From Identity-Based Conflict to Identity-Based Cooperation by Jay Rothman

Author:Jay Rothman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

Concluding Remarks

Each of the chapter authors and workshop facilitators who worked on this project have experienced the depth, and the difficulty, of engaging Antagonism as an integral part of our work in conflict transformation. Our experiences detailed in the workshops above show both the promise of this kind of deep work, as well as the difficulty facilitators and participants experience in truly and effectively engaging their Antagonism.

Our hope is that this chapter will be seen as a reflexive, learning document. We do not assume that we have unearthed all the dilemmas and insights, or that we have provided case studies that so illuminate the Antagonism to Resonance process that you may walk away with the complete knowledge needed to unerringly facilitate the process. What we do assume is that these case studies and our reflections on them will add to a growing volume of work suggesting that there is much value in addressing these elements during a conflict engagement process.

We encourage you then to take what we are learning and test it. Help us more deeply reflect upon these and other case studies. Adopt or adapt our methods and send us the reports. Ask the questions we are asking and test the assumptions underneath our approach to engaging these issues. We want our work to be a part of the larger community of practice, to both share with and learn from that community.

Engaging identity conflicts, as seen above, takes skilled facilitation, an artistic and intuitive approach to working with participants, and a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge. It is exactly the complexity of the issues addressed that requires this broad mix of skills, abilities, and approaches. Additionally, it is the complexity of identity that almost ensures that no two engagements will be the same. These traits of identity-based conflict can seem daunting to the mediator.

However, the promise of this work is that in mining the deepest dimensions of our experiences with each other, we might more authentically move toward peace together. When conflicts rage in violent spikes, or sustain interminably over time, we can be assured that there are some basic human needs at stake and that the participants are experiencing the conflict at a very deep level fundamental to their identity. Only by ­asking participants to explore this reality deeply and authentically can we effectively provide the type of process that can encourage and enable them to become partners in lasting peace and cooperation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.