Process Of Conflict Transformation Research Articles

Introducing Team Mindfulness and Considering its Safeguard Role Against Conflict Transformation and Social Undermining

The authors introduce the concept of team mindfulness, defined as a shared belief among team members that their interactions are characterized by awareness and attention to present events, and experiential, nonjudgmental processing of within-team experiences. Team mindfulness is examined as a safeguard against multilevel team conflict transformation processes. Results from three multi-wave field studies validate a team mindfulness instrument and indicate that team mindfulness (1) negatively relates to team relationship conflict, (2) reduces the connection between task conflict and relationship conflict at the team level, (3) and reduces the cross-level spillover of team relationship conflict to individual social undermining. The research contributes to the growing workplace mindfulness literature by conceptualizing mindfulness at the team level and demonstrating its positive effects for team functioning. Results also contribute to research on team conflict and social undermining, showing that team mindful...

Cutting with the Grain: Human Rights, Conflict Transformation and the Urban Planning System—Lessons from Northern Ireland

This article examines how the urban planning system in Northern Ireland served to concentrate segregation and systemic inequalities during the course of the recent conflict. Using documents recently uncovered from the Northern Ireland Public Record Office (PRONI), this article will show how the security forces ‘cut with the grain’ of a planning system that had historically been predicated upon segregation and exclusion in order to better control and manage politically motivated violence leaving a divided city in which systemic inequalities have been built into the fabric of the urban environment. Drawing on developments within regulatory theory this article will outline a way forward for creating an integrated post-conflict planning agenda for Belfast that takes account of the limits of traditional forms of legalism and adds learning to the debate around the relationship between systemic inequalities and the process of conflict transformation.

Assembling Resistance Against Large-Scale Land Deals: Challenges for Conflict Transformation in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea

Responding to the academic void on the impact of socio-ecological conflicts on peacebuilding and conflict transformation, I turn to resistance against large-scale land acquisitions in post-war contexts. Promising in terms of reconstruction and economic prosperity, the recent rush on land may, however, entail risks for reconciliation processes and long-term peace prospects. With reference to post-war Bougainville – as yet an autonomous province of Papua New Guinea – the article aims to conceptualize the impact of resistance against large-scale land deals on conflict transformation processes. Applying assemblage theory thereby allows not only analyzing multilayered dynamics in post-conflict societies but also new perspectives on socio-ecological conflicts. The findings suggest increasing resistance, for example, advocacy politics, demonstrations or sit-ins, against land deals and state territorialization in Bougainville with resemblances to pre-war contentious politics against Panguna mine. Yet, the lasting war trauma, a high weapon prevalence, and growing social friction add to destructive deterritorialization processes that are currently slowed down by the upcoming independence referendum. Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Normale Tabelle; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

Abordando la Justicia Ambiental desde la transformación de conflictos: experiencias con Pueblos Indígenas en América Latina

A pesar de que la justicia ambiental y la transformacion de conflictos tienen muchos objetivos comunes, poco hablan la una con la otra. En este articulo tratamos de acercar a ambas ramas del conocimiento un traves de una discusion del potencial que ofrece la teoria y practica de la transformacion de conflictos para el campo de la justicia ambiental. Para ello se basa en el marco de Transformacion de Conflictos Socio-ambientales desarrollado por el Grupo Confluencias, un grupo de profesionales de America Latina que ha venido trabajando desde el 2005 como plataforma de deliberacion, investigacion conjunta y de desarrollo de capacidades en este tema. Un aspecto central de este marco es la atencion prestada a la comprension del papel que las dinamicas del poder y la cultura juegan en los conflictos ambientales y su transformacion. Discutimos este marco e ilustramos su utilidad practica a la luz de experiencias en marcha con pueblos indigenas en America Latina, donde el Grupo Confluencias ha venido desarrollando experiencias de transformacion de conflictos socio-ambientales desde diferentes tipos de intervenciones que buscan impactar en el poder hegemonico, para ayudar a reducir las asimetrias e injusticias sociales que dan origen a los conflictos socio ambientales. Mostramos, en particular, la necesidad y la eficacia de impactar, simultaneamente o no, en tres diferentes esferas: las personas y redes, las instituciones y el poder cultural. Se demuestra que, a traves del fortalecimiento del poder estrategico de actores vulnerables, es posible generar cambios sociales que redunden en mayor justicia ambiental y social en territorios indigenas.

The Role of Conflict Identification and Management in Sustaining Community Collaboration: Report on a Four-Year Exploratory Study.

Community collaboration has become increasingly common in behavioral health services. Conflict is likely to occur in any community coalition bringing together organizations with differing mandates, missions, and histories. However, research on how coalitions identify and handle conflict, and on the impact of conflict on sustainability is scarce. An exploratory study examined conflict in two federally funded children's "systems of care" using site visits and concept mapping to describe differences in how sites conceptualize and respond to conflict. Results suggest that unacknowledged and unaddressed conflict can negatively affect the development and sustainability of sites, and that focusing on cooperation may, paradoxically, make it more difficult to acknowledge conflict and to implement conflict transformation processes. Implications for behavioral health administrators are discussed, including potential interventions that could address these issues.

Gendering Demilitarisation and Justice in Northern Ireland

Research Highlights and Abstract This article: Exposes how masculinised accounts of conflict transformational processes in Northern Ireland have distorted the historical record of the region's on-going transition from violent conflict. Assesses the theoretical and practical effects of de-gendering the analysis of conflict transformational processes in the region. Provides an empirical study of women's hidden contribution to the reduction of levels of paramilitary violence in ethnically divided, working-class communities in the region. Utilises focus group data to develop a gender-sensitive reading of community justice, security and peace. The 1998 Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland provoked local-level processes of demilitarisation that focused on developing community-based restorative justice practices to replace paramilitary forms of justice. These schemes were viewed as important aspects of the broader process of conflict transformation in the region. The dominant narrative surrounding the development of these new justice forms framed them as an outcome of the efforts of ex-combatant men. This article contests this narrative and examines women's contribution to the development of CBRJ in Northern Ireland. Using data from focus groups, the article exposes the consequences of displacing women in conflict transformational analysis. Additionally, it explores how women's articulation of their conflict transformational practices engenders a critical reframing of key terms in conflict transformational narratives including peace, security, and justice. This exploration reinforces wider feminist claims that any analysis of conflict transformational processes that displaces gender is both conceptually and politically problematic.

Victimisation and justice in intercultural context in Serbia

During 2013, within the ALTERNATIVE project, Victimology Society of Serbia conducted an empirical research study with the aim to find out how people from three multiethnic communities in Serbia deal with interethnic conflicts in their everyday life and to identify both problems and positive experiences in solving them. It also analysed how victims are treated, how the security and justice are perceived by the citizens, and what is the place of restorative approaches in dealing with conflicts and security. The research was conducted in Backa Palanka, Bac, Prijepolje and Medvedja. It consisted of qualitative and quantitative part, and it had a strong action dimension. After a brief description of the research methodology, we present main research findings related to the conflicts that have been evolving since 1990 between members of different ethnic groups in three multiethnic communities in Serbia, focusing on the prevalence and characteristics of victimisation and respondents? notions of justice, i.e. mechanisms suitable to achieve justice in the concrete cases of victimisation they experienced. In the conclusion we point out that respondents attribute high relevance to both formal and informal restorative approaches, suggesting the need of citizens in general, and victims in particular to actively participate in the process of conflict transformation and prevention of further victimisations.

The use and effectiveness of mediation in forest and land conflict transformation in Southeast Asia: Case studies from Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand

Abstract The abundance and intensity of forest and land conflicts in Southeast Asia highlights the importance of sound and robust strategies in transforming the conflicts. This study aims to increase the understanding of the role of mediation in transforming these conflicts, examine the effectiveness of mediation, gain insights into the challenges as well as opportunities to improve mediation practices. This was achieved by analyzing six mediation cases in Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand. Various data acquisition methods were used including literature review, expert workshop, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. A conflict mediation analysis framework was also developed and applied. Our findings suggest that mediation has played an important role in facilitating the process of conflict transformation. It has facilitated the creation of a conducive environment for multi-stakeholder dialog, built trust among the conflict parties, as well as assisted problem solving processes, resulting in mutually agreed solutions, improved relationships, and commitment to long-term cooperation. The parties also felt that successful mediation has also contributed to the improved social, economic, and environmental conditions in the study sites. However, the study found that mediation is not a silver bullet and that mediation alone is not enough in dealing with the underlying causes of conflict, specifically the structural inequalities. Other challenges in the application of mediation have also been identified such as the capacity requirements, as well as the costs involved. In moving forward, the paper makes recommendations to promote mediation for conflict transformation at policy and institutional levels, and suggests how to promote mediation and raise awareness about the availability and effectiveness of mediation to conflicting parties and the general public.

Visual and textual narratives of conflict-related displacement in Northern Ireland

Combined textual and visual narratives and counternarratives illustrate a range of experiences in Northern Ireland’s conflictual, spatial landscape. In this article, I argue that combined textual and visual narratives about conflict-instigated displacement create and articulate community-specific experiences of disadvantage, with the intention of gaining political recognition and/or advantage over other communities in ongoing processes of conflict transformation. I expose the multiple, contextualised meanings of selective narratives that are accessible in language and image but, that are rarely questioned because of the political influence of their tellers or, because of their scale. Their meanings and intentions exist alongside counternarratives about intra-community displacement and displacement against other groups and are concurrent with public apathy, which serve to minimise their effectiveness as political tools to gain community-specific, social and political advantage. These narratives and counternarratives persist as key spatial markers and as sites on which conflict, and its effective transformation, are played out.

Northern Ireland: 20 Years After the Cease-Fires

In the closing months of 1994, the principal paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland declared that their campaigns of violence were at an end. The cease-fires called by republican and loyalist groupings represented the most significant heralds of a complex process of conflict transformation that continues to unfold even twenty years on. In this introduction, we set out to map the key developments that have shaped the tortuous narrative of the Northern Irish ‘peace process’, thereby providing the historical backdrop for the articles that follow. While remarkable progress has been made over the two decades since the paramilitary cease-fires, the political context and future of the region remain rather more fraught than is often assumed abroad. It is perhaps best, then, to speak of the six counties in terms not of resolution but rather of ambiguity. Twenty years on from the optimism that greeted the paramilitary cease-fires, Northern Ireland retains the essential ‘inbetweenness’ of a political space that has moved from a ‘long war’ through a ‘long peace’ and into a profoundly undecided future.

Negotiating Reality

This article develops theory to address a dilemma experienced as “resistance” to a conflict transformation process among Jewish and Arab nursing students in Israel. This dilemma is analyzed from two theoretical perspectives: (a) the “postcolonial approach,” which applies ideas of critical conflict theory and group dynamics to generate change in intergroup relationships, and (b) the “negotiating reality approach,” which applies ideas of social constructionism and action science to enable participants to jointly shape a space in which they feel free to express their complex individual and group identities. We propose that the postcolonial approach offers a powerful interpretive framework but would likely engender greater resistance. We present a negotiating reality intervention model designed to offer a way out of the dilemma and increase cooperation in critical reflection, learning, and change. The discussion compares the implications of the two approaches, setting forth propositions for guiding further research and practice.

“They Might as Well Be Walking around the inside of a Biscuit Tin”: Barriers to Employment and Reintegration for ‘Politically Motivated’ Former Prisoners in Northern Ireland

The prisoner provisions under the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement emphasised the importance of the reintegration and civic inclusion of ‘politically motivated’ former prisoners; however, numerous barriers to full reintegration remain. Notwithstanding the fact that these prisoners were released as part of a peace process, based on principles of conflict transformation and reconciliation, there were still numerous conditions placed upon them as part of their release process and they continued to hold a ‘criminal’ record upon release. As with ‘ordinary’ ex-prisoners, these ‘politically motivated’ former prisoners have subsequently faced numerous obstacles in their attempts to reintegrate back into society, particularly in the area of employment. Recognising that they needed to deal with the consequences of imprisonment, ‘politically motivated’ former prisoners formed numerous self-help organizations to assist in the reintegration process and have mobilised to lobby for protection against the discrimination and unequal treatment experienced by ex-prisoners seeking employment. This article explores the remaining barriers to employment for ‘politically motivated’ former prisoners and the consequences of these barriers. The article moves to assess how prisoner groups have subsequently used a ‘rights based’ discourse to engage local government in their struggle to overcome existing obstacles before finally concluding that any piecemeal attempt to remove barriers to full reintegration will only impede the longer term conflict transformation process in Northern Ireland.

Thick recognition: Advancing theory on identity change in intractable conflicts

This study relates the concept of recognition to processes of conflict transformation. The recognition concept has been underdeveloped in recent International Relations literature, where the main emphasis has been on interstate relations and on recognition as cause of conflict. This article challenges that understanding through the introduction of the concept of thick recognition. Thus an understanding of recognition which is applicable also in intrastate conflicts is developed. Through a strong emphasis on intrastate relations and identity politics, I develop thoughts on how narratives of war can be reversed through the introduction of narratives of recognition. The study thus provides theoretical concepts and distinctions that can be used as a framework for the study of thick recognition and its relationship to broader processes of conflict transformation. The theoretical framework is employed in a case study on the Israeli debates about ‘New History’. Insights from the case contribute to understandings of inhibiting and facilitating circumstances for the introduction of narratives of thick recognition in conflicted societies. The study ends with a discussion on the usefulness of the theoretical concepts for further work on recognition within the field of International Relations.

Gendering War and Peace

There has been extensive academic analysis of Northern Ireland’s ethnonationalist antagonisms. However, academic literature that has explored both the region’s ethno-nationalist conflict and its more recent processes of conflict transformation has neglected the concept of masculinities. This article employs the framework of critical studies of men/masculinities to analyze why men’s gendered identities have received so little attention in a society that is marked by deep gendered inequalities and also exposes the consequences of this neglect in terms of exploring gendered power relationships in Northern Ireland society. Additionally, the article employs the concept of militarized masculinities to explore the relationships between ethnonationalist conflict, conflict transformation, men’s gendered identities, and gender power in the region.

The Struggle for Wholeness: Addressing Individual and Collective Trauma in Violence-Ridden Societies

The present article begins with an overview of how staff at the Center for Dialogue and Human Wellbeing (CDBH)-at Tecnológico de Monterrey University in Chihuahua, México-approach the process of conflict transformation. Specifically, it focuses on CDBH's strategies for dealing with historical injury, as well as the individual and collective trauma existing between and among communities engaged in ongoing conflict. It proceeds to examine how traumatic memories are stored in the mind/brain, and how trauma can impact on individuals and communities locked into a cycle of violence. The ensuing section provides an overview of the debate and the literature concerning psychotherapeutic and holistic-kinesthetic approaches for addressing individual and collective trauma. A hypothetical workshop is then offered to give readers a clear idea of how trauma work is actually carried out. The article ends by asking what approaches can best be applied for transforming collective trauma into sacred memories, which can become the driving force for a continuing commitment to building and sustaining peace among segments of communities that had previously been in conflict with one another.

Disjunctured narratives: rethinking reconciliation and conflict transformation

Reconciliation has been a notable part of discourses of conflict management and transitional justice in a number of conflictual situations around the world. This article examines the recent emergence of critical theories of reconciliation with particular reference to processes of conflict transformation in Northern Ireland. It evaluates the ways in which conflict transformation in Northern Ireland is specific to that context and the variations in the usage of discourses of reconciliation compared with other ‘post-conflict’ societies. The article highlights critical theories of reconciliation which, although largely supportive of the potential of reconciliation, tend to highlight the arguments and conflicts that notions of reconciliation can generate. By examining the ways in which reconciliation is articulated in Northern Ireland through interviews with representatives of the main political parties, the article contends that narrative approaches are best suited to analysis of the issues in Northern Irish politics. The argument developed here suggests that reconciliation in Northern Ireland is part of a ‘disjunctured synthesis’ whereby the main political parties become locked into narratives of reconciliation based on opposition to the perceived position of the other.

Elections as a strategy for democratization and conflict transformation?: Liberal peace and the 1996 elections in Sierra Leone

This paper examines the 1996 elections in Sierra Leone and its connection to the twin processes of democratization and conflict transformation in that country. It interprets those elections as part of an emerging liberal peace agenda which since the 1990s has become the dominant approach to managing conflicts, peace-building, societal reconstruction and democratization favoured by international policy community for areas in the emerging from conflicts around the world. Three themes are pursued in this paper: (a) specifying the liberal peace agenda, which is interpreted as an ideological and neo-imperialist posture; (b) illustrating how the interpretations and representations of contemporary conflicts have helped in legitimating the hegemony of this liberal agenda; and, (c) examining the 1996 elections in relation to that agenda. By examining the Sierra Leone example, this paper seeks to problematise the assumption that elections can lead to conflict transformation and democracy in societies affected by, or emerging from armed conflicts and civil wars. Key words: Sierra Leone, Liberal peace, elections, democratization, conflict transformation.

Beyond the “identity”‐paradigm: Conflict resolution and the dynamics of self‐understanding

AbstractIn this introduction, Guest Editor Johanna Seibt examines the importance of identity for the process of conflict transformation, while giving an overview of key concepts and the pieces that make up this special colloquy edition of Conflict Resolution Quarterly.

Can a Critic Be a Caretaker too? Religion, Conflict, and Conflict Transformation

This article argues that Russell McCutcheon's notion of the religion scholar as a critic is crucial for envisioning a distinct relevance to the academic study of religion in multidisciplinary conversations concerning questions of religion and conflict. However, McCutcheon's approach is insufficient for thinking about transforming conflicts and underlying structures of injustice. To actively conceptualize processes of conflict transformation, the religion scholar needs to assume the role of a caretaker and a critic and thus overcome McCutcheon's binary construal of these two approaches. The religion scholar as a critic and a caretaker may offer not only a second-order re-description of religion as a social construct but also a problem-oriented constructive engagement with histories, memories, and theological resources. The cultivation of a uniquely religious studies approach would depend on the ability of the religion scholar to become such a critical caretaker..

Women, Community Leadership and Conflict Transformation in Nigeria

This paper examines women’s role in community leadership and implications for their involvement in conflict transformation processes. Using content analysis of selected third-party interventions in conflict transformation in some Nigerian communities, the paper discusses the structures and processes through which women were excluded. Furthermore, the paper analyses women-driven peace initiatives and suggests strategies for actively increasing women’s participation in conflict transformation in their communities.