Promote Conflict Resolution Research Articles

Agricultural cooperative and members’ resilience in Kita and Yanfolila cercles of Mali

The study examined the role of agricultural cooperatives in strengthening the resilience and social fabric of rural communities in the Kita and Yanfolila regions of Mali. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, data was collected from 149 participants, including cooperative members and non-members, through structured surveys and focus group discussions. It explored the challenges faced by farmers, the benefits of cooperative membership, the dynamics of social cohesion within these cooperatives, the nuances of inclusion, and conducted a comparative analysis between cooperative members and non-members. The communities in Kita and Yanfolila faced multiple adversities that significantly affected their resilience, livelihoods and overall well-being. Drought emerged as the most serious problem, affecting the entire population and underscoring its profound impact on agriculture and welfare. Flooding was also a significant threat, exacerbating food insecurity. While terrorist activities and COVID-19 seemed less pressing due to their limited occurrence or awareness at the time, vigilance and awareness remained key. The study highlighted the myriad benefits of cooperative membership and how it empowered members through agricultural training, access to resources and financial stability. In particular, cooperatives have been instrumental in addressing water scarcity and ensuring sustainable access through initiatives such as boreholes and pumping equipment, thereby increasing agricultural productivity and food security. The study also highlighted the key role of cooperatives in fostering social cohesion, promoting conflict resolution and serving as networking platforms. Members praised cooperatives for providing emotional and material support in times of need, disseminating conflict management techniques and promoting transparent, collective decision-making processes. However, there was a noticeable gap in perceptions between cooperative members and non-members regarding the role of cooperatives in conflict resolution. Non-members were less confident, possibly due to a lack of exposure or understanding of cooperative mechanisms. Inclusivity emerged as a key issue, with discussions highlighting the challenge of extending benefits to non-members, which could lead to feelings of exclusion. Income disparities between members and non-members further exacerbated issues of social cohesion. The study also highlighted the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing disrupted supply chains, reduced incomes, increased unemployment and heightened food insecurity in rural communities. Despite this, agricultural cooperatives stepped up by disseminating information, distributing essential supplies and promoting hygiene practices. Key words: Agricultural cooperative, resilience, peacebuilding, social cohesion, COVID-19, Mali

Exploring restorative practices: Teachers' experiences with early adolescents

Restorative practice aims to build relationships, prosocial skills, guide behaviour and promote conflict resolution resulting in transformative culture change within schools. Educators are increasingly acknowledging the significance of relational aspects of teaching and learning in schools, with restorative practice emerging as a leading approach. This systematic review aimed to synthesise the experiences of teachers using restorative practice with early adolescents in mainstream school settings. A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify current qualitative and mixed-method studies between 2012 and 2022. Eight peer-reviewed studies that met the inclusion criteria were analysed. Five key themes relating to teachers’ experiences of implementing restorative practice were identified using a thematic analysis. This review underscores the need for a systemic change in schools if restorative practice is to be effectively implemented. This includes a focus on understanding the importance of relationships between teachers, students and school staff as a foundation for developing an environment conducive to implementing restorative practice. Adjusting attitudes and school expectations is required to facilitate a restorative culture which is heavily influenced by leadership support within schools. When attempting to embed a lasting structure to support implementation, it is recommended that schools also consider their particular context, the experience levels of their teachers, their policies and availability of support structures. Broadly speaking, a wider change within the education system is needed in terms of re-evaluating the role of the teacher and the goal of the curriculum in terms of prioritising a relational approach to teaching and learning over a results-focused mindset.

CORRELATION BETWEEN CULTURAL DIMENSIONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON CONFLICT STYLE PREFERENCES

This paper offers a multifaceted exploration of the intricate interplay between cultural dimensions and preferences in conflict resolution styles. It delves into the profound influence of cultural values on the choices individuals make when managing conflicts, enhancing our understanding of this complex relationship. Defining culture and conflict as central constructs, the paper investigates several key cultural dimensions within Hofstede's framework. It focuses on individualism and collectivism, high and low power distance, and high and low uncertainty avoidance. Few studies cover the research on power distance and conflict style preference, underscoring the importance of understanding how individuals choose styles that align with their cultural norms, whether maintaining low or high power distance within their own cultures.
 The study uncovers the correlation between different cultural types and conflict management styles. In cases of individualism, there is a preference for an avoidance style of conflict management, while collectivist cultures typically lean towards compromising and obliging conflict styles. In situations marked by high power distance, members of high power cultures are more likely to adopt an avoidance conflict style. The research holds significance for managing intercultural conflicts across various contexts, particularly in the realms of global governance, international relations, and multicultural team management. The findings provide a valuable reference for managers striving to navigate intercultural tensions and promote effective conflict resolution strategies aligned with cultural values. While this study offers valuable insights, it highlights the need for further in-depth research on additional cultural dimensions. This paper contributes to understanding the intricate relationship between culture and conflict resolution. It serves as a guide for analyzing preferences in intercultural conflicts, promoting conflict resolution management in multicultural projects, and advancing cross-cultural cooperation and understanding. Continuous research in this field is essential for more effective conflict management in an increasingly diverse global landscape.

The Role of The United Nations in Promoting Conflict Resolution in The Escalation of Intrastate Mali Conflict Instability (2018- 2022)

The instability of the conflict in Mali has increased for four years since 2018. The increase in violence, military coups, political instability, humanitarian crises, and terrorism has forced the United Nations to increase its strength in pushing for the implementation of peace agreements in the Mali intrastate conflict. This research was conducted using qualitative methods with secondary data to see the role of the United Nations in encouraging the resolution of the intrastate conflict in Mali during the period of instability for the last four years. In the analysis, this study finds that through a mandate renewed every year, the United Nations adopts its role to encourage conflict resolution with the dynamics of conflicts from 2018 to 2022. Over the past four years, the role of the United Nations as an international organization to encourage the implementation of resolutions to the conflict in Mali focuses on several things, namely; (1) Overseeing Mali’s political transition, (2) Strengthening security for civilians and peacekeepers through international cooperation, (3) Acting as government assistance to promote human rights and law enforcement, and (4) Encouraging the progress of the 2015 peace agreement in Mali to achieve the maximum target. Keywords: Conflict Resolution, Intrastate Conflict, International Organization, Mali, United Nations

EU PEACE funding: The policy implementation deficit

AbstractThis article explores the intersection of policy implementation, conflict/peacebuilding, and the role of the EU PEACE program in Northern Ireland (NI). Conflict societies see a great investment of external funds, attempting to promote conflict resolution. Specifically, this article analyses the fourth wave of such funding in NI to examine why the EU PEACE program has not fully brought about its intended policy outcomes. Using Matland's conflict‐ambiguity model of policy implementation, we identify how EU funds can be skewed to support local political interests. Simultaneously, the EU PEACE program continues to adhere to strict implementation criteria that makes little sense given the local context. Therefore, contrary to its objectives, the implementation of EU funding can compound rather than ameliorate divisions in postconflict NI. Instead of prescribing strict implementation criteria, EU policy could focus on improving the administrative capacity and discretion of local administration in devising locally relevant implementation strategies.

Empowered Approaches to Critical/Challenging Encounters: Promoting PEACE in a School of Nursing.

The Promoting Empowered Approaches for Critical/Challenging Encounters (PEACE) program, developed at Duke University School of Nursing, is designed to navigate communication when there has been an exchange between community members, either with actions, words, or behaviors, that does not align with the school's core values. The goal of this program is to provide resources that promote conflict resolution through conversation, as well as managing conflict at the organizational level.

The EU and Dispute Settlement: The Case of the Macedonian Name Issue

The Prespa Agreement concluded between (North) Macedonia and Greece in June 2018 is hailed as a major success for the European Union’s (EU) policy of promoting conflict resolution through in the Balkans and beyond. At the same time, in the case of the so-called Macedonian name dispute, the EU hindered compromise as membership in the bloc provided Athens with asymmetric leverage over Skopje. The article argues that the European institutions made a positive contribution by empowering opposition to state capture in Macedonia, helping resolve a domestic political crisis between 2015 and 2017, and facilitating the transfer of power to a government willing to compromise with Greece. Even if the Prespa Agreement resulted from a bargain between Athens and Skopje, intervention in Macedonian politics by the EU, the United States, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) played a critical role in passing the constitutional changes agreed in the deal. The article examines the name dispute from the perspective of the literature on the EU as an agent of conflict transformation, arguing that European integration’s “enabling impact” is key to understanding and explaining the genesis of the Prespa Agreement. It also contends that the EU faced a dilemma between the pursuit of stability and the promotion of the rule of law and accountability, often prioritising the former over the latter.

Chronic academic stress facilitates response inhibition: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

Previous studies have found that acute stress can modulate response inhibition. However, the effect of chronic stress on response inhibition has not been investigated. A major examination was adopted as a chronic stressor in this study. Both the stress and control groups performed a modified Go/Nogo task. In each trial, a probe stimulus (left or right arrow) was presented immediately after the Go/Nogo task. The probe reaction time (RT) was used as an index of cognitive load during the task. Event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by Go/Nogo stimuli were investigated. The RTs for the Go stimulus and the probe stimulus were shorter for the stress group than for the control group. This superior performance by stressed participants might suggest a promoted task processing efficiency during the dual task under stress. A smaller probe RT effect (RTNogo - RTGo) was found in the stress group than in the control group, indicating a facilitatory effect of stress on conflict resolution. The ERP results showed that the P2 Go/Nogo effect was smaller for the stress group than for the control group, driven by an increased P2 amplitude after Go trials for the stress group. This might indicate an enhancement of attentional resource allocation to the Go stimuli under stress. Both the Nogo P3 amplitude and the P3 Go/Nogo effect were enhanced in the stress group than in the control group, suggesting that conflict resolution was enhanced under stress. These results demonstrate that chronic academic stress might facilitate response inhibition by promoting conflict resolution.

Civil society in the context of tourism institute development

Approaches and definition of the civil society phenomenon in the context of comprehension and interconnection with institution of tourism are generalized. The carried out analysis results in to conclusion that civil society is a sphere of society endowed with principle supremacy over the state, acts independently within its legal field, but at the same time interacts with it. In particular, tourism makes it possible to implement effectively the principles of equality, non-discrimination of human and civil rights and freedoms, to realize the values of civil society and the need for its sustainable development. Civil society is viewed through the system of connections, relationships and interactions of society members, which is formed as a result of their self-organization for self-preservation in order to protect and completely realize their interests and rights. Tourism is developing as a system that affects the quality and meaning of people's lives, by creating opportunities for them to soak up the history, culture, customs, and values in order to deepen the dialogue of civilizations, to achieve mutual understanding between countries and people. In addition, tourism refers to the tertiary sector of the economy, which in the economically developed countries has the largest number of employees and is growing at the fastest pace since it interacts with the largest number of other economy sectors and accelerates the growth of the latter. The set of social institutions and practices are created and functioning to spread the relevant values and virtues, which include the institution of tourism in particular. It is proved that one of the conditions for civil society existence is the availability of effective social institutions of the state created and functioning for spreading the relevant values and virtues. Such institutions include the institution of tourism, which activities are aimed at structuring and coordinating economic relations in order to ensure their effectiveness, achieving major socio-political goals, reducing uncertainty in relations, reaching unity and consensus, promoting conflict resolution and overcoming contradictions in economy.

Comparing the Impact of Youth Violence upon Mental Health Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic vs the Effects of a Violence Prevention Program in a Cohort of Students in Gary, IN.

Background/Objective: Violence (arguments, fights, sometimes gunshots) and bullying (interpersonal, online, social media) are prevalent in schools all across the country. This exposure may cause damaging effects on youth mental health. Project Outreach and Prevention (POP) on Youth Violence, promotes a message of violence prevention through workshops and events that promote conflict resolution, unity, and positive behaviors while inspiring healthy lifestyles and accessible career opportunities. We hypothesize that exposure to violence and bullying may lead to increased self-reports of anxiety, difficulty coping, or depression among adolescents. 
 Methods: In a prospective study, 7th and 8th grade students at Bailly Preparatory Academy and 9th and 10th graders at Westside Leadership Academy will be digitally surveyed. This survey will determine their level of exposure to violence and bullying and if they report experiencing symptoms of anxiety, difficulty coping, or depression as a result. We will also determine if the lifestyle changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased youth violence, as well as, the location of where students experience bullying and violence. Lastly, we hope to examine if students who are adversely affected have access to mental health care. 
 Results: Surveys will be distributed during the fall. Survey responses will be analyzed to examine correlations between exposure to violence and self-reported anxiety, difficulty coping, or depression, as well as, access to care. 
 Conclusion and Potential Impact: Violence and bullying are prevalent at specific schools in Gary, Indiana. We will learn how much an adolescent’s mental health is affected by this before and during the COVID Pandemia. This information will raise awareness about the psychological effects of violence and bullying. It will also help school administrators to implement programs and resources that can be used to help with their student’s mental health.

A change project to promote conflict resolution in order to ensure sustainable development in Africa

The article describes the idea of a change project (a new course) in higher education. The aim of the change project is to promote traditional conflict resolution mechanisms and strategies in order to ensure sustainable development in Africa. The new program will combine the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and various conflict resolution scenarios by applying the technique of design thinking. The program will involve discussions about types of conflicts in Africa, the real causes of these conflicts, mechanisms for peaceful conflict resolution (with special emphasis on the rakiré and the palaver tree) and design thinking. The author intends to implement the program at the Faculty of International Relations of the Ivan Franco National University in Lviv.

Improved conflict resolution in romantic couples in mediation compared to negotiation

Despite the frequency and adverse effects of conflict, randomized controlled studies on interventions that could promote conflict resolution (e.g., among romantic couples) are scarce. One understudied intervention technique is mediation, which is a negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party. To test the impact of a mediator on couple conflict, we conducted a randomized controlled study involving 38 romantic couples who discussed a topic of recurrent disagreement either in the presence of a mediator or by means of a direct negotiation. The results show that romantic couples in the mediation condition, compared with those in direct negotiation, had a probability of reaching an agreement 1.39 times higher and reported higher satisfaction regarding the content and process of their discussions. In addition, the synchronicity of the couple’s skin conductance, a measure of arousal, correlated with the couple’s closeness and with the quality of their relationship. Our findings suggest that interventions based on mediation can have a beneficial impact on conflict resolution.

Feel Good or Do Good? A Valence–Function Framework for Understanding Emotions

Previous thinking has often categorized emotions as either pleasant or unpleasant or examined to what extent they are functional or dysfunctional. We suggest that researchers should consider the positivity or negativity of discrete emotions on both dimensions: subjective feelings and constructiveness of outcomes. We discuss how, across contexts, a specific emotion can potentially be categorized differently within the framework. We further suggest that this approach is particularly useful in unique, complex contexts that involve clashes among goals, interests, or values, such as violent intergroup conflicts. Using this context, we demonstrate how emotions that feel good to people can lead to behaviors and attitudes that sustain violence and thwart conflict resolution, whereas emotions that promote conflict resolution are often unpleasant. Such clashes may depend on the presence of embedded contextual factors, such as group membership and relative power. Thus, this framework will be useful for examining specific emotions while taking contextual factors into consideration. Finally, we examine several important questions stemming from our framework and suggest directions for future research.

The bright and dark sides of humorous response to online customer complaint

PurposeDisplaying a sense of humour provides various interpersonal benefits including reducing tension and promoting conflict resolution, but should a firm use humour in response to publicly viewable online customer complaints after a service failure? The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that a firm’s use of humour in response to negative online consumer reviews has both positive and negative effects on perceptions of corporate image from a customer-as-onlooker perspective.Design/methodology/approachThree experimental studies are conducted and analysis of variance is used to empirically test the hypotheses.FindingsAlthough humorous responses have an unfavourable influence on perceived trustworthiness of the firm, they have a favourable influence on perceived excitingness of the firm. The former influence is tied to lower perceived firm sincerity, whereas the latter is tied to higher perceived firm innovativeness and coolness. Furthermore, humour within the customer complaint itself is shown to moderate the influence of humorous responses on perceptions of the firm. Finally, regardless of the type of humour used (i.e. affiliative or aggressive humour) in the humorous response, the positive effect of humorous response remains strong, although aggressive humour further aggravates the negative impact of humorous response on trustworthiness.Research limitations/implicationsThe experimental set-up may limit external validity of the study, and the research is limited to the variables examined.Practical implicationsHumorous response is identified as a non-traditional approach to online customer complaints that poses a double-edged sword for managers of service organizations. Firms should avoid using humour in online service recovery if perceptions of trustworthiness are critical or if complaints are written in a neutral tone. However, such responses may be successfully used when a firm wants to position itself as exciting and if complaints are also humorous. Finally, firms are advised to avoid aggressive humour.Originality/valueThe present research represents one of the few studies in marketing to examine the potential of injecting humour into complaint management and service recovery. In addition, this study considers the consumer-as-onlooker perspective inherent in social media.

Developing ReApp: an emotion regulation mobile intervention for intergroup conflict

ABSTRACT People living in areas of intractable conflicts experience extreme negative emotions which ultimately lead to support of aggressive policies. Emotion regulation and particularly cognitive reappraisal has been found to be effective in reducing negative emotional experiences and shifting policy preferences. Therefore, it is important to develop scalable, evidence-based interventions aimed at regulating negative emotions in such contexts. In this paper, we introduce ReApp – a mobile game, aimed at training people to regulate their emotions using cognitive reappraisal. We examine the game's effectiveness in reducing negative emotions and support for aggressive policies in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Results indicate that people who played ReApp experienced lower levels of anger and disgust, and were less supportive of aggressive political policies targeted at the outgroup. We believe that games such as ReApp could potentially influence mass audiences and by that promote conflict resolution.

Overcoming the tribes effect: The overview effect as a means to promote conflict resolution.

Overcoming the tribes effect: The overview effect as a means to promote conflict resolution.

The enemy's gaze: Immersive virtual environments enhance peace promoting attitudes and emotions in violent intergroup conflicts.

Perspective-taking is essential for improving intergroup relations. However, it is difficult to implement, especially in violent conflicts. Given that immersive virtual reality (VR) can simulate various points of view (POV), we examined whether it can lead to beneficial outcomes by promoting outgroup perspective-taking, even in armed conflicts. In two studies, Jewish-Israelis watched a 360° VR scene depicting an Israeli-Palestinian confrontation from different POVs–outgroup’s, ingroup’s while imagining outgroup perspective or ingroup’s without imagined perspective-taking. Participants immersed in the outgroup’s POV, but not those who imagined the outgroup’s perspective, perceived the Palestinians more positively than those immersed in the ingroup’s POV. Moreover, participants in the outgroup’s POV perceived the Palestinian population in general more favorably and judged a real-life ingroup transgression more strictly than those in the ingroup’s POV, even five months after VR intervention. Results suggest that VR can promote conflict resolution by enabling effective perspective-taking.

Pair coordination is related to later brood desertion in a provisioning songbird

Raising a family is not free of conflict for parents, as each parent benefits when its partner provides more care for the offspring. Resolving this conflict requires cooperation between the parents. One way to achieve such cooperation might be to coordinate parental provisioning by synchronizing (i.e. returning to the nest at the same time) or alternating (i.e. taking turns) offspring provisioning at the nest. Empirical studies in birds indicate that pair coordination of the nest visits is common; however, it is unknown whether this behaviour is directly related to different outcomes of sexual conflict, such as brood desertion. We used the rock sparrow, Petronia petronia, a species with high levels of sexual conflict, to explore whether alternation and synchrony of the nest visits were related to later brood desertion. Pairs with no desertion alternated and synchronized their nest visits more than pairs in which one sex deserted. This difference in coordination was not simply a by-product of differences in provisioning by the parents. Synchrony of the visits also increased with offspring age in the pairs with no desertion. We provide evidence, for the first time to our knowledge, that the degree of parental coordination is strongly associated with the ultimate consequence of sexual conflict, brood desertion, supporting the idea that coordination in parental behaviour might promote conflict resolution.

Intergroup commonality, political ideology, and tolerance of enemy collateral casualties in intergroup conflicts

Despite their pernicious effect on intergroup conflict, collateral casualties are seen as inevitable and justified by many members of the groups involved, particularly those who endorse a right-wing ideology. Drawing on social psychological literature, we examined whether a perception of commonality between in-group and out-group can be beneficial for reducing tolerance to collateral causalities. We hypothesized that viewing the out-group as sharing commonalities with the in-group can reduce processes of out-group delegitimization, which are common among right-wingers in intractable conflicts, and may therefore serve to explain reduction in tolerance to collateral casualties. Three correlational studies were conducted among Jewish-Israelis in the context of the conflict with the Palestinians to test this. In Study 1, right-wing political ideology was associated with stronger support for enemy collateral casualties, and the effect was moderated by perceived intergroup commonality. While leftists were overall non-supportive of collateral casualties, rightists who perceived high intergroup commonality were less tolerant of collateral casualties than those low on intergroup commonality. In Study 2, conducted during violent escalation, we replicated these results while controlling for anger, fear, and hatred. In Study 3, we found that the effect was mediated by delegitimization of the out-group. These results extend the range of beneficial impact of intergroup commonality, and imply that it may be used as a tool to promote conflict resolution.

Emotions in attacker-defender conflicts.

The distinction between attackers and defenders might help refine the understanding of the role of emotions in conflicts. Here, we briefly discuss differences between attackers and defenders in terms of appraisals, action tendencies, emotional preferences, and brain activities. Finally, we outline how attackers and defenders may differ in their response to emotion-based interventions that aim to promote conflict resolution.