Forschungsprojekt ::

"The potential of justice research for conflict resolution and the understanding of societal problems"

Projektbeschreibung

Interdisciplinary Conference on Empirical Justice Research at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
From October 15th to 17th, 2009, an international and interdisciplinary conference on justice research was conducted at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt: “The potential of justice research for conflict resolution and the understanding of societal problems”. The event - sponsored by the Volkswagenstiftung - was organized by Elisabeth Kals (chair for social and organizational psychology at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) and Jürgen Maes (chair for educational psychology at the Bundeswehr University Munich). Central to the conference were questions concerning the existence and the characteristics of justice motives, and concerning the influence that justice motives and justice judgements have on the emergence, but also the solution of social conflicts. Five work-groups were implemented: (1) “Introduction and justice motive”, (2) “organizational justice”, (3) “ecological justice”, (4) “social conflicts”, and (5) “solution of conflicts”.
The participants of the interdisciplinary conference were scholars of psychology, as well as distinguished experts from various other disciplines, including sociologists, economists, legal scholar, educationalists, and ethicists. The common ground of all participants was their independent conduction of empirical research on justice issues. A good balance of all career steps was taken care of, in order to get together long-established professors with assistant and associate professors, as well as young academics. Apart from the German participants, we welcomed scholars from the US, India, Korea, New Zealand, and various European countries (Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, UK, Sweden).
After the welcoming of the participants, Prof. em. Dr. Leo Montada (University of Trier), one of the German pioneers and pathfinders of psychological justice research, held an opening speech. His public talk titled „The normative impact of empirical justice research“ elated and inspired the audience in the crowded auditorium, instigated absorbing discussions, and proved to be an outstanding opening to an exciting conference. In total, 45 active contributions were presented on the conference (18 talks and 27 poster presentations with ongoing research results). The conference ended with a plenary discussion wherein the symposium was evaluated, and the current and future situation of empirical justice research was discussed. Emphasis was thereby put on justice psychology; however, connections to other disciplines, which had become visible through out the conference, were particularly thematized. The plenary discussion, as well as the individual contributions, proved how branched and differentiated justice research has become, but also that issues and approaches remain which have merely been worked on singularly. It was particularly these future research tasks that were discussed extensively in the work-groups, but also during the breaks and outside of the conference. A multitude of contacts arose which might yield new research cooperations. A number of plans for further international cooperation as well as for the mutual exchange of young academics by means of research internships were already made concrete.
A publication of the conference results in an edited volume by Springer international is currently in work (eds. Elisabeth Kals & Jürgen Maes). A research project as well as a further symposium are planned.