ps 2a03 (2010) lecture 6: conflict resolution & conflict transformation i

Wednesday October 13 2010 Lecture 6: Conflict Resolution and Transformation I

PS 2A03: Conflict TransformationDr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

Conflict processes...Conflict resolution and transformation I

1Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Outline

• Terminology

• ABC Triangle

• Conflict Maps

• The Onion


Practitioners and scientists in the field of conflict studies often use key terms in loose and opposing ways, mirroring the reality that concepts have not been clearly defined.

Ruth Mischnick (no date)


...there is a definitive conception of ‘conflict transformation’ and a clear distinction between that term and other terms used to describe modes of addressing conflict, primarily ‘settlement’, ‘management’, and ‘resolution’. However this is not the case at all...

E. Franklin Dukes (1999)

Terminology.


Terminology

• Conflict Management

• Conflict Prevention

• Conflict Resolution

• Conflict Settlement

• Conflict Transformation

• Peacebuilding

Berghof-Handbook for Conflict Transformation (2004)


Activities undertaken over the short term and medium term dealing with and aiming at overcoming, the deep-rooted causes of conflict, including the structural, behavioural, or attitudinal aspects of the conflict. The process focuses more on the relationships between the parties than the content of a specific outcome.

Conflict resolution



A generic, comprehensive term referring to actions and processes which seek to a lter the various characteristics and manifestations of conflict by addressing the root causes of a particular conflict over the long term.

Conflict Transformation


It aims to transform negative destructive conflict into positive constructive conflict and deals with structural, behavioural and attitudinal aspects of conflict. The term refers to both the process and the completion of the process.



As such, it incorporates the activities of processes such as Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution and goes farther than Conflict Settlement or Conflict Management.




...resolution carried with it a danger of co-option, an attempt to get rid of conflict when people were raising important and legitimate issues. It was not clear the resolution left room for advocacy.... ‘Is this resolution idea just another way to cover up the changes that are really needed?’

Terminology

John Paul Lederach (2003)


Johan Galtung (2000)


Conflict work on Attitudes and Behaviour is a band aid.

ABC Triangle



Empathy nonviolence and creativity are the conflict workers approach to ABC-triangles

ABC Triangle



Addressing attitudes is important as it helps people become aware of and better understand the contradictions. The more profoundly a contradiction is understood, the easier it is to come up with creative solutions to overcome it

Magdalena Anna Cruz (2006)

ABC Triangle


[Conflict] transforms events, the relationships in which conflict occurs, and indeed its very creators. It is a necessary element in transformative human construction and reconstruction of social organization and realities.


Conflict Transforms


...to envision and respond to the ebb and flow of social conflict as life giving opportunities for creating constructive change processes that reduce violence, increase justice in direct interaction and social structures and respond to real life problems in human relationships.


Transforming conflict


Fisher et al ((2000)


Summary

• Terminology

• ABC Triangle

• Conflict Maps

• The Onion


Citations & further reading I

Magdalena Anna Cruz (2006) Applying the ABC Conflict Triangle to the Protection of Children’s Human Rights and the Fulfillment of their Basic Needs: A Case Study Approach, Masters Thesis, European University Centre for Peace Studies Stadtschlaining/Burg, Austria. Available online at http://www.aspr.ac.at/epu/research/Czyz.pdf

Simon Fisher, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, Jawed Ludin, Richard Smith, Steve Williams and Sue Williams (2000) Working With Conflict: Skills and Strategies for Action, New York: Zed Books

Johan Galtung (2000) Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (The Transcend Method), United Nations Disaster Management Training Program.

John Paul Lederach (2003) The Little Book of Conflict Transformation, Good Books Publishers.


Citations & further reading II

Ruth Mischnick (no date) Nonviolent Conflict Transformation, Training Manual for a trainer of trainser course, Centre for Training and Networking in Nonviolent Action – KURVE Wustrow (and others).

Various (2004) Berghof-Handbook for Conflict Transformation, Berghof Conflict Research, available online at — http://www.berghof-handbook.net/


Image sources

Dave Boldingers Cartoons & Stuff — http://www.dbaldinger.com/opinion_cartoons/second_page/dear_world.html

James Garvin Ellis. Rodney Powell (standing) talks with other sit-in participants at Walgreens drugstore in Nashville, Tennessee, Friday March 25, 1960 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins

Marc Riboud. Jan Rose Kasmir, protest against the Vietnam War outside the Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia, Saturday, 21 October 21, 1967 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Rose_Kasmir

Shaney Komulainen. Canadian soldier Patrick Cloutier and Saskatchewan Native Brad Laroque alias 'Freddy Kruger' come face to face in a tense standoff at the Kahnesatake reserve in Oka, Quebec, Saturday September 1, 1990 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis


ps 2a03 (2010) lecture 6: conflict resolution & conflict transformation i

Documents