Political violence as moral exclusion: linking peace psychology to feminist critical theory

The concept of moral exclusion allows us to understand both the rationale and social acceptance of such acts of political violence. Moral exclusion is described as "the process whereby individuals or groups are perceived to be outside the boundary in which moral values, rules, and considerations of fairness apply" (Opotow, 1990, as cited in Tyler & Smith, 1998, p. 615). According to Susan Opotow, moral exclusion serves as the moral justification and rationalisation for both structural and direct violence. This means that inflicting violence upon "others" outside one's scope of justice is justified. We choose to emphasise [Nancy Fraser]'s theory of recognition for it offers concrete and real alternatives. We find her conceptualisation of recognition most appropriate in building the agenda for a new moral order, firstly because Fraser's formulation was originally developed to curb "cultural injustice" or "misrecognition" (i.e., cultural domination), and secondly because of its integration of the socio-economic structural realm to the realm of the symbolic and the cultural. Fraser terms the former as the politics of redistribution and the latter as the politics of recognition. She further asserts that it is necessary to address both realms if a truly transformative vision of social justice is to be achieved. Thus a fair and just distribution of material wealth cannot be the sole gauge of the moral quality of social relations. Of equal importance is our recognition of one another. As our sense of morality can expand to include everyone, the boundaries between "we" and "they," between "us" and "them," can disappear. The hope for a just and fair world can lie in promoting a morality of recognition in die future generations. In Figure 2, we diagram a possible peace agenda that seeks change in the psychological, cultural, and structural levels. From the pockets of resistance to the global hegemonic culture of violence, we can begin strategising on how to encourage moral recognition, how to change cultural values and norms to promote peace, and how to transform structures towards nonhierarchical and equitable relations. This may be unrealistic-like dreaming of utopia-but in a strange and surreal way, we have to teach the world to care.