A Psychosocial Approach to Racism and Ethnic Hatred

I am prompted to write this article as many social scientists become disillusioned with their discipline and look toward new ways of knowing at the start of the 21st century. Because of the failure of sociology to explain outbreaks of violence and ethnic hatred around the world, there is a growing interest in psychosocial studies amongst the academic community in Britain. For example, after the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, how was it possible to end the 20th century with the horror that was Kosovo and the brutality in Sierra Leone? This paper discusses how we might start thinking about ethnic hatred and racism—psychosocially.