Everyday Conflict Research Articles

The role of anticipated emotions in self-control: linking self-control and the anticipatory ability to engage emotions associated with upcoming events.

Self-control is typically attributed to "cold" cognitive control mechanisms that top-down influence "hot" affective impulses or emotions. In this study we tested an alternative view, assuming that self-control also rests on the ability to anticipate emotions directed toward future consequences. Using a behavioral within-subject design including an emotion regulation task measuring the ability to voluntarily engage anticipated emotions towards an upcoming event and a self-control task in which subjects were confronted with a variety of everyday conflict situations, we examined the relationship between self-control and anticipated emotions. We found that those individuals (n = 33 healthy individuals from the general population) who were better able to engage anticipated emotions to an upcoming event showed stronger levels of self-control in situations where it was necessary to resist short-term temptations or to endure short-term aversions to achieve long-term goals. This finding suggests that anticipated emotions may play a functional role in self-control-relevant deliberations with respect to possible future consequences and are not only inhibited top-down as implied by "dual system" views on self-control.

Justice in the Vernacular: An Anthropological Critique of Commensuration

This article examines the far-reaching implications of Sally Engle Merry’s seminal multi-sited research on human rights measurement and monitoring. As she argued, human rights indicators, which form the basis for measurement, depend upon a highly elaborate, and largely obscured, process of commensuration. Through commensuration, complex social, legal, and economic phenomena are treated as variables that can be measured using statistical procedures that flatten the underlying complexities. Commensuration, in this sense, takes place at all levels: local, subnational, national, and international. At each stage, the process of “measuring justice” through commensuration has the paradoxical effect of becoming more precise as variables become more detached from the nuances of everyday conflicts. In Merry’s analysis, the global “seductions of quantification” reinforce the dominance of commensurability as an ideology of both scientific validity and social change. Drawing on both Merry’s work and wider comparative research in the anthropology of human rights and justice, this contribution to the symposium argues that the anthropological critique of commensuration carries important lessons for the meanings of “justice” more generally. How can justice be measured at a global level if, as Merry’s research shows, the underlying factors that supposedly reflect injustice are highly specific, contingent, and, most importantly, incommensurable? As a potential way out of this dilemma, the article explores the possibilities of conceptualizing “justice” in the vernacular, an approach grounded in local cultural and ethical realities.

Adolescents' Perceptions of a Relapse Prevention Treatment for Problematic Gaming-A Qualitative Study.

Given the increasing prevalence of problematic gaming, in 2013, the diagnosis "Internet gaming disorder (IGD)" was included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) as a potential diagnosis. With a new diagnosis, it is important to determine treatment options. The importance of the parent-child relationship has been emphasised in problematic gaming and its treatment. This study aims to provide more knowledge about adolescents' perceptions of a treatment for problematic gaming and understand whether such treatment may have a bearing on the parent-child relationship. We conducted individual interviews with nine adolescents who completed a treatment for problematic gaming. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed three themes. Theme 1: adolescents' experiences of the new treatment; Theme 2: adolescents' perceptions of the effect of the treatment on their gaming behaviour; and Theme 3: adolescents' perceptions of changes in their parent-child relationships. The adolescents viewed the treatment as a way of gaining control of their gaming, a process in which a therapist played an integral part. For the majority of the adolescents in our study, the main effects of treatment were gaining insight into how their gaming and gaming-related behaviours affected other parts of their lives. The participants felt that the treatment improved their relationship with their parents through reducing everyday conflicts. This new knowledge can be used for the development of future interventions involving children and adolescents.

An “Eye For an Eye” Versus “Turning The Other Cheek”? The Status Consequences of Revenge and Forgiveness in Intergroup Conflict

Abstract Conflict between groups plays a powerful role in shaping social interaction within groups. Within groups, social status—respect, prestige, and deference—organizes, motivates, and stratifies social interaction. Yet, studies exploring how conflict between groups shapes social status within groups are relatively rare. We argue that intergroup conflict creates opportunities for individuals to gain or lose status by demonstrating group commitment. We examine two contrasting intergroup behaviors—revenge and forgiveness—and evaluate the idea that these behaviors will be viewed as status-worthy to the extent that they are perceived to signal group motivation. Furthermore, we test the hypothesis that avengers and forgivers gain status by offering group-motivated accounts of their behavior. Pairing an original national probability sample with an experimental survey design, we examine how avengers and forgivers are viewed in everyday conflicts across three widely held identities: national identity, political partisanship, and sports team fandom. We find that Americans perceive intergroup forgiveness as more status-worthy, and a stronger indicator of group motivation, than intergroup revenge. In open-ended survey questions, forgiving ingroup members were described as more status-worthy, competent, and warm, and less dominant than their vengeful counterparts. However, we find little evidence that individuals can directly gain status by claiming that their actions are motivated by concern for the group. Our work speaks to theories of conflict, identity, and social status. More broadly, understanding how Americans value intergroup revenge and forgiveness offers insight into the frequency and intensity of identity-based conflict in contemporary American society.

Navigating Dahiyeh, negotiating everyday peace: mediation practices across Beirut’s Southern Suburbs

ABSTRACT How do ‘ordinary’ residents in violently contested cities navigate everyday conflict? Who do they turn to and how do they induce more powerful actors to step in and resolve their conflicts? How do socio-spatial structures shape everyday mediation practices? And what do these practices tell us about the constructive potential of cities? To explore the duality of destruction and construction in contested cities, we draw on fieldwork conducted across Beirut’s Southern Suburbs (Dahiyeh), bringing it into dialogue with a Bourdieusian framework to analyse residents’ experiences of informal mediation as everyday urban peace practices. While these practices are shaped by Dahiyeh’s particular context, they speak to practices in other urban contexts, in both the Global North and Global South. We make theoretical contributions by bringing the everyday peace and urban peacebuilding literatures together and contributing to their vernacular, spatial and practice turns, and by developing a spatialised subaltern reading of Bourdieu.

“They expect me to be caring”: the challenges of claiming an androgynous leadership approach

PurposeThis study aims to explore the experience of performing androgynous leadership approaches by New Zealand women leaders within the context of everyday conflict situations.Design/methodology/approachThe research question “How do women leaders experience gender in conflict situations?” was explored through the facilitation of 4 focus groups with 19 senior female leaders in New Zealand. Poststructural discourse analysis was used to explore how participants negotiated positions of power within their environments and in accordance with competing gendered discourses.FindingsParticipants described taking a flexible, balanced, androgynous leadership approach to managing conflict situations. While the expectations to be “empathetic”, “sympathetic”, “gentle”, “nurturing” and “caring” resonated with the participants preferred approach, they remained firm that if conflict persisted, they would “cross the line” and adopt stereotypically masculine behaviours to resolve the situation. However, participants describe that when perceived to be crossing the line from feminine to masculine approaches, they experienced significant backlash. This demonstrates the tensions between the approaches women leaders would like to take in managing conflict and the experiences of doing so within a prescriptively gendered organisational context.Originality/valueThis research contributes to a gap which exists in understanding how gender is experienced from the viewpoint of the woman leader. This research presents a nuanced view of gendered leadership as a contested ground, rather than a series of strategic choices. Despite an increase in the acceptance of women into leadership positions, the authors seemingly remain bound by what is considered a “feminine” leader.

Sharing and listening to stories for peacebuilding in post-genocide Rwanda

ABSTRACT This article explores how sharing and listening to stories linked children and young people, educators, artists, civil society workers, and policymakers as part of a continuum of transitional justice processes in the aftermath of conflict Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) initiative. We argue that sharing stories within a peace education context can potentially help to address everyday conflicts and personal and social wounds, often due to the residue of past conflicts. MAP facilitates a community of listening and/or a community of listeners through arts-based approaches that engages the individual to listen to oneself, the community to listen to the other, and the society to listen to inform everyday peacebuilding.

Transgressing theory/practice divides through collaboration.

This article contributes to discussions of transmethodology by drawing on experiences from conducting practice research aimed at the development of theory and practice through research collaboration. We analyze efforts to build research communities where researchers and professionals work together to perform analyses and develop knowledge. A collective research project exploring children’s possibilities for participation in school is used as a case for exploring how a research problem develops through such collabora-tion. This research project was designed to explore school life from the perspectives of children, parents, teachers, school leaders, and psychologists, and to analyze conflicts situated in everyday practices while considering political struggles concerning the school as a historical institution. The article emphasizes the often intangible and overlooked processes involved in research collaboration and details how we worked to build a re-search community comprising researchers and professionals that enabled collective mul-ti-perspective analyses. Building on a dialectical approach, we conceptualize conflicts as part of historical processes and as an immanent potentiality that arises from people’s engagement in common but contradictory matters. Hence, the different perspectives of those involved in children’s school life can be seen as linked through common matters, while also being differentiated by their allotted tasks in relation to children’s school life. This approach continuously challenged the researchers to analyze everyday conflicts grounded in the different perspectives of those involved, the different forms of reasoning, understandings, and standpoints, as well as how the different perspectives are connected through the participants’ engagement in a common matter – providing good schools for children. The article concludes by arguing that the discussed approach to theory devel-opment can be linked to a situated concept of generalization.

Cartographies of Everyday Conflicts in Public Spaces. Informal Micro-activities on Formal Infrastructure. Carapungo Entry Park, Quito

Through the understanding of cartography as an alternative representation tool, this paper researches the existing and usually invisible relationships between informal micro-activities and formal public spaces. For this purpose, Carapungo Entry Park located in the north of Quito (Ecuador), is taken as a case study, being a paradigmatic case of the complexity and multiplicity that constitutes informality in Latin American cities. After a first analysis based on the formal planning of this park, we will focus on dissident spatial practices carried out by inhabitants who occupy and appropriate a formal space. These situations of conflict originate spatial constructions based on spontaneity, fluidity, adaptability, movement, and temporality, which include local culture, economy, and social interaction. With the production of cartographies, the processes and activities generated by formal and informal vendors, passers-by, and public transport passengers, are made visible and analyzed. The expected results based on cartography as an alternative representation, are the presentation of relations of tensions, forces, conflicts, and negotiations that allow us to identify patterns, trends and behaviors that have no place in the supposed precision and rigor of the regulations in the formal planning of public space.

Everyday Conflict in Families at Risk for Violence Exposure: Examining Unique, Bidirectional Associations with Children’s Anxious- and Withdrawn-Depressed Symptoms

Exposure to family conflict during childhood increases risk for the development of anxiety and mood problems, though the potential for bidirectionality in this association remains unknown. It is also unclear whether nonviolent family conflict is related to children’s anxious- and withdrawn-depressive symptoms within high-risk family contexts, independent of more severe events such as children’s exposure to violent victimization. Participants included 1,281 children and their caregivers identified as being at high risk for family violence, interviewed prospectively at ages 6, 8, and 10 about family conflict, children’s anxious- and withdrawn-depressive behaviors, and children’s victimization experiences. After controlling for cumulative victimization prior to and between each time point, significant cross-lagged, bidirectional associations were identified between family conflict and children’s anxious- and withdrawn-depressive symptoms across ages 6 and 8, but not across ages 8 and 10. Invariance testing revealed no differences in model fit between boys and girls and minimal differences depending on whether families were reported for maltreatment prior to recruitment. Findings are partially supportive of a conceptualization of the family-child relationship that is reciprocal, while highlighting the role of daily negative familial interactions, over and above experiences of victimization, in predicting anxious- and withdrawn-depressed symptoms in early and middle childhood.

Defining invasive alien species from the roots up: Lessons from the ‘De-eucalyptising Brigades’ in Galicia, Spain

Social and cultural perspectives are increasingly considered in the literature on invasive alien species (IAS), after decades of being underexplored. However, within this growing body of research, there is little investigation into the role and knowledge of everyday rural and environmentalist networks in defining and engaging with or against the expansion of IAS. This paper contributes to debates on the political and spatial implications of this concept, through a critical examination of the bottom-up initiative of the ‘De-eucalyptising Brigades' (Galicia, Spain), which aims to remove eucalyptus trees from community-based property lands. A survey of participants of this movement paired with semi-structured interviews show the relevance of social-cultural dynamics in defining IAS. Our results also show how investigating activism against forestry involving a potential IAS sheds light on the everyday conflicts around who defines IAS and how they are defined.

Can Conflict Create Good Community?

While tensions and clashes between neighbors in diverse neighborhoods are often cause for concern, conflict can be constructive. Everyday conflicts can inspire collaboration, clarify shared expectations, and open opportunities for mutual criticism and dissent

How Do Young People Deal with Border Tensions When Making Climate-Friendly Food Choices? On the Importance of Critical Emotional Awareness for Learning for Social Change

If we are going to be able to fight climate change in an effective way there is a need for a profound sustainability transformation of society. The question is how everyday pro-environmental behavior such as climate-friendly food choices should be looked upon in this context: as something that hides the need for structural change, or as a starting point for a profound transformation? The aim is to discuss how emotions related to conflicts encountered when trying to make everyday climate-friendly food choices in a society that is not always sustainable can be used to promote transformational learning. Interviews were performed with 15 adolescents. Emotions felt in relation to conflicts and how the youth cope were explored. The results show that the youth mainly felt individualized emotions of guilt, helplessness, and irritation and that they coped primarily by distancing themselves from emotions felt, but also sometimes in a problem-focused way and through positive reappraisal. Results are discussed in relation to theories about critical emotional awareness and prefigurative politics. It is argued that by taking account of emotional aspects related to everyday conflicts in a critical manner, issues such as justice could be brought to the surface and transformative learning could be enhanced.

Children as peacemakers in transforming everyday conflicts in Ghana

African children are often reported in news and publications as child soldiers, dabbling in drug use, indoctrinated to commit violent assaults, and living in poverty. While these occurrences have been recorded in conflicts around the continent, the dominance of such narratives erases both the active and silent roles children play in advancing peace through everyday childhood practices. The generalisation creates a single and narrow description of the African child. This article explores the peace-making practices of Ghanaian children in their homes, communities, schools, and other spaces and seeks to understand why and how these roles are downplayed. The article proposes ways of shoring up this powerful image of African children through their socio-cultural environments and indigenous knowledge. It is important that the narrative of Ghanaian childhood is re-told to reflect these potential peace-making perspectives because they have implications for citizens� participation, and stability in Ghana.

Valor behind the Burqa: Afghan women's fight against Covid-19

The paper studies the gendered impact of the pandemic in a war ravaged Afghanistan. For majority of Afghan women, the onslaught of Covid has exacerbated their already dire condition and adversely impacted their social, economical, physical and cultural aspects of life. The research also underlines that the imposition of lockdown has caused the reversal of war gains. The paper also highlights the notable works of various Afghan women carried out during the corona pandemic that has contributed to their emancipation and upliftment of the society at large. It brings forth strong and courageous women who are combatting terrorism, everyday conflicts, frequent bombings, societal restrictions and now the deadly coronavirus and yet contributing majorly in re-building the Afghan society. This paper is an attempt to dispel the dominant narrative of their state of helplessness and despondency around Afghan women before the withdrawal of American troops and Taliban takeover. Both primary and secondary sources have complemented this research.

Dänemark – Hollywood – Europa

Abstract Thomas Vinterberg is one of Scandinavia’s well-respected contemporary directors. His career is best noted for his involvement in the launch of the Dogma 95 Manifesto and it was his acclaimed Festen (DK 1998) that started the prolific film movement that followed. Yet, as this article shows, Vinterberg repeatedly tried to reinvent himself as an artist, taking on different genres, themes and aesthetic approaches. When his all-star science fiction film It’s All about Love (2003) and his pan-European co-productions met with the disapproval of critics and audiences alike, he returned to realist films. The subsequent success of his dramas – including Submarino (2010), Jagten (2012) and Druk (2020) – reinstated his status of an auteur filmmaker. The three films share a number of continuities, including a penchant for themes of homecoming, dysfunctional family relations and everyday socio-cultural conflicts within the limits of close-knit communities or circles of friends.

Traditional gender roles attitude and romantic partner conflict among males: A Correlational study

Social norms and roles can affect our behavior and intrude on our alternatives. On the flip, that has an impact on and strain to comply may be constraining, specifically for individuals and personal goals for individuals who are much less aligned with the norms and roles of the one. Throughout the college years, a person socializing will increase to plenty volume. Chances of having a romantic relationship increase in those years of lifestyle. Exploring and being curious approximately the opposite genders and the eagerness to be in a courting with the alternative gender boom at its height So, conventional roles can also make it more difficult for a few individuals to proportion their precise characteristics, live true to their personal socio-sexual preferences, and self-decide their conduct in relationships. Provided that those man or woman possibilities and behaviors are crit for enjoyable relationships is usually uncertain as to whether or not following conventional norms and roles of masculinity and femininity ultimately helps or hurts a relationship. Gender role attitude here refers to the beliefs held by individuals towards any specific gender as measured by the Gender Role Attitude Scale (GRAS). The instrument was developed by Prof. Dr. Simge Zeyneloölu to determine attitudes towards gender roles. Another scale used was Romantic partner conflict which refers to the everyday conflicts faced by individuals in relationships and how they handle the conflict. The scale was introduced by Tammy L. Zacchill, purpose of this scale is to measure conflict experienced by individuals in romantic relationships. The study aims at seeing the relationship between gender role attitudes and romantic partner conflict among males.

«Being Together» in Pandemic Conditions: Social Cohesion Challenges of the Contemporary Ukrainian Society

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the Ukrainian society social cohesion challenges in the pandemic conditions of digitally mediated interactions. Based on the results of qualitative sociological research, as well as a secondary analysis of the results of other sociological studies and statistics data, the author explores the phenomenon of social cohesion in the unity of three social levels of its presence - macro, meso and micro. The study has shown the dialectical nature of social cohesion and the opposite tendencies of its reproduction at different social levels – inner circle, professional communities and society as a whole. In the macro-social perspective, the pandemic has become a «common challenge», intensifying social consolidation at the level of civil society institutions; on the other hand, it has created a new axis of social inequality, deepening local differences and awareness of the different degree of «protection» from crisis conditions. It is concluded that the digitally mediated everyday interactions, characterized by a lack of social actors' co-presence in space and time, contributes to the spread of systemic integration in those social systems for which it was previously uncharacteristic. This, in turn, leads to the «frozen» functioning of social systems. In contemporary digital age, social actors are increasingly beginning to experience «digital loneliness» due to the loss of coexistence in physical time and space and the weakening of binding social capital, making familiar identification patterns less stable and definite. The «shift» of the concentration of interactions from different social circles to the level of the inner circle – the family one sets a double scenario of its reproduction either as a space of cohesive values, the highest level of trust, participation and social security, or as an environment for everyday conflicts. The article emphasizes the urgency of further conceptualization of a new type of capital – digital, which in conditions of systemic integration of social systems «puts into action» the activation of other types of capital.

Everyday peace and conflict: (un)privileged interactions in Kirkuk, Iraq

Taking as a starting point the conviction that everyday interactions carry the potential to be either conflictual or peaceful, this article examines people’s everyday behaviour in the deeply divided city of Kirkuk, Iraq. Using the historic bazaar in Kirkuk city as a site of analysis, and through a research survey of 511 people, it focuses on interactions between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen. The article draws on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital and takes an intersectional approach to analyse the everyday interactions in the bazaar to create a better understanding of the role of space and privilege. The results demonstrate that for the most part, at the everyday level people carry out acts of everyday peace rather than conflict. However, when everyday conflict does occur, those with the highest symbolic capital are the most likely actors. Additionally, although gender does influence people’s actions, ethnosectarian identity has greater influence in many areas related to everyday peace and conflict. On a practical level, the article argues that such an understanding can connect better to policymaking and peacebuilding as it can point to where and how peacebuilders should focus their attention in order to promote and enhance peace within people’s everyday lives.

Battles on the Block: Everyday Conflict in a Diverse Neighbourhood

While mounting evidence demonstrates that tensions and differences in diverse neighbourhoods are managed in ways that largely reproduce existing inequalities, processes of conflict can unsettle spatially embedded power relations. Drawing on a three-year ethnographic study of Riverwest, a racially and economically mixed neighbourhood in the mid-sized U.S. city of Milwaukee, I examine the role of everyday battles over the uses of space in the production of a dynamic, negotiated social order. While block-level clashes sometimes reinforce oppressive and marginalizing practices, they also create opportunities for dissent, resistance to assimilation pressures, and challenges to the legitimacy of dominant norms. I argue that a set of material and cultural neighbourhood conditions facilitate the transformative potential of conflict.