NSF Award
2021634
Title: Assessing Transformative Justice<br/><br/>Abstract: <br/>While transformative justice takes many forms, there is scant scholarly knowledge, whether theoretical or empirical, on the efficacy of these measures that may be employed during transitions from conflict to peace. This project will collect community-generated indicators of justice, recognition, and reconciliation in order to establish reparative impact. The goal is to examine the outcomes of transformative justice and derive a measurement for the efficacy of steps taken by states.<br/><br/>Employing a mixed-method approach, including focus groups, survey research, and an experimental design, this research will be based in various theories from law, political science, and international relations, in order to develop new theory on the role of reparative mechanisms and on the limits of transformative justice. The project will provide innovative consultation, assessment, and learning tools for measuring amends in terms of recognition, justice and reconciliation. The case studies of Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be utilized due to their extensive reparations programs. Focus groups will be used to collect community-generated indicators followed by survey research methods to measure changes in perception and impact over time. Findings will advance scientific discovery and understanding of the ideas behind transformative justice.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
