This project examines the functions and forms of apologies in dispute settlement and reconciliation processes in the aftermath of conflicts and traumas of both national and international scale. It investigates the notion of apologies for wrongdoing as providing a terminus to a linear dispute settlement process. It analyses and compares case studies in which the apology, present and absent, forms a focal point in campaigns for recognition, remembrance and/or reconciliation. In connecting its inquiry to anniversaries of apologies in the twenty-first century, it contextualises its critique of linear temporality within the internal logics of apologies that propose a clear beginning and end date for the conflict.
The central aim of the project is to harvest data on official apologies and campaigns for official apologies in the 21st century in relation to their functions (why they are made) and modes (when and how). Utilising participant observation and focus group methodologies in addition to a critical review of secondary literature, the project will provide an update and a new critical assessment of the functions and modes of apologies in light of the experiences of the past fourteen years. In the process, its focus upon the role of temporality will probe the rationales (political, legal and sociological) for official apologies for historical wrongs in the contemporary zeitgeist.
The project examines the following research questions:
- what are the forms of official apologies in the twenty-first century; and
- what are the functions of official apologies in the twenty-first century.
It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as a Developmental Award under its Care for the Future Programme.