Transforming Conflicts in Diverse Societies
To address the local, national, and global challenges we face today, it is important to build bridges of cooperation between people of different worldviews. The way we interact with each other is the foundation for how we build trust and connect. When people take the time to consider each other's perspectives and treat each other with respect and kindness, it creates a safe space where people feel comfortable opening up and working together.
The diverse communities that make up our world have a lot to offer each other, from wisdom and experience to inspiration and support.
There are many causes of conflict in a diverse community including differences in group identity, a history of hostile interaction and discrimination, or misinformed stereotypes and perceptions caused by prejudiced attitudes. For conflicts to be transformed, it takes time, patience, humility, and commitment from everyone involved.
In this section, we’re going to explore some strategies for successful dialogue when participants have conflicting norms, values, or ethics.
We recommend using these four steps to guide your dialogue when addressing conflict, or adapting them to best meet your group’s personal needs and goals:
Recognition
All individuals involved in a dialogue surrounding conflict should be able to recognize that there is a problem and commit to working together to deal with the conflict.
Reflection
All individuals involved in a dialogue surrounding conflict should be able to reflect on the issue and its root causes.
Reconciliation
The conflict should be reconciled collectively, including all of the individuals involved. Reconciliation involves transforming relationships impacted by conflict. This is a collaborative process that requires compromise and creativity to synthesize a solution.
Raising and Reinforcing
Further comments and concerns should be continually raised to the conscious level through sustained dialogue. Sustained dialogue within a community can reinforce community goals, address new needs or conflicts, and build trust.
Recognition is the first step towards transforming conflict. It is a collaborative process that involves acknowledging that there is a problem, either between groups or individuals, that needs to be addressed.
Recognition helps us:
Acknowledge that injustice exists
Reveal the ways that everyone is affected by a particular issue in different ways and how reaching community goals requires us to work together
Reflection is a way to clarify the nature of the disagreement and understand the points of view involved in the process to generate a suitable solution.
To truly understand each other during the reflection stage, dialogue partners should try their best to engage in active listening. This means listening to what the other person is saying—not just waiting for your turn to talk again! Repeat what your counterpart has said back to them so that they know you've heard them correctly and can accurately represent what they said without adding any extra information or opinions of your own.
Reflection helps us:
Create space for dialogue by clarifying the root causes of a conflict
See each other as individuals, not just representatives of a collective group
Reconciliation is a process of transforming relationships based on mutual trust and respect between conflicting groups or individuals. During the conflict transformation process, it is important to think ahead and consider the future. Dialogue partners should look for ways to transform the conflict in a way that results in an infrastructure to promote harmony and support equity in the community. This is a collaborative process that requires compromise and creativity to synthesize a solution.
A helpful reminder when navigating reconciliation is to separate the person from the problem. When you are in conflict with someone, it's easy to get caught up in the emotion of the situation. We get personally invested in the issues, and we identify with our own personal norms, values, and ethics. It’s difficult not to take any perceived threat to those interests as a personal attack. Finding common ground requires a step back from your emotions and an objective look at what's going on. Within this mindset, one can recognize there are often many ways of understanding an issue.
Reconciliation helps us:
Make a personal commitment to social change and encourage others to do the same
Develop community commitments to justice, equity, and support for all
Envision a better future by working together, while respecting people's rights to maintain their cultural traditions and values
Raising and Reinforcing further comments and concerns to the conscious level can be done through sustained dialogue. By engaging in continuous, meaningful dialogue within our communities, we ensure that transformed conflicts can be sustained.
Some questions you may ask include:
Where are we now?
Where are we going?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?
What can we do individually and collectively?
Raising and Reinforcing can help us:
Revisit our community's vision and identify any necessary adjustments
Develop dynamic strategies to address inequality, injustices, and conflicts and engage all individuals within the community in the process
Collaboration makes everyone feel more invested in the process and valued and gives your project a wider scope and likelihood of success.
Justice
Justice is the act of making sure that people are treated fairly and equitably. When you live in a place where justice is respected and upheld, you know that the people around you are playing by the same rules. Justice creates a sense of unity and trust between members of a community, which improves the overall morale and stability of that community.
A greater sense of justice can also lead to higher levels of civic engagement, which is ultimately beneficial for the community as a whole.
