Building a More Peaceful Society through Positive Intergroup Contact

Currently our society is experiencing unprecedented conflict and violence from many different types of situations and causes. As our society is becoming increasingly more diverse, it has become more apparent that we need to rely on more environmentally sustainable mechanisms and cooperative behaviours to help address and reverse this trend. Political extremism, ethnocentric ideology and recent authoritarian leadership has resulted in an increasingly divided and polarized community. This book attempts to address the problems of violence and extremism through our evolutionary history in the need for all groups of individuals to work co-operatively and contribute to a healthier and more productive community where all individuals are afforded opportunities to share their skills in a more holistic, organic and collaborative process, what Ervin Staub (2013) refers to as the "constructive social process." This book examines how natural and ecologically sustainable (i.e., "green space") environments can help to promote more cooperative and prosocial behaviours within our communities and address the serious problems involving violence and ethnocentric ideologies.