Concluding remarks: Developing a critical discursive peace psychology

This final brief concluding chapter draws out some of the key lessons that we might take from the analyses presented in the preceding chapters, and in so doing points the way to further developments in what might tentatively be described as critical discursive peace psychology. First, I will consider the essentially contested nature of the objects of peace psychology, most notably ‘peace’ itself, and suggest that the focus on analysts’ definitions of peace (and violence) might usefully be complemented by a greater concern with participants’ constructions. Second, I will consider the potential for discursive peace psychology to contribute to the analysis of cultural violence (and, by extension, to the achievement of cultures of peace), as well as suggesting that a unique contribution might come in terms of the analysis of discursive violence. Third, I will consider the practical implications for discursive psychology, with the encounter with peace psychology encouraging a more interventionist (in the non-military sense) form of practical engagement. Fourth, I will sketch out some potential obstacles to an integration of discursive and peace psychology, focussing in particular on the incompatibilities between the structural focus of peace psychology and the post-structural orientation of discursive psychology. Fifth, and relatedly, I will suggest that a post-structural position has advantages in enabling peace psychology to overcome a residual individualism that it shares with much of the broader discipline of psychology