Living with Uncertainty is a research fellowship project funded by the ESRC and AHRC as part of the wider RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme.
www.globaluncertainties.org.uk
Increasingly mobile and transient societies present increasing needs for people to understand others who they may find, not only very different from themselves, but also holding attitudes and beliefs which may be difficult to accept. This kind of understanding across difference and emotional ambivalence is 'empathy'. Positive empathy opens up possibilities for alternative responses to uncertainty than apathy, hardening of attitudes or violence. Empathy is constructed, negotiated and resisted through discourse, including the everyday language of social interaction, the rhetoric of politicians, and the language of fiction, song, and news media. The programme of research into the dynamics of empathy will investigate the role of language, and in particular metaphor, in the construction and shifting of people's attitudes to others.
The research has implications for how official communication, media discourse and fiction contribute to fostering empathy and building positive relations between social groups in times of uncertainty.
Click here for an explanation of the multi-level dynamic model of empathy developed by the Living with Uncertainty project.
Multi-level dynamic model of empathy
Please see our Events pages for further details of forthcoming conferences:
11 June 2012 - Researching Empathy - An academic conference
12 June 2012 - Empathy: Dynamics, dialogue, conflict
The sound file can be located by navigating via the link below and following these pages: 'Current Activities'
'Audio presenations'.
www.globaluncertainties.org.uk
Metaphor and Reconciliation by Lynne Cameron - click here for information and discount.
