Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Special Issue Book Series On Irreconciliation

Irreconciliation focuses on the less examined but frequent ethnographic instances when survivors refuse to forgive in response to persistent impunity of past injustices, particularly, in the face of absence-presence of the rule of law and staged processes of justice which serve the powerful. What are the various instances of not forgiving, not reconciling, remaining irreconciled to past, unresolved injustices? What forms does this position of not reconciling manifest in, apart from refusing to forgive? In most instances of post-conflict transitional justice and ‘positive’ reconciliatory exercises, it is incumbent upon survivors to forgive, reconcile and seek closure as an exhibition of peacefulness even in the aftermath of compromised processes that claim to address injustice. Various anthropologists have criticised reconciliation and related forms of ‘alternative justice’ extensively but within the framework of maintaining social bonds and the rule of law. This volume is an ethnographically-informed, interdisciplinary theorisation which makes irreconciliation visible in the contexts of Northern Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Canada, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Colombia, USA and UK. Irreconciliation triangulates a discussion of the rule of law within processes of unresolved genocidal injustices, debates relating to statues of slave owners, racial prejudice and institutional responses. Contributors demonstrate the relationship of irreconciliation with law, aesthetics, temporality, resistance and the limits of the concept. This volume wishes to make a theoretical and ethnographic case for irreconciliation as both a social and political phenomenon. We propose an understanding of the past based on a positive commitment to ‘irreconciliation’ which might interest anthropologists, historians, philosophers, critical legal and political theorists, peace, conflict resolution and transitional justice scholars. Irreconciliation is a vigilance against impunity, against a ‘window-dressed’, symbolic performance of redressal. On Irreconciliation focuses on the less examined but frequent ethnographic instances when survivors refuse to forgive in response to persistent impunity of past injustices, particularly, in the face of absence-presence of the rule of law and staged processes of justice which serve the powerful. An ethnographically-informed, interdisciplinary theorisation which makes irreconciliation visible in the contexts of Northern Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Canada, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Colombia, USA and UK Triangulates a discussion of the rule of law within processes of unresolved genocidal injustices, debates relating to statues of slave owners, racial prejudice and institutional responses Contributors demonstrate the relationship of irreconciliation with law, aesthetics, temporality, resistance and the limits of the concept Makes a theoretical and ethnographic case for irreconciliation as both a social and political phenomenon Proposes an understanding of the past based on a positive commitment to ‘irreconciliation’ which might interest anthropologists, historians, philosophers, critical legal and political theorists, peace, conflict resolution and transitional justice scholars