ABSTRACT

This book offers a socio-cultural and interdisciplinary understanding of the impact of political violence on youth behaviour. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the Kashmir valley and reports from conflict areas across the globe, the volume brings to focus the ways in which violence affects social and psychological dynamics within the individual and the community. It develops a social–psychological approach to the study of youth and violent conflict in South Asia and offers new insights into the intricacies within the discourse, Focussing on the emotions and behaviour of people in large-scale conflict, it expands the discourse on the psychological dimensions of hope, aggression, emotion regulation the extremist mindset and policy and intervention for peace building.

Moving beyond western psychiatric models, this book proposes a more culturally and historically rooted analysis that focuses on collective experiences of violence to de-colonise psychological science and expand the understanding of youth’s experiences with political violence. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, psychology, peace and conflict studies, sociology and social anthropology.

chapter 2|18 pages

Re-examining exposure to violence

Shifting the focus to collective violence

chapter 3|22 pages

The conflict in the Kashmir Valley

Youth, extremism and psychological consequences

chapter 4|17 pages

Violence, emotions and their regulation

chapter 5|19 pages

Conflict, aggression and gender

Re-viewing established links

chapter 6|18 pages

Violence, hope and optimism

Can negative events have positive outcomes?

chapter 7|8 pages

Beyond violence

Conclusions and thoughts