The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past
Apologies have attracted the attention of various social sciences’ disciplines, suggesting the need for political figures to apologize for ingroup’s historical injustices. Despite these expectations, Belgium has not yet offered public apologies for its colonial past in Congo. In 2019, a Belgian comp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Catalan |
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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Quaderns de Psicología |
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| Online Access: | https://quadernsdepsicologia.cat/article/view/1897 |
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| author | Simona Lastrego Sara Aguirre Nicolas Van der Linden |
| author_facet | Simona Lastrego Sara Aguirre Nicolas Van der Linden |
| author_sort | Simona Lastrego |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Apologies have attracted the attention of various social sciences’ disciplines, suggesting the need for political figures to apologize for ingroup’s historical injustices. Despite these expectations, Belgium has not yet offered public apologies for its colonial past in Congo. In 2019, a Belgian company launched a competition offering the possibility for Belgian citizens to write an apology for the country’s colonial past. In this paper, we analyze five letters selected by the company and examine how authors describe the ingroup and the outgroup in order to understand Belgian and Congolese present relationships. Drawing on discursive psychology, we looked at how the two social groups are constructed by means of regularity and variability in the authors’ use of discursive devices. Results show that the majority of the discursive devices are used to maintain a distinction between the two. Similarities and differences among letter in terms of intergroup relations are discussed.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2b69b1f6d3da40b7a621b866af77dec0 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0211-3481 2014-4520 |
| language | Catalan |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quaderns de Psicología |
| spelling | doaj-art-2b69b1f6d3da40b7a621b866af77dec02025-08-20T03:06:09ZcatUniversitat Autònoma de BarcelonaQuaderns de Psicología0211-34812014-45202025-04-0127110.5565/rev/qpsicologia.1897The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial pastSimona Lastrego0Sara Aguirre1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2261-863XNicolas Van der Linden 2Université Libre de BruxellesUniversité Libre de BruxellesUniversité Libre de BruxellesApologies have attracted the attention of various social sciences’ disciplines, suggesting the need for political figures to apologize for ingroup’s historical injustices. Despite these expectations, Belgium has not yet offered public apologies for its colonial past in Congo. In 2019, a Belgian company launched a competition offering the possibility for Belgian citizens to write an apology for the country’s colonial past. In this paper, we analyze five letters selected by the company and examine how authors describe the ingroup and the outgroup in order to understand Belgian and Congolese present relationships. Drawing on discursive psychology, we looked at how the two social groups are constructed by means of regularity and variability in the authors’ use of discursive devices. Results show that the majority of the discursive devices are used to maintain a distinction between the two. Similarities and differences among letter in terms of intergroup relations are discussed. https://quadernsdepsicologia.cat/article/view/1897Public apologiesSocial groupDiscursive analysisSocial sciences |
| spellingShingle | Simona Lastrego Sara Aguirre Nicolas Van der Linden The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past Quaderns de Psicología Public apologies Social group Discursive analysis Social sciences |
| title | The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past |
| title_full | The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past |
| title_fullStr | The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past |
| title_full_unstemmed | The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past |
| title_short | The construction of Congolese-Belgian relations in apologies. A discourse analysis of letters over colonial past |
| title_sort | construction of congolese belgian relations in apologies a discourse analysis of letters over colonial past |
| topic | Public apologies Social group Discursive analysis Social sciences |
| url | https://quadernsdepsicologia.cat/article/view/1897 |
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