Some Theoretical Foundations for Conflict Methodology

Propositions from information theory, social psychological theory and modern systems theory are used as the theoretical foundations for grounding principles of conflict methodology. Fifteen principles of conflict methodology are generated. The role of conflict research in entering back into the construction of social reality is also discussed.     

Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Citizen Participation Programs:

Conflicts between governmental agencies and individuals are common in citizen participation programs. One source of these conflicts is barriers to full participation in decision-making. This paper identifies and examines these barriers. It also highlights how conflict may be reduced through the removal of these barriers in the case study of a community during a citizen participation program. The implications for program changes and community organizers are discussed.     

Community Wildfire Events as a Source of Social Conflict*

Abstract The literature notes that natural disasters, including wildfires, that damage human settlements often have the short‐term effect of “bringing people together.” Less recognized is the fact that such events can also generate social conflict at the local level. This study examines the specific sources of such social conflict during and after community wildfire events. Examining qualitative data generated from six case studies of wildfires in the American West, we suggest that integrating the theories of Weber, Giddens, and Habermas with community interaction theory provides a context for understanding such conflict. Rationalized forms of interaction and problem solving imposed by extra‐local organizations during and after wildfire events are often resisted by local actors who are also inhibited from acting due to local capacity limitations. Thus, conflict occurs when social relations are disembedded by non‐local entities, and there is a perceived loss of local agency.     

Continuous Violent Conflict as a System of Authority*

This paper analyzes how authority can be maintained by structuring reality through continuous violent conflict. Using Lewis Coser's reformulation of Simmel's propositions on fostering continuous conflict as a raison d'être in sect-like struggle groups as a general frame of analysis, the Stalinist case is then examined in order to evaluate systematically these propositions in a societal context and to specify the morphology of violence as a method of conflict. By examining a societal context, it is noted that instability in the social structure not only can be a condition for the legitimacy of a problematic political leadership and system, but also simultaneously be a consequence of a form of preventive punitive sanctioning, whereby potential threats, both persons and alternative courses of action, are eliminated before they become present dangers. In turn, an official definition of reality, justifying leadership and system, is constructed through the public documentation of a conspiracy, which employs invented categories to demonstrate ideological continuity and fabricates pseudo events to demonstrate indispensability in fulfilling necessary functions. This public documentation of a conspiracy is then used as a facade for a larger plan of social prophylaxis that implicates the public as well as the police in ferreting out tangible and visible enemies to till the invented categories in the pseudo events. As public complicity conjoins with the official definition of reality, commitment to the leadership and system is acquired.     

The Differential Salience of Family and Community Demands and Resources for Family-to-Work Conflict and Facilitation

This paper examines the differential salience of family and community demands and resources in relation to family-to-work conflict and facilitation. The study used interviews with 1567 employed, married, parents from the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development (MIDUS). Family demands show relatively strong positive relationships to family-to-work conflict, whereas family resources are relatively important for family-to-work facilitation. Two community demands are positively related to family-to-work conflict and one community resource is positively associated with facilitation. Community demands and resources generally do not moderate relationships between family demands and resources and family-to-work conflict and facilitation. The study suggests that processes associated with demands are relatively important for family-to-work conflict, whereas processes embedded in resources are relatively salient for family-to-work facilitation.     

Troubled Engagement in Ethnicized Conflict

Feminist cross-community initiatives, which emerged in Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine in the 1980s, are frequently lauded in the gender and conflict literature as evidence of the ways in which women can work across ethnonational boundaries. In particular, the theory of ‘transversal dialogue’, developed by Nira Yuval-Davis and adopted by other feminist scholars and activists, suggests that participants have developed a mode of dialogue that enables them to acknowledge differences while developing common goals. In ethicized conflict, transversal politics is understood as an alternative to the essentializing of ‘identity politics’ as well as their undemocratic character. The empirical research, however, suggests that identity politics remains relevant for participants, particularly when cross-community dialogue is limited by external political realities and internal community divisions. In my view, understanding the ways in which identity politics contributes to the development of feminist goals related to women's inclusion in peace processes and post-conflict peace-building is not at odds with transversal politics; rather, women use both modes of politics to build feminist networks and tackle women's marginalization in hyper-masculinized and militarized zones of ethnicized conflict.     

Conflict management in the modern world-system

What is the relationship between the status of nation-states in the modern world-system and their strategies for conflict management? Using Wallerstein's world-systems theory, Kick's empirical specifications of core, semiperiphery, and periphery, and Black's theory of conflict management, I examine the use of self-help, avoidance, negotiation, and third-party settlement by nation-states. These possible tactics are variously used as forms of social control from below, social control from above, and social control between equals. I argue that the status of nations within the world-system is correlated with the primary mode of conflict management they use at a given time. I speculate that the use of a particular strategy may also subsequently contribute to changes in nations' status.     

Relational Health and Masculine Gender-Role Conflict in the Friendships and Community Relationships of Bisexual,Gay, and Straight Men

This study examined how men's masculine gender-role conflict and the importance men placed on interpersonal relationships in defining their self-identities predicted their relational health experiences in same-sex, dyadic friendships and community relationships. Using an Internet sample of 283 self-identified bisexual, gay, and straight men, results of hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that for men across sexual orientations, the more importance men placed on interpersonal relationships with other men, the greater the degree of relational health they experienced in dyadic friendships. Additionally, for bisexual and gay men in dyadic friendships with other men, gender-role conflict was inversely related to the relational health of their friendships. In the domain of community relationships, the importance that bisexual and straight men placed on interpersonal relationships in defining their self-identities and levels of gender-role conflict predicted relational health experiences. For gay men, however, feelings of masculine gender-role conflict, alone, predicted poorer relational health in community relationships. Study limitations, clinical implications for practice, and future research directions are discussed.     

Understanding the Sustainability of Insurgency Conflict in Thailand

Abstract

This article seeks to model the insurgency conflict in the three southern border provinces of the Kingdom of Thailand: Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. In so doing, it will explore the sustainability of the conflict by representing it in terms of a conflict life cycle that is responsive to complexity and change. The cycle arises from the cybernetic viable systems theory of ‘living systems’, and is able to foster a better understanding of what is happening empirically on the social level in these provinces, in respect to a situation characterized as one of incessant conflicts. This conflict model that arises suggests that there is an interconnection between the agents involved, and their individual and interactive dynamics. The conflict involves five types of politically related behaviours that occur between two interactive agents: the state (engaged in searching for and making arrests of insurgents) and the insurgents (engaged in violent acts of shooting, bombing, and arson). These agents are studied to the end of being able to determine the precise interactive nature of the political conflict in which they are engaged. In carrying out this investigation both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. The research was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, time series techniques were used to determine inferentially whether the conflict is both rational and involves interactive behaviours. Stage two adopts the Weibull distribution technique to assess the political conflict. In the third stage, a statistical analysis is conducted of the conflict situation in political terms. Finally, it is explained how the model and the methods used in this article may be used to deal with intractable conflict in other social environments, incidentally tracking the likelihood of conflicts being sustainable. Other agencies could utilize this approach in examining other political conflicts so as to be better able to prepare suitable approaches for coping with intractable conflicts to the end of fostering sustainable peace processes.     

Work-to-Family Conflict and the Maternal Gatekeeping of Dual-Earner Mothers with Young Children

Survey data from 78 dual-earner mothers of preschool children were used to examine the association between perceptions of both spouses’ work-to-family conflict and maternal gatekeeping. Two regression models were estimated: One in which mother’s work-to-family conflict was included as a predictor, and one in which mother’s perception of father’s (spouse’s) work-to-family conflict was added. Competing hypotheses using role theory and identity theory were proposed. Results provided support for identity theory through a positive association between mothers’ work-to-family conflict and maternal gatekeeping. In regard to perception of spouse’s work-to-family conflict, both role and identity theories can be interpreted to suggest a positive association with maternal gatekeeping, and we found this was empirically the case.     

The Relationship Between Work-to-Family Conflict and Family-to-Work Conflict: A Longitudinal Study

The relationship between work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict was tested using a longitudinal research design with 234 dual-earner couples caring for both children and aging parents. Two waves of mailed survey data were collected. The mediating effects of role-related satisfaction were hypothesized to link these two forms of work-family conflict. The analytical steps for determining mediating effects followed suggestions by Baron and Kenny (1986). The results failed to show significant mediating effects of role-related satisfaction between the two forms of conflict over time for both husbands and wives, contrary to suggestions by Frone, Yardley, and Markel (1997). Instead, positive, direct relationships between the two types of work-family conflict were found. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Observed Infant Reactions During Live Interparental Conflict

Associations between interparental conflict and infant reactions were examined. Infants' history of exposure to interparental conflict and infant reactive temperament were examined as moderators. A community sample of 74 infants, aged 6–14 months, participated with their parents. Behavioral observations were made of parents' marital conflict and their infants' reactions. Parents reported on their emotional states during conflict, infants' history of exposure to interparental conflict, and infant temperament. Multilevel modeling indicated that infants showed differential responses to marital conflict; destructive and depressive conflict were associated with increased infant discussion attending and negative reactions, whereas constructive conflict was associated with decreased discussion attending and negative reactions. Infants' history of exposure to marital conflict and infant reactive temperament emerged as moderators.     

Conflict management within cohabitation relationships

Data from 33 cohabiting couples are analyzed from a conflict theory perspective. Commitment balance in a cohabiting relationship (i.e., equal commitment to the relationship rather than one partner valuing it more) is found to be important in understanding conflict processes. Five hypotheses are developed from this theoretical perspective and these findings.     

Adolescents' Triangulation in Marital Conflict and Peer Relations

This study examined the association between youths' triangulation in marital conflict and three aspects of their peer relations in 416 families during early adolescence. A 4‐wave, longitudinal research design was used. As hypothesized, triangulation was associated negatively with perceived support from friends and positively with perceived peer rejection. Triangulation was a risk factor for both sons and daughters. Adolescent problem behavior did not mediate the significant association between triangulation and perceived friendship support. Adolescent problem behavior, particularly internalizing problems, completely me diated the association between triangulation and adolescents' perceptions of peer rejection, suggesting the important developmental role of adolescents' anxiety, depressive affect, and withdrawal. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of Bowen's multigenerational family systems theory and social learning principles.     

Contested Environmental Hazards and Community Conflict Over Relocation*

Abstract The majority of the literature on contaminated communities indicates that environmental hazards lead to conflict and dissension. In this paper we examine the salient dimensions of conflict and factionalism in a rural Oklahoma community. The community is heavily contaminated from 80 years of commercial mining operations and was one of the first sites designated on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund List in 1983. Despite two decades of remediation efforts, the community remains polluted with lead and other heavy metals. Based on in‐depth interviews with community residents, observation, and document analysis, we find that the community has splintered into two competing groups over the environmental controversy. One faction of the community supports a federally sponsored relocation campaign, while the other has organized to oppose relocation. The results of our study indicate that the contentious split is centered around the ambiguity of harm associated with the contamination, conflicting economic concerns, and variations in community attachment.     

Theory for Community Practice in Social Work:

The effort is made to revitalize the search for practice theory which will inform and guide the community practitioner. Ecological theory is used to identify a generic model of community practice and analyze member cohesion in the three traditional modalities. The theory of energy in human ecology is developed to set the stage for an energy assessment, and the selection of strategic energy patterns in phases of organizing. Theoretical propositions with practice implications are offered for research on the relationship between strategic energy-patterns of organizing, energy costs, specialization of function, and styles of intervention.     

A reexamination of agency theory assumptions: extensions and extrapolations

In this paper, we discuss agency theory in the context of the individual principal and agent, and also in the context of the organization and its groups. Agency theory is examined in the context of goal orientation, obligation and reciprocity, risk, and self-interest. We offer propositions given agency theory’s assumptions. We also extend agency theory and offer alternative propositions based on a relaxing of agency theory’s assumptions. In relaxing the assumptions of agency theory, insights from outside the agency literature, specifically from behavioral theories are used. Implications of agency theory and the extension of this theory are also discussed in relation to outcomes associated with economic exchanges.     

Conflict Mediation and Resolution: the contribution of social psychology

Following an already widespread movement in North America, networks of mediators are being established in Europe. These mediators offer their services to the civil community in order to solve minor conflicts through negotiation rather than through penal action. By presenting the contribution of social psychology to conflict mediation, this article asserts the necessity of adopting a constructivist vision of conflict, by which the mediator will try to reconstitute the different perspectives of the actors vis‐à‐vis the conflict situation and then negotiate a common mode of interaction which can be accepted by all the parties.     

Interparental Conflict and Adolescents' Romantic Relationship Conflict

This study examined associations between interparental conflict and adolescents' romantic relationship conflict. High school seniors ( N =183) who lived with married parents completed questionnaires about their parents' marriage and their own romantic relationships. A subset of 88 adolescents was also observed interacting with their romantic partners. Adolescents' perceptions and appraisals of interparental conflict were related to the amount of conflict in romantic relationship and adolescents' conflict styles. Adolescents' appraisals of interparental conflict (i.e., self-blame, perceived threat) moderated many of the associations between interparental conflict and conflict behavior with romantic partners. The patterns of moderated effects differed by gender. These findings suggest that the meanings boys and girls ascribe to interparental conflict are important for understanding how family experiences contribute to the development of romantic relationships.     

Mitchell's Relational Conflict Model: An Analysis of Its Usefulness in Clinical Social Work

This article examines the relational conflict model developed by Stephen A. Mitchell. The main concepts of Mitchell's relational conflict model are discussed, particularly early patterns of connection to parental figures and the interactive treatment approach to understanding and changing those relational patterns. The model is contrasted with classical drive and developmental arrest theories in the psychodynamic treatment of psychopathology. We explain how Mitchell's model, in keeping with a social work perspective, takes into consideration the social, cultural, and environmental factors as well as the intrapsychic. We discuss how patterns of relating are reworked throughout the life course, and we explore the potential for individual agency in constructing new patterns of relating. We also highlight the social constructivist aspects of Mitchell's approach which are congruent with current contemporary trends in social work theory. A case vignette is presented to illustrate the viability of this model for clinical social work practice.