Globalisation and global concern : developing a social psychology of human responses to global challenges

The process of globalisation has gained tremendous momentum over recent decades, resulting in unprecedented human interconnectedness and awareness of global concerns. The current special issue of the European Journal of Social Psychology brings together 10 papers that address this development. This special issue showcases different perspectives on the psychological processes that underlie the cognitive and behavioural responses to the global challenges humankind has created and is now facing. In introducing these contributions, we identified three emerging topics for social psychological theorising and application vis-à-vis globalisation and global concerns: (i) supranational identification and attachment, (ii) political and ideological responses to globalisation and global concerns, and (iii) global protest and change. We integrate these topics by highlighting some future prospects of this emerging field of research and its significance for understanding social change in these tumultuous times.