Apologies for Historical Wrongs: When, How, Why?

本项目审查道歉在涉及国家和国际规模的冲突和创伤的争端解决与和解进程中的作用和形式。它挑战了为错误行为道歉的概念，认为它为线性争端解决过程提供了一个终点站。它分析了案例研究，在这些案例中，道歉，无论是在场的还是缺席的，都构成了承认、纪念和/或和解运动的焦点。在将其调查与21世纪的道歉周年联系起来时，它将其对线性时间性的批评置于道歉的内部逻辑中，提出了明确的冲突开始和结束日期。该项目的中心目标是收集关于官方道歉和21世纪官方道歉运动的数据，这些数据涉及官方道歉的职能(为什么做出这些道歉)和方式(何时和如何)。除了对二级文献进行批判性审查外，该项目还将利用参与者观察法和重点小组方法，根据过去14年的经验，对道歉的功能和方式进行更新和新的批判性评估。在这个过程中，它对时间性作用的关注将探索当代时代精神中官方为历史错误道歉的理由(政治、法律和社会学)。该项目提出了以下研究问题：1.21世纪官方道歉的形式是什么？A.道歉的时间和方式？例如，通过什么程序(政治、法律、外交、社会)授权道歉，由谁发出道歉，向谁道歉？B.道歉需要用什么形式的语言？它们是与赔偿或其他“物质”赔偿有关，还是单独作为“道德”赔偿？2.官方道歉在21世纪有什么作用？A.为什么要制造它们？它们表面上的目的是什么(补救、和解、纪念等)？B.收信人如何接受道歉？那些认为他们应该得到解决的人，对他们是如何接受的？他们的接受程度是否存在代际趋势或差异？如项目标题所示，该项目将审查二十一世纪(2001年1月1日)的道歉和道歉运动。近年来，不仅道歉变得更加频繁，而且在为这一项目提供动力的承认、道歉和赔偿运动方面，一些里程碑也即将到来。21世纪的道歉和运动的例子包括：2014年3月25日的奴隶制和跨大西洋奴隶贸易受害者国际纪念日，2015年4月24日对奥斯曼帝国亚美尼亚人大屠杀100周年，声称这是“种族灭绝”，2015年6月15日英国政府为血腥星期日道歉5周年，以及2014年3月24日阿根廷为独裁统治期间失踪的平民道歉10周年。该项目将利用这些里程碑作为催化剂，调查道歉的功能和方式。在这样做的时候，它的中心重点是批评道歉作为错误行为的线性结果、终止和/或补偿的效用，这将渗透到它对这些案例研究的比较分析中。该项目将通过参与者观察和讲习班上与外部参与者的焦点小组收集新的基本数据，并将汇编一个数据库，通过桌面分析在线和档案主要来源，如报纸、政府文件、真相与和解委员会、证人陈述和运动团体的材料，编目对道歉的准备和反应。这将得到二手资料分析和对过去14年有关道歉的现有文献的审查的支持。

This project examines the functions and forms of apologies in dispute settlement and reconciliation processes concerning conflicts and traumas of both national and international scale. It challenges the notion of apologies for wrongdoing as providing a terminus to a linear dispute settlement process. It analyses 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 poses the following research questions:1. What are the forms of official apologies in the twenty-first century? a. When and how are apologies made? For example, by what process (political, legal, diplomatic, social) are apologies mandated, by whom are they issued and to whom are they addressed? b. What forms of language do apologies take? Are they connected to reparations or other 'material' redress or stand alone as 'moral' redress?2. What are the functions of official apologies in the twenty-first century? a. Why are they made? What are their ostensible purposes (remedy, reconciliation, commemoration, etc.)? b. How are the apologies received by the addressees? How are they received by those not addressed who felt that they should have been addressed? Are there generational trends or differences in their reception? As indicated in the project title, the project will examine apologies and campaigns for apologies in the twenty-first century (1 January 2001). Not only have apologies become more frequent in recent years but a number of milestones are approaching in relation to campaigns for recognition, apologies and reparation which provide the impetus for this project. Examples of apologies and campaigns in the twenty-first century include: the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on 25 March 2014, the 100th anniversary on 24 April 2015 of the pogroms against Ottoman Armenians, which are claimed to be 'genocide', the 5th anniversary on 15 June 2015 of the UK Government's apology for Bloody Sunday, and the 10th anniversary of the apology in Argentina on 24 March 2014 for disappeared civilians during the dictatorship.This project will utilise these milestones as catalysts for its inquiry into the functions and modes of apologies. In so doing, its central focus of critiquing the utility of apologies as a linear culmination, termination and/or expiation of wrongdoing will permeate its comparative analysis of these case studies. The project will gather new primary data through participant observation and focus groups at the workshop with external participants, and will compile a database cataloguing the lead up, and reaction, to apologies through desktop analysis of online and archival primary sources such as newspapers, government documents, TRC, witness statements and campaign groups' materials. This will be supported by secondary source analysis and review of current literature on apologies of the past fourteen years.