The field of conflict resolution has developed enough to become diverse and rich with perspectives, yet the common ground between those perspectives – a permanent core essence – has not yet been defined. The use of identity theory, specifically intergroup identity theory, may be the most effective method to understand the field’s foundations. In this article, six possible group identity claims – or grand narratives – are offered. Together, they may form a foundational code for the field, which may be examined and proved in context. Defining the profession of conflict resolution also requires engagement and dialogue with other related professions. In addition to mapping the six grand narratives, this article will suggest how these narratives can at times generate differences with other academic disciplines that deal with conflicts. |
Article |
Experimenting with Conflicts ConstructivelyIn Search of Identity for the Field of Conflict Resolution |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 2 2013 |
Keywords | conflict resolution, identity, group identity, constructive engagement, narratives |
Authors | Michal Alberstein |
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Article |
PracademicsMaking Negotiation Theory Implemented, Interdisciplinary, and International |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 2 2013 |
Authors | Andrea Kupfer Schneider |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Negotiation can be thought of as the tool that facilitates conflict engagement and resolution. As part of, and yet different from, conflict theory, negotiation theory has had a separate parallel development in the last 30 years. The challenges for negotiation theory in the future are similar to those found in the broader conflict theory – ensuring that negotiation theory can be implemented by practitioners; making sure that negotiation theory draws upon a multitude of disciplines; and includes theories, experiences and culture from around the world. The development of negotiation theories in law schools – where communication to resolve disputes is part of the job description – highlights the importance of pracademics and demonstrates how we need effective theories to engage in conflict. |
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Reflections on the Field of Conflict Resolution |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 2 2013 |
Keywords | peacebuilding field, culture and conflict resolution, power and conflict resolution, future trends in peacebuilding, critique of peacebuilding |
Authors | Mohammed Abu-Nimer |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Compared with other disciplines in the social sciences, conflict resolution is a relatively new, emerging professional and academic field. Many developments have shaped the current reality and boundaries of the field. This article is an attempt to provide a set of reflections on the major issues, challenges and possible future directions facing the field of conflict resolution. By narrating my own personal and professional journey, I hope to capture certain aspects and perspectives of this field. This is not a comprehensive review or ‘scientific’ charting of the field, nevertheless it attempts to shed light on areas and concepts that are otherwise taken for granted or neglected when the mapping of the field is done through more extensive empirical research. This mapping of conflict resolution after 30 years of practice, teaching and research first involves reflections on the conceptual or so-called theoretical groundings of the field. Second, it examines the various professional practices that have branched out through the last few decades. Third, it identifies some of the current limitations and challenges facing conflict resolution practitioners and scholars in their struggle to position the field in relation to current global realities. The final section discusses possible future directions to address existing gaps and refocus the research agenda of the field. |
Article |
Re-thinking PeacebuildingFrom Universal Models to Mundane Peace |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 2 2013 |
Keywords | peace and conflict research, culture, peacebuilding, democracy, truth speaking |
Authors | Tarja Väyrynen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The article re-theorizes peacebuilding through the critique of the universalizing tendencies prominent in peace and conflict research. The critique is targeted both at the medical analogy and liberal peace theory which epitomize universalism in their own ways. By presenting a case study on a seemingly insignificant, minor and mundane event and person, a Finnish woman Kaisu, the article seeks to demonstrate the usefulness of cultural understanding of peacebuilding and the ethnographic fieldwork methods which open up interesting research questions for the research field. It is shown how peacebuilding is about politics that is ‘not yet’. During peacebuilding society needs to face its troubled past with its full complexity and create a space for constant struggle that does not seek consensus, but rather engages the society in agonistic politics and democracy. Ultimately, the article suggests that the agency of parrhestiastes, truth-speaker, opens up a necessary space for post-conflict peacebuilding as it reveals the fragmented nature of the national self. |
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Conflict Resolution as a Profession and the Need for Communities of Inquiry |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 1 2013 |
Keywords | Reflective practice, conflict resolution, professional education, community of inquiry, expertise |
Authors | Tamra Pearson d’Estrée |
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Conflict resolution has obtained the markings of a profession, including published journals, professional associations and academic programs. However, professional status also carries with it expectations and obligations upon which conflict resolution as a community should deliberate. Acknowledging conflict resolution as a profession highlights associated responsibilities around knowledge accumulation and ethical practice. Complexities of modern practice call for reuniting theory, research and practice, and updating our professional educational paradigm. Competent modern conflict resolution professionals must be able to innovate and adapt to novel and complex contexts, and must develop communities of inquiry for learning that is public, shared and cumulative. Because of the time constraints facing many professionals, and the lack of structure for reflection, a combination of direct community conversation and periodic journal review would likely be the most realistic for nurturing the needed reflection, continual learning and paradigm critique that results in system learning by the community of conflict resolution professionals. |
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Does Our Field Have a Centre?Thoughts from the Academy |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 1 2013 |
Keywords | Conflict and Peace studies, peacebuilding, pedagogy, George Mason University, S-CAR |
Authors | Kevin Avruch |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article is a personal reflection on the development of the field of conflict resolution/peace and conflict studies from the perspective of the classroom: how what is thought necessary to teach has changed as the field has grown and reacted to often turbulent political change |
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The Historical Contingencies of Conflict Resolution |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 1 2013 |
Keywords | History of ADR, consensus building, multi-party dispute resolution, theory development, conflict handling |
Authors | Carrie Menkel-Meadow |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article reviews the historical contingency of theory and practice in conflict engagement. World War II and the Cold War produced adversarial, distributive, competitive, and scarce resources conceptions of negotiation and conflict resolution, as evidenced by game theory and negotiation practice. More recent and more optimistic theory and practice has focused on party needs and interests and hopes for more party-tailored, contingent, flexible, participatory and more integrative and creative solutions for more than two disputants to a conflict. The current challenges of our present history are explored: continued conflict in both domestic and international settings, the challenge of “scaling up” conflict resolution theory and the problematics of developing universal theory in highly contextualized and diverse sets of conflict sites. The limits of “rationality” in conflict resolution is explored where feelings and ethical, religious and other values may be just as important in conflict engagement and handling. |
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Is There a Theory of Radical Disagreement? |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 1 2013 |
Keywords | Radical disagreement, linguistic intractability, agonistic dialogue, conflict engagement |
Authors | Oliver Ramsbotham |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article concerns linguistic intractability, the verbal aspect of those conflicts that so far cannot be settled or transformed. At its heart lies the phenomenon of radical disagreement. This is generally discounted in conflict resolution as positional or adversarial debate. It is seen as a terminus to dialogue that must from the outset be transformed, not learnt from. In this article the refusal to take radical disagreement seriously is traced back to the way radical disagreement is described and explained in the third party theories that frame attempts at settlement and resolution in the first place. |
Article |
Relational ConstructionismGenerative Theory and Practice for Conflict Engagement and Resolution |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 1 2013 |
Keywords | Conflict transformation, conflict resolution, action research, positioning theory, relational constructionism |
Authors | Nikki R. Slocum-Bradley |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article draws upon relational constructionist ideas to facilitate a meta-theoretical shift in conflict engagement and transformation. Based upon insight into conceptual and relational inter-dependency, two tasks are suggested as key aims for future work: 1) nurturing a profound respect for inter-dependent self/other and appreciation for relationships, and 2) developing skills to construct nurturing, generative relationships. Underscoring that research, theory-building and other aspects of scholarship are in themselves practices, the author encourages the design of these and other practices to facilitate conflict transformation. Exploring the implications of relational constructionist insights, an approach is proposed that merges the boundaries of theory-building, research methodology, and conflict engagement: Action Research for the Transformation of Conflicts (ART-C). While ART-C provides a process that facilitates the construction of cooperative relationships, insights from Positioning Theory illuminate how actors co-construct relationships by evoking meanings and norms that guide action. These concepts are applied to a variety of examples from around the globe that illustrate the transformation of identities, relationships and conflicts. |
Article |
Crises and Opportunities:Six Contemporary Challenges for Increasing Probabilities for Sustainable Peace |
Journal | International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Issue 1 2013 |
Keywords | Conflict resolution, peace, evidence-based practice, gender, systems |
Authors | Peter T. Coleman |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The news from the field of peace and conflict studies is mixed. It is evident that the increasing complexity, interdependence and technological sophistication of conflict, violence and war today introduce many new challenges to peace-keeping, making and building. However, it is also likely that these trends present new opportunities for fostering and sustaining peace. If our field is to capitalize on such prospects, it will need to more effectively understand and address several basic dilemmas inherent to how we approach our work. This paper outlines six contemporary challenges, and suggests some options for addressing them. |