Focusing on these positive interventions, the authors identify a number of key strategies, ranging from the simplicity and directness of bystander interventions to the volunteer armies mobilized in the wake of natural disasters. They include collective action organized to redress systemic inequalities, and the vital healing role played by truth commissions in Rwanda and elsewhere. Restoring Civil Societies fills the gap between basic research on social issues and translation into social policies and programs-an area which, in light of current economic and social unrest, is more important now than ever.
Thomas A. Morton is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Exeter, UK. His research focuses on how people experience and express their social identities, and the strategic considerations and reality constraints that govern these processes. His work on this theme has covered such topics as conflict and forgiveness, intragroup processes, deviance and change, prejudice, and stereotyping. He is currently Associate Editor for the British Journal of Social Psychology.
Kai J. Jonas is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He studied social sciences and mathematics at the University of Gottingen, Germany. Since 2008 he has been tenured assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, publishing in international journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He has also developed, implemented and documented applied intervention programs.