Learning objectives for week This week we will introduce some basic ideas about conflict. The learning objective is to map what a study of conflict involves, to distinguish conflict from fighting, and to have considered when fighting is justified.

		Remember to read the student handbook (for information about the course)   the technical handbook (for information about the learning environment), and the tutorial on distance and collaborative learning   To view pdf files, you need Acrobat Reader. You can download this for free from the Adobe website. Click on the icon below.   Unit 3, Week 1, Page 1 Definitions of 'conflict' 4 A glossary of dispute management and conflict resolution terms 2 The online journal of peace and conflict resolution 1 A conflict management database maintained by UNPAN (United Nations Network Online in Public Administration and Finance) 1 The contribution of social structure to conflict 0 A clip of conflict of Jane Goodall on chimpanzees 0 Are they the only animal other than man that murders? Conflict Trends online 0 [rate or suggest links for this page]

Week 1- Introduction to theories of conflict and conflict management

Welcome to the first week of Unit 3 of the SEPTIMUS course.

If you are not familiar with the SEPTIMUS pages, then you should start with the introductory tutorial.

Contents

• introduction to conflict and conflict management
• power and authority
• fighting
• psychopathy
• avoiding conflict
• conflict resolution
• questions
• references

Why this unit might be difficult

This unit has, in the past, proved one of the most difficult for some students to study. One reason for this is that reading about conflict, and its consequences, inevitably sparks off in the reader some degree of anger, fear, condemnation, or one of the other negative emotions that conflicts induce in us.

However, another reason may be that conflict has come to mean something shameful and avoidable. The glories that attended great conflicts in the past, the beauty of weapons, the ballads about courage, all of these seem out of place today to many people. This is despite the fact that conflicts continue to be initiated by our own governments. Since this unit was written, for example, the US, the UK, Spain, Italy, Australia, and other allies have waged war on Iraq, with many civilian casualties.

This unit is not of course just about armed conflict, or even just about fighting. We use conflict more widely to mean any situation in which there an opposition--between people, between groups, between the intentions or desires of one person-- which requires some kind of resolution. Conflicts like this are inevitable in life, and they can often have positive results. Not all conflict should be avoided, therefore. But the more difficult question is whether coercive conflict can, or should, be avoided. Our fore-fathers might have gloried in it, and been proud of their sons who died in it. But can we afford this in our overcrowded, interdependent world? The answer is probably 'no' but even if we cannot afford it, there are many who argue that we cannot do without it. Armed conflict may, so Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush argued, was the only way to rid Iraq of a dictator who put everyone at risk. There was no better alternative. I suspect that all of us have some elements of a Mr. Blair in us, as well as some elements of politicians like Gandhi who have argued that non-violence is the only ethical means for dealing with political conflict. For those of us who do resonate with both of these views, reading about conflict provokes a conflict within us, corresponding to each position. This conflict is not lessened by most of the conflict management literature which assumes that all conflicts can, in theory be resolved by negotiation. There is no recognition of the Bush/ Blair position, either in its born-again Christian formulation, that evil can only be defeated by force, or in its more utilitarian argument, that reasonable violence in defending one's own property may, when applied to a country, be carried out preventatively, in case one might be attacked. Finally, there is no ethical debate about the rights and wrongs of conflict, and whether or not, ultimately, it is might that is right.

Introduction

Conflicts have been defined as ' ‘‘time-distributed social episodes’’ consisting of a series of discrete components that include issues, oppositions, resolutions, and outcomes' (Shantz, 1987, p. 285). The issues that may lead to opposition are to be found in every situation in life, and may lead to opposition between people, between groups, between the intentions or desires of one person and another or one group and another.

Conflicts are so ubiquitous and so important that there is no single, or simple, way to analyse them. People may be in conflict with themselves, or with each other. Conflicts occur over anything the people value. They may be emotionally hot, or emotionally cold. Individuals may be in conflict, or groups, or even larger aggregates, like countries. We shall assume in this unit that there are some common features to all of these conflicts, and we will deal with them in the first weeks of this unit. This week we will set out the general approach to conflicts that we will be using, and consider some key terms like conflict itself, assertion, aggression, violence, resolution, intractable conflict, power, authority, legitimacy,and justice. Each week we will also be considering some practical approaches to conflict resolution relevant to that week's topic. So, this week we will be considering some of the basic approaches to conflict prevention or management: negotiation, mediation, conflict resolution, dispute resolution, arbitration, and reconciliation.

Recently, the Benefits Agency in the UK, the people responsible for paying benefit to people who are unemployed or disabled, made a ruling that their staff should come to work in smart dress and that men should wear ties. One man who worked in the back offices took exception to this. He had never, so far as he could remember, worn a tie and he did not want to start now. He felt very angry and consulted his boss, who told him that it was national policy and that there was nothing that could be done and, anyway, it was a reasonable request and that any reasonable person would accept it.

Our complainant felt that he was in conflict with the management, but the management thought that the complainant simply had a person problem, he was 'unreasonable' and that there was no conflict. This is sometimes called the 'pre-conflict' stage: when one partner feels angry and mistreated by another, but the other does not recognize their part in it. In organizations there is often a 'dispute procedure' for dealing with this, as there was in the Benefits Agency. The complainant went to this local trade union official, and persuaded him that other union members were also angry about the ruling because it discriminated against men. Women had only to wear smart dress, but men had to wear smart dress AND TIES. The trade union official accepted that there was a principle involved and therefore decided that it was an official dispute. Eventually the matter went to an industrial tribunal, which found in favour of the union.

Dispute procedures do not exist in families or school playgrounds, but pre-conflicts may also occur there. Since there is no official procedure to invoke, someone who believes that their anger has been caused by someone else may provoke a conflict, 'pick a fight' as the more ordinary expression has it, by taunting. In some cultures such taunts have been incorporated into ritual combats.

The group analogy is 'acting out'. If an individual in the group begins to come late, the rest of the group are likely to see this as a sort of rebellion against the group and not as a legitimate protest. 'Pre-conflicts' are common in situations where there is a power imbalance. Children are seen as misbehaving, as failing to stick to behavioural norms, rather than having a legitimate conflict. Adults who offend are seen as failing to acquire or apply normative values, rather than having a legitimate conflict with society.

Offenders may accept this valuation themselves. But sometimes this is not the case as when a member of the IRA has claimed that he is not murderer but a political prisoner.

	Before you go to the next page... Before reading on, make sure that you are familiar with the course and with the learning environment. We expect you also to have posted a picture and a brief biography about yourself onto the international students' forum. (If you look again in a week, you should find this picture and your biography in the student's common room in the community pages). If you are confident about the learning environment already, post a message on the discussion forum and go to the overview pages on conflict management and reconciliation. Otherwise click here to find your way round the learning environment for this Unit. If it is your first time on the course, you should post a picture and a brief biography about yourself onto the international students' forum. (If you look again in a week, you should find this picture and your biography in the student's common room in the community pages). We would like you to start thinking about your final assignment straight away. Look on your country page for the title. Your assignment should be written in the language of your tutorial group. The length and any other requirements will be given to you on your own country page, or by your tutor. Your assignment should incorporate the feedback you are given from your tutor but, even more importantly, from your tutorial group. This collaborative learning approach has been shown to result in greater and more relevant learnijng. It means that the more you use your tutorial group, and the more feedback you give and receive, the more you and your colleagues will learn. To start the process, write a few paragraphs about an experience that you have had that has influenced your current thinking about conflict management and reconciliation. Use some of what you have already learned in this unit to help you. Then post what you have written to your discussion group as an attachment. Use word or another common format, so that all the members of your tutorial group can read it. Ask the other members of the group for comments, and give them your comments on what they have written. Do this BEFORE completing this week. Next week, you will be asked to expand what you have written using what you learn from the web pages and the links, but also what you learned from your tutor and, particularly, from the other members of your tutorial group.