Transforming Conflict Through Communication and Common Ground

Abstract

This chapter analyzes how both communicative and cultural practices can foster the emergence of common ground and a sense of community. It explores specific approaches that emphasize common ground and community as crucial components for managing intercultural conflict. There are several approaches that build upon community such as Dai's interculturality, Bauman's liquid modernity, Haslett's development of face, and Ury's Third Space. It is from these perspectives that a growing trend toward relying on communication and community for engaging in effective conflict management has emerged. Culture and communication are inextricably linked because people learn our culture via communication, both verbal and non-verbal. Communicative practices framed by an Asiacentric or Afrocentric perspective have also been modeled so as to be geared toward community, and they have been extended to apply to humankind in general. This perspective involves searching for common ground on which to resolve disputes, and it acknowledges the importance of community in both communication and culture.