My interest in empathy began when I first started researching media narratives about refugees and asylum seekers, and occasionally created by them. I conducted research on these narratives in the Australian context due to Australia’s unique and brutal policies of offshore mandatory detention of all boat arrivals – despite being a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention ( Laney et al, 2016 ). I found that in the case of most conservative media outlets in Australia, research had established that there is a tendency to dehumanise refugees. The tactics employed
that illustrate the suffering and sacrifices of Ukrainian youth at the hands of ‘enemies’. This is part of greater attempts to validate certain attitudes toward ‘the aggressor’ in an increasingly militarised society. For many in Ukraine, however, portraits of the enemy often match descriptions of their parents, friends and neighbours. At the same time, hardships driven by the war, and now the coronavirus too, thwart empathy for the enemy. Assertions of sharp differences in the emotional palette and morality of enemy-others close ‘domains of commonality’, intensify
95 EIGHT Empathy in pursuit of a caring ethic in international development Diego de Merich Introduction: positioning development ethics after the Millennium Development Goals The year 2015 will mark the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Met with great fanfare in international policy-making circles with the UN Millennium Declaration in 2000, the MDGs have sought to ameliorate the condition of countless poor around the world by focusing on attainable targets relating to their quality of life (broadly on health and disease, education
221 11 Empathy as a critical methodological tool in peace research Sinéad Walsh Introduction Peace research aims to reduce violence by understanding its root causes and developing strategies for local and global justice (Galtung, 1969; Wallensteen, 2001). In practice, this normative agenda is connected to an affective economy where empathy, loosely understood as fellow feeling, is an important element (Pedwell, 2012a; see also Ahmed, 2004). Drawing on my PhD research with women’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Armenia and Azerbaijan, this chapter
69 Part Three Empathy Level Two: voicing We look for repair, and in that repair, we cause no further harm. (Restorative justice maxim, source unknown)
13 Part One Empathy Level Zero: hurting If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man’s life a sorrow and a suffering enough to disarm all hostility. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)1
39 Part Two Empathy Level One: seeing The conventional criminal justice system focuses upon three questions: (1) What laws have been broken? (2) Who did it? and (3) What do they deserve? (Umbreit, Vos, Coates and Lightfoot, 2005)1
115 Part Four Empathy Level Three: hearing ‘Everyone is different and, obviously, there has to be a willingness from both sides – but it can be a hugely beneficial experience…. He was not a scary sight, just a human being sitting at a table, waiting, anxious.’ (Katja Rosemberg)1
149 Part Five Empathy Level Four: helping ‘I’d like to be able to say sorry properly to you and your family. I don’t know how, though?! So if you ever need any help with anything, I’d be there without hesitation. Gardening, decorating … anything. Honestly, please just ask me.’ (Tylah)1
161 Part Six Empathy Level Five: healing When we have victimised or have been victimised, the journey from brokenness and isolation to transcendence and belonging requires us to re-narrate our stories so that they are no longer just about shame and humiliation but ultimately about dignity and triumph. (Howard Zehr)1
