This book aims to bridge the gap between what are generally referred to as `top-down' and `bottom-up' approaches to peacebuilding. After the experience of a physical and psychological trauma, the period of individual healing and recovery is intertwined with political and social reconciliation.

The prospects for social and political reconciliation are undermined when a `top-down' approach is favoured over the `bottom-up strategy'- the prioritization of structural stability over societal well-being. Peacebuilding, Memory and Reconciliation explores the inextricable link between psychological recovery and socio-political reconciliation, and the political issues that dominate this relationship.

Through an examination of the construction of social narratives about or for peace, the text offers a new perspective on peacebuilding, which challenges and questions the very nature of the dichotomy between `top-down' and `bottom-up' approaches.

This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, social psychology, political science and IR in general.