The Sociology of Conflict Resolution
SOC 245
Spring 2010 not offered
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This course will examine the recent rise of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques for managing a wide variety of conflicts--including personal feuds, tensions at workplaces and schools, public planning and policy disputes, ethnic conflict, and full-scale war. These strategies--including dialogue facilitation and different forms of mediation--seek to replace the one-winner, one-loser mode of resolving conflict with nonviolent, consensus-based solutions. Proponents argue that doing so will not only yield better results while avoiding violence, but may possibly help positively transform the cultures of hierarchy and domination that embrace violence to begin with. Critics, meanwhile, have seen them as insidious forms of co-optation and silencing that simply reproduce preexisting relations of power while wasting much time and (often) costing much money. With these tensions in mind, we will examine theories of democratic communication and collaborative social change and connect them to specific ADR approaches. Along the way, we will focus on a range of case studies from a variety of contexts, and, from time to time, experiment with dialogue facilitation and conflict resolution inside the classroom. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Effective Citizenship, Ethical Reasoning |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS SOC |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: SOC151 OR SOC152 |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Fisher, Ury, and Patton: GETTING TO YES
Docherty, LEARNING LESSONS FROM WACO
Other readings to be announced, but will include works connected to Habermas' discourse ethics and Freire's liberationist pedagogy. Major theorists of ADR practice include (for example) Lawrence Susskind, Lisa Bingham, and Rosemary O'Leary.
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Examinations and Assignments:
One in-class presentation, one post to class blog, three papers (roughly six pages each), in-class and online participation. |
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