Abstract
This article examines how victims of political violence pursue and enhance their agency in the reconciliation process. By investigating biographical narratives of the survivors of democides in South Korea, this study offers empirical evidence of victims' approach to reconciliation. Specifically, the findings present that victims understood agency as something that enables them to contribute to justice and social transformation, consider morality as important as agency promotion, and do not see victims as their primary in-group for social reconciliation. This article will provide contextual explanations of how such responses can be interpreted in terms of victims' agency in structural inequality. Moreover, it will discuss the theoretical significance of these findings in relation to three conceptual assumptions of emotional needs: agency restoration outside the victim-perpetrator dyad; the duality/complexity of emotional needs; and the roles of victims' self-identity in reconciliation.
Public Significance Statement
This article presents findings from a study of biographical narratives of the survivors of democides in South Korea. It explores how the political victims in the country perceive reconciliation and the emotional needs that should be met to promote reconciliation. The practical implication of this finding is that a reconciliation process, to be sustainable and inclusive, requires a careful and thorough understanding of victims' perspectives and needs.