Psychology

Emotional climate, human security, and cultures of peace

Document Type

Editorial

Abstract

The objective of this issue is to review the work that has been published on emotional climate and the issues it raises, to present new work that addresses these issues, and to begin the work of relating emotional climate to research on human security and cultures of peace. The issue has three sections. The first focuses on articles that discuss the measurement of emotional climate, how it may be related to a society's peacefulness, and the psychosocial processes involved in its generation. The second involves work on human security and ways it may be restored after societal trauma. The third presents articles that relate emotional climate to cultures of peace. Unlike emotional atmospheres, which depend on group members focusing on a particular event, emotional climates involve the relationships between group members. They involve feelings such as the collective fear used by a dictatorship to ensure order, the trust essential to the formation of social capital, the security provided by an adequate attention to human rights, or the anger or despair aroused by pervasive corruption. Human security, in contrast to national security, is a concept concerned with the security of all people, rather than only those within a given nation state. Further, it enlarges the scope of security to include all the issues that affect personal security and not simply the danger of enemy attack.

Publication Title

Journal of Social Issues

Publication Date

2007

Volume

63

Issue

2

First Page

233

Last Page

253

ISSN

0022-4537

DOI

10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00506.x

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