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Roman Gerodimos' emotion-based approach addresses the cause of injustice, violence, and conflict
Roman Gerodimos believes that shame awareness is a superpower. To obtain this skill, one has to recognize and navigate the fundamental role that the emotion of shame plays in our actions.
Roman is a professor of Global Current Affairs at Bournemouth University and a returning faculty member of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. He has extensively contributed to shame/violence theory, which is based on the idea that feelings of humiliation and shame lie behind incidents of violence, crime, and conflict.
According to him, “Equality and justice are central to restoring trust and to addressing that shame… Inequality and injustice are two of the most fundamental and common triggers of shame, humiliation, anger, [and] violence”.
Contributing to this year’s Academy theme of Imagining Inclusive and Equitable Futures, the model of shame/violence theory is a tool that can be used to build a more just world by “addressing and confronting those emotions, their deep existential root causes, and how they play out in a community”.
He described how “the moment you become conscious of how you affect others is like getting out of the matrix”. The purpose of shame awareness is to overcome feelings of shame without transforming them into conflict or violence.
The shame/violence theory is applicable not only on an individual level but also in a societal context. For example, the theory disproves the usefulness of systematic punishment like prison systems because these create a more shameful environment instead of allowing individuals to overcome these feelings.
Social media plays a role today in amplifying shame amongst youth, as many feel inequality and humiliation when comparing their lives to others. This sentiment was particularly relatable to an audience of young Salzburg Global Fellows who have grown up surrounded by social media.
Trust is the remedy to shame, explained Roman, which means that we should allow ourselves to be vulnerable with each other to build trust on both an individual and societal level. Because shame is about losing agency, disciplines like art, design, and dance serve as antidotes by making it possible for one to imagine alternative experiences.
Roman equipped Fellows with tangible tools to restore pride in themselves after feeling shame in their lives. Managing to handle shameful emotions without engaging in violence gives a sense of pride, agency, and control.
He hopes that his session inspires Fellows to think deeper about difficult emotions, because “if they can understand and explore those dynamics of shame and anger in their own lives, that really becomes a tool. Then we can model that and start to interpret and explain dynamics at a national or even international level”.
Roman Gerodimos' teachings on shame awareness allowed Fellows to reflect on the dynamics of shame in their own lives as a powerful tool for fostering positive change, both on a personal level and potentially even on a global scale.