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Transformative justice and the need for a multi-dimensional understanding of impact

Tine Destrooper (UGent)
Author
Organization
Project
  • VICTPART (Righting Victim Participation in Transitional Justice - VictPart)
Abstract
In the past decade expectations about how much transitional justice can achieve have grown, and have come to include ambitious and broad objectives such as prevention, societal transformation and social justice. Such outcomes can only – if at all – be imagined if transitional justice interventions are conceived of as steppingstones that kickstart a deeper and broader process of change. Conceptualizing transitional justice interventions as such, has meant that (victim) participation has become more central in most interventions, not just for ethical or epistemic reasons, but also because victims participating in these processes have increasingly been thought of as agents of change who could carry forth the process of justice-seeking after initial transitional justice interventions are terminated. It has also meant that the fourth – and most ephemeral – pillar of transitional justice (guarantees of non-recurrence) has become increasingly important because of its explicitly forward-looking nature and preventive ambition. However, scholarship on how positive impact and transformation at a societal level would come about through a short and often relatively small-scale transitional justice intervention (or through victim participation in it) is scant, and commentators have found it difficult to move beyond aspirational and normative arguments. I argue that to conceptualize, understand, problematize and map this kind of broad and long-term societal impact, we need to be more rigorous in identifying what it is that we expect to change, and how. In this chapter, I propose a focus on the expressive function of transitional justice interventions to link micro-, meso- and macro level processes of change, while still allowing for purposeful and sound operationalization of what we mean by impact.
Keywords
HRC, expressivism, legal consciousness, victim participation, mobilization, impact

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Citation

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MLA
Destrooper, Tine. “Transformative Justice and the Need for a Multi-Dimensional Understanding of Impact.” Transitional Justice and Impact, edited by Susanne Karstedt and Chrisje Brants, Routledge, 2025.
APA
Destrooper, T. (2025). Transformative justice and the need for a multi-dimensional understanding of impact. In S. Karstedt & C. Brants (Eds.), Transitional justice and impact. New York ; London: Routledge.
Chicago author-date
Destrooper, Tine. 2025. “Transformative Justice and the Need for a Multi-Dimensional Understanding of Impact.” In Transitional Justice and Impact, edited by Susanne Karstedt and Chrisje Brants. New York ; London: Routledge.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Destrooper, Tine. 2025. “Transformative Justice and the Need for a Multi-Dimensional Understanding of Impact.” In Transitional Justice and Impact, ed by. Susanne Karstedt and Chrisje Brants. New York ; London: Routledge.
Vancouver
1.
Destrooper T. Transformative justice and the need for a multi-dimensional understanding of impact. In: Karstedt S, Brants C, editors. Transitional justice and impact. New York ; London: Routledge; 2025.
IEEE
[1]
T. Destrooper, “Transformative justice and the need for a multi-dimensional understanding of impact,” in Transitional justice and impact, S. Karstedt and C. Brants, Eds. New York ; London: Routledge, 2025.
@incollection{8762992,
  abstract     = {{In the past decade expectations about how much transitional justice can achieve have grown, and have come to include ambitious and broad objectives such as prevention, societal transformation and social justice. Such outcomes can only – if at all – be imagined if transitional justice interventions are conceived of as steppingstones that kickstart a deeper and broader process of change. Conceptualizing transitional justice interventions as such, has meant that (victim) participation has become more central in most interventions, not just for ethical or epistemic reasons, but also because victims participating in these processes have increasingly been thought of as agents of change who could carry forth the process of justice-seeking after initial transitional justice interventions are terminated.
It has also meant that the fourth – and most ephemeral – pillar of transitional justice (guarantees of
non-recurrence) has become increasingly important because of its explicitly forward-looking nature
and preventive ambition. However, scholarship on how positive impact and transformation at a
societal level would come about through a short and often relatively small-scale transitional justice
intervention (or through victim participation in it) is scant, and commentators have found it difficult to
move beyond aspirational and normative arguments. I argue that to conceptualize, understand,
problematize and map this kind of broad and long-term societal impact, we need to be more rigorous in identifying what it is that we expect to change, and how. In this chapter, I propose a focus on the expressive function of transitional justice interventions to link micro-, meso- and macro level processes of change, while still allowing for purposeful and sound operationalization of what we mean by impact.}},
  author       = {{Destrooper, Tine}},
  booktitle    = {{Transitional justice and impact}},
  editor       = {{Karstedt, Susanne and Brants, Chrisje}},
  keywords     = {{HRC,expressivism,legal consciousness,victim participation,mobilization,impact}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Transformative justice and the need for a multi-dimensional understanding of impact}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}