Social psychologists typically conceptualize intergroup processes in terms of unequal pairs of so... more Social psychologists typically conceptualize intergroup processes in terms of unequal pairs of social categories, such as an advantaged majority (e.g., 'Whites') and a disadvantaged minority (e.g., 'Blacks'). We argue that this two-group paradigm may obscure the workings of intergroup power by overlooking: (1) the unique dynamics of intergroup relations involving three or more groups, and (2) the way some two-group relationships function as strategic alliances that derive meaning from their location within a wider relational context. We develop this argument through a field study conducted in a grape-farming town in South Africa in 2009, focusing on an episode of xenophobic violence in which a Zimbabwean farm worker community was forcibly evicted from their homes by their South African neighbours. Discursive analysis of interview accounts of the nature and origins of this violence shows how an ostensibly binary 'xenophobic' conflict between foreign and South ...
A random digit dialing survey (N = 596) investigated the relationship between quantity and qualit... more A random digit dialing survey (N = 596) investigated the relationship between quantity and quality of interracial contact and Black South Africans' perceptions of racial discrimination in postapartheid society. Results showed that harmonious contact was associated with lower levels of perceived collective discrimination, an effect that was mediated by racial attitudes and personal experiences of racial discrimination. The implications of the survey's findings are discussed in relation
Most of what we know about the social psychology of intergroup relations has emerged from studies... more Most of what we know about the social psychology of intergroup relations has emerged from studies of how one group of people (e.g., whites) think and feel about another (e.g., blacks). By reducing the social world to binary categories, this approach has provided a simple, effective and efficient methodological framework. However, it has also obscured some important features of social relations in historically divided and unequal societies. This paper highlights the importance of investigating intergroup relationships involving more than two groups and of exploring not only their psychological but also their political significance. We argue that this shift in focus may
We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings with pr... more We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance to examine variation in effect magnitudes across sample and setting. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples and 15,305 total participants from 36 countries and territories. Using conventional statistical significance (p < .05), fifteen (54%) of the replications provided evidence in the same direction and statistically significant as the original finding. With a strict significance criterion (p < .0001), fourteen (50%) provide such evidence reflecting the extremely high powered design. Seven (25%) of the replications had effect sizes larger than the original finding and 21 (75%) had effect sizes smaller than the original finding. The median comparable Cohen’s d effect sizes for original findings was 0.60 and for replications was 0.15. Sixteen replications (57%) had small effect sizes (< .20) and 9 (32%) were ...
The British journal of social psychology, Jan 16, 2018
The implicit association test (IAT) and concept of implicit bias have significantly influenced th... more The implicit association test (IAT) and concept of implicit bias have significantly influenced the scientific, institutional, and public discourse on racial prejudice. In spite of this, there has been little investigation of how ordinary people make sense of the IAT and the bias it claims to measure. This article examines the public understanding of this research through a discourse analysis of reactions to the IAT and implicit bias in the news media. It demonstrates the ways in which readers interpreted, related to, and negotiated the claims of IAT science in relation to socially shared and historically embedded concerns and identities. IAT science was discredited in accounts that evoked discourses about the marginality of academic preoccupations, and helped to position test-takers as targets of an oppressive political correctness and psychologists as liberally biased. Alternatively, the IAT was understood to have revealed widely and deeply held biases towards racialized others, el...
In defence of South African discursive social psychology, this paper provides a brief account of ... more In defence of South African discursive social psychology, this paper provides a brief account of social form and experience as immanent in discursive practices. Social order and social Institutions must be viewed as no more and no less than the sedimentation of coordinated human practices, and that any attempt to explain the ‘objectivity’ of the human made social world by recourse to biological or cultural essences is to entirely misunderstand its ontology. I argue that this immanentist perspective provides a more adequate account of the social psychology of social transformation, and steers clear of some potential political problems associated with cultural essentialism.
Research on attitudes towards racial equality has identified an apparent paradox, sometimes descr... more Research on attitudes towards racial equality has identified an apparent paradox, sometimes described as the 'Principle-Implementation gap'. White Americans accept equality as an ideal yet reject interventions designed to achieve that ideal. In this paper, we provide a critical review of empirical and theoretical work in the field and outline some directions for future research. Drawing on a programme of research conducted in postapartheid South Africa, we argue for the value of: (1) widening the field beyond its traditional focus on white policy attitudes in the United States; (2) developing relational models that encompass more fully the perspectives of historically disadvantaged as well as historically advantaged communities; (3) making greater use of methods that elucidate how ordinary people themselves construct the meaning of the Principle-Implementation gap and how this informs, and indeed justifies and normalises, associated patterns of behaviour; and (4) prioritizing the difficult question of how to promote social change in societies where most citizens embrace equality as a noble end but often reject the means through which it might be accomplished. With regards to the latter-and given the ascendancy of prejudicebased explanations of the Principle-Implementation gap-the paper evaluates in particular some strengths and limitations of a prejudice-reduction model of social change.
Racial segregation encourages members of historically advantaged groups to form negative intergro... more Racial segregation encourages members of historically advantaged groups to form negative intergroup attitudes, which then motivate practices of discrimination that sustain inequality and disadvantage. By implication, interventions designed to increase intergroup contact have been proposed as a means of reducing dominant group prejudices and promoting social change. In this article, we highlight another mechanism through which segregation shapes intergroup relations, namely, by inhibiting political solidarity between historically disadvantaged groups. Building on a field survey conducted in postapartheid South Africa, we demonstrate how challenging this form of segregation may reveal alternative mechanisms through which intergroup contact facilitates social change. Notably, we report evidence that positive contact with Black residents of an informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg was associated with Indian residents' support for political policies and
Foucault (1978) proposed that scientific discourses can become objects for political practice. Fo... more Foucault (1978) proposed that scientific discourses can become objects for political practice. Following from this, Nikolas Rose has elaborated how psychological expertise is implicated in the government of conduct in liberal democracies. In this study these ideas are explored in the local South African context, paying particular attention to post-apartheid imperatives to extend psychological services to socially relevant spheres. The sample was drawn from psychologists who graduated from UKZN (University of KwaZulu-Natal) between 1993 and 2003/4. Data were collected about problems that psychologists see in their daily working environments, their causes and the practices used to solve them. Findings indicate that psychologists deal with a range of traditional psychological problems as well as diverse social/structural problems. Individualised interventions, encouraging self-regulation, dominate both these groups of problems, including interventions focussing on the community and soc...
This article argues (a) that the content of racial representations in South Africa has changed hi... more This article argues (a) that the content of racial representations in South Africa has changed historically, and (b) that these representations are grounded in concrete patterns of spatio-temporal interactions between blacks and whites that have characterised different historical epochs. These arguments are developed by means of a consideration of racial interactions and representations in four historical periods: the early Cape colony, the frontier, apartheid and the contemporary post-apartheid period. The bulk of the discussion concerns the kinds of representations that are being developed and perpetuated in the present desegregated context, where whites experience displacement at the hands of blacks, and blacks experience whites running away from them.
Places, identities and geopolitical change: exploring the strengths and limits of Identity Process Theory
Identity, Social Action and Social Change
From Exclusion to Informal Segregation: The Limits to Racial Transformation at the University of Natal
Social Dynamics, 2004
In the context ofhigher education transformation in South Africa, this paper attempts to capture ... more In the context ofhigher education transformation in South Africa, this paper attempts to capture a series of observations about transformation at the former University ofNatal. From a descriptive, multidisciplinary perspective it critiques racial transformation at the University ...
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Papers by Kevin Durrheim