Master
2021/2022
Conflict Management
Category 'Best Course for Career Development'
Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'
Type:
Compulsory course (Political Analysis and Public Policy)
Area of studies:
Political Science
Delivered by:
Public Policy Department
Where:
Faculty of Social Sciences
When:
1 year, 1, 2 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of one campus
Master’s programme:
Political Analysis and Public Policy
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
40
Course Syllabus
Abstract
Abstract This is a bridging course for the specializations ‘Public Policy Analysis’ and ‘ ‘Human Rights and Democratic Governance’, offered in the first year of Master Program ‘Political Analysis and Public Policy’. It is aimed at covering all types of social conflicts - from interpersonal to international - through understanding basic structural elements of conflict: its causes, its substance and main parties involved and other participants. The course explores conflict dynamics, its stages and changing behavior of its parties, based on their needs, interests and goals. The course also introduces main certain ways of conflict interventions and present techniques of conflict mitigation and possible resolution, including such forms as organizing direct negotiations, mediation and facilitation, which contribute to conflict management and can lead to eventual transformation
Learning Objectives
- to acquaint students with main ideas and tools of conflict analysis
- to introduce major approaches to conflict management
- to provide understanding of conflict structure, including its sources, substance and participants
- to discuss various types of conflict interventions and their outcomes
- to present techniques of conflict mitigation and management
Expected Learning Outcomes
- 1. Reproduce main concepts and frameworks of conflict analysis
- Apply the theory of protracted social conflict and ‘spiral model’ of unmanaged conflict
- Demonstrate conflict dynamics and stages of conflict escalation and de-escalation
- Identify main parties to the conflict and their needs, interests, positions and resources
- Organise intense group work on joint analysis of practical conflict cases
- Produce short and clear Reflection Papers on the provided literature
- Reproduce main concepts and frameworks of conflict analysis
Course Contents
- Introduction to conflict analysis. Main Parties Sources, Substance and Participants
- Galtung’s Conflict Triangle: attitudes, behaviors, contradictions
- Ways of behavior in a conflict: escaping, yielding, contending, aggression, compromise, cooperation.
- What is conflict intervention. ‘Spiral Model of Unmanaged Conflict’
- Conflict Timeline and Conflict Dynamics. Stages of Escalation and de-escalation
- Dealing with conflict: management, resolution and transformation strategies
- Personal conflicts, group conflicts, labor conflicts, social and political conflicts
- Conflict Environment and ‘social field’. ‘Third Parties’ in a conflict and their interests.
- Major types of conflict resolution: consensual and adjudicatory. Consensual: Negotiation and Mediation, Adjudicatory: Arbitration and Litigation.
Assessment Elements
- Reflection papers
- Group class work and presentation
- Home work presentation
- Class participation
- Reflection papers
- Group class work and presentation
- Home work presentation
- Class participation
Interim Assessment
- 2021/2022 2nd module0.4 * Group class work and presentation + 0.4 * Reflection papers + 0.2 * Home work presentation
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Azar, E. E. (1978). Protracted social conflict : theory and practice in the Middle East. Journal of Palestine Studies, 8(1), 41–60. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsram&AN=edsram.000304448
- June Hunt. (2013). Conflict Resolution. [Place of publication not identified]: Aspire Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1145439
- Therése Pettersson, & Peter Wallensteen. (2015). Armed conflicts, 1946–2014. Journal of Peace Research, (4), 536. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.sae.joupea.v52y2015i4p536.550
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Hansen, T. (2008). Critical conflict resolution theory and practice. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 25(4), 403–427. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.215
- Pugh, J. (2009). The Structure of Negotiation: Lessons from El Salvador for Contemporary Conflict Resolution. Negotiation Journal, 25(1), 83–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2008.00209.x
- Stephan Proksch. (2016). Conflict Management. Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.spr.mgmtpr.978.3.319.31885.1
- Walsh, D. V. aut. (2018). Territorial Self-Government as a Conflict Management Tool by Dawn Walsh. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.501739408