Restorative Justice and social constructionism

• Grant number: 17/17279-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: January 23, 2018
• End date: April 29, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Laura Vilela e Souza
• Grantee: Letícia Trombini Vidotto
• Supervisor: Sheila Mcnamee
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of New Hampshire (UNH), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/23063-6 - Participation in the training process of facilitators in restorative practices at schools, BP.MS

Abstract

Although Restorative Justice (RJ) is the search for an alternative notion of justice and, consequently, accountability that seeks to broaden the understanding of those involved in the production of conflicts and violence, our review of the literature draws attention to how, in many instances, the notion of responsibility that underlies the developed restorative practices brings the idea of an autonomous agent and individual blame. Therefore, the objective of this scientific internship is to deepen the theoretical knowledge of the concept of Relational Responsibility (RR) and discuss the relationship between the assumptions of the RJ and the social constructionist notion of RR. For this purpose, supervision/guidance meetings will be held with Sheila McNamee, one of the main references of social constructionism and author of the RR concept; participation in disciplines offered by her; literature review; discussion, analysis and writing of results. This project aims to deepen the study of the concept of Relational Responsibility and to discuss how this may be fundamental to reconceptualize the notion of responsibility in the RJ, and can help to think of restorative practices as social transformation in its broadest sense, besides collaborating with the disseminators of JR and enrich the discussions about the implementations of these practices in Brazil, since we bet on social constructionism as an analytical metatheory of RJ.