Commentary: South African Contributions to the Study of Intergroup Relations

Abstract

The articles in this issue provide an overview of recent research on intergroup relations in South Africa. Most of them focus on intergroup contact theory, and they replicate and advance the theory in a variety of ways. They also emphatically counter those critics who believe that the theory does not apply in parts of the world with long histories of intergroup discrimination and conflict. Earlier work in Northern Ireland reached the same conclusion. The mandate for future social psychological efforts in this research area is to place contact theory and other social psychological processes in their broader structural context. Only then can this essentially bottom-up approach to social change be made useful for broad social policy. The South African emphasis on the conditions needed to achieve intergroup contact after centuries of discrimination and separation offers a solid beginning for this needed new direction.