Conflict can either destroy or create—depAnding on whether and how it is guided. This is the simple yet profound insight that underlies Jay Rothman's innovative new framework for understanding and transforming identity-based conflict in nations, organizations, and communities. Reading a newspaper, working in an organization, or sitting in on a town meeting can provide vivid examples of identity conflicts in action. Based in the national, organizational, and community groups that provide individuals with meaning, safety, and dignity, identity conflicts are passionate and volatile because they strike at our core: who we really are and what we care about most deeply. Though often impervious to traditional methods of conflict management, identity-based conflict also provides adversaries with dynamic opportunities for finding not only common ground, but higher ground than separate parties could have found on their own. Grounded in his grassroots conflict resolution work in the Middle East — work that earned him the honor of witnessing the historic White House handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO President Yasser Arafat — and brilliantly refined to address a wide range of organizational and community conflicts, Rothman's ARIA model is a versatile and innovative synthesis of the best contemporary ideas in conflict management, resolution, and transformation. Step by step, Resolving Identity-Based Conflict traces the ARIA journey through Antagonism, Resonance, Invention, and Action in a variety of environments. In straightforward, jargon-free language, Rothman conveys solid theoretical insights and practical how-to's that allow researchers and practitioners to: Recognize the crucial differences between identity- and resource-based conflicts Zero in on the needs and motivations shared by even the bitterest of adversaries Create joint agendas for groups in conflict Transform intragroup and intergroup conflicts in organizations of every k

Looking at a variety of countries, this book explores the influence of cultural dimensions on the interrelations between personal and social identity, and the impact of identity salience on attitudes, stereotypes, and the structures of consciousness.

This book investigates cultural and social identity in contemporary complex societies, focusing especially on Eastern Europe. Mach explains the role of symbols and symbolic forms in he relations between groups and the protection and development of their identities, especially ethnic identity. He places his study within the context of social order and the structure of power, using case studies which deal especially with the significance of politics, state rituals and national identity (Great Britain, Israel, Russia, Poland); in the conflict and displacement of migrating groups (Polish and German); and in regional questions of identity and inter-ethnic relations (Poland, United States, Great Britain). Mach presents a clear conceptual framework for analyzing the symbolic construction of identity. He views cultural identity as a dynamic, creative process which clarifies issues that are particularly significant in contemporary society, such as nationalism, new ethnicity, minority culture, and the cultural dimension of political conflicts.

Social conflicts are ubiquitous and inherent in organized social life. This volume examines the origins and regulation of violent identity conflicts. It focuses on the regulation of conflict: the constraining, directing, and repression of violence through institutional rules and understandings. The core question the authors address is how violence is regulated and the social and political consequences of such regulation. The contributors provide a multidisciplinary multi-regional analysis of identity conflicts and their regulation. The chapters focus on the forging and suppression of religious and ethnic identities, problematic national identities, the recreation of identity in post-conflict peace-building efforts, and the forging of collective identities in the process of democratic state building. The instances of violent conflict treated here range across the globe from Central and South America, to Asia, to the Balkans, and to the Islamic world. One of the key findings is that conflicts involving religious, ethnic, or national identity are inherently more violence prone and require distinctive methods of regulation. Identity is a question both of power and of integrity. This means that both material and symbolic needs must be addressed in order to constrain or regulate these conflicts. Accordingly, some chapters draw on a political-economy approach that places primary emphasis on resources, organization, and interests, while others develop a cultural approach focusing on how identities are constructed, grievances defined, blame attributed, and redress articulated. This volume offers new ideas about the regulation of identity conflicts, at both the global and local level, that engage both tradition and modernization. It will be of interest to policymakers, political scientists, human rights activists, historians, and anthropologists.

Through proper engagement, identity-based conflict enhances and develops identity as a vehicle to promote creative collaboration between individuals, the groups they constitute and the systems they forge. This handbook describes the specific model that has been developed as well as various approaches and applications to identity-conflict used throughout the world.

Written by a distinguished scholar, this book explores themes of culture, identity, and power as they relate to conceptions of practice in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Among the topics covered are ethnic and identity conflicts; culture, relativism and human rights; post-conflict trauma and reconciliation; and modeling varieties of conflict resolution practice. Context and Pretext in Conflict Resolution is the winner of the 2014 Conflict Research Society Book of the Year Prize.

This volume explores the complex interrelation between risk, identity and conflict and focuses specifically on ethnicity, culture, religion and gender as modes of identity that are often associated with conflict in the contemporary world. It draws on theoretical perspectives as well as pays special attention to analysis of diverse case studies from Africa, Middle East, Europe, East and Southeast Asia and Latin America. Using various analytical tools and methodologies, it provides unique narratives of local and regional social risk factors and security complexities. The relationship between risk and security is multidimensional and perpetually changing, and lends itself to multiple interpretations. This publication provides a new ground for theoretical and policy debates to unlock innovative understanding of risk through analyses of identity as a significant factor in conflict in the world today. At the same time, it explores ways to address such conflicts in a more people-centered, empowering and sustainable way.