episodes throughout human history, where hate is so strong between groups that it leads to mass violence. Is hate an inevitable or even natural emotion for humans to feel?
(24:20) - What are the conditions for hate to become the prevalent emotion within a group? How hate is mobilised and violence is legitimised.
(31:37) - How did interethnic hatred in the Former Yugoslavia go from myth to reality?
(36:59) - On Sandra Penic’s childhood experience during the Croatian War (as a refugee), how her city is divided by ethnicity today and why she got interested in social psychology.
(41:09) - Sandra Penic’s evaluation of the emotional landscape in our society right now and why humans are not antisocial during crisis. An introduction into collective resilience.
(45:39) - Can societies be collectively resilient for two or three years (as in throughout the whole pandemic)? What determines if a society is collectively resilient over a long period of time?
(48:23) - The psychological burden during our current crisis and what for policies should be adopted to allow people to respect the covid-measures (spoiler: comprehensive support packages).
(53:15) - Dr. Sandra Penic’s three tips to her 20 year old self
57 min