Transforming Violent Conflict: Radical Disagreement, Dialogue and Survival / Edition 1

by Oliver Ramsbotham

Overview

This book investigates intractable conflicts and their main verbal manifestation - radical disagreement – and explores what can be done when conflict resolution fails.

The book identifies agonistic dialogue - dialogue between enemies - as the key to linguistic intractability. It suggests how agonistic dialogue can best be studied, explored, understood and managed even in the most severe political conflicts when negotiation, mediation, problem solving, dialogue for mutual understanding, and discourse ethics are unsuccessful. This approach of viewing radical disagreement as the central topic of analysis and conflict management is a new innovation in this field, and also supplements and enhances existing communicative transformational techniques. It also has wider implications for cognate fields, such as applied ethics, democratic theory, cultural studies and the philosophy of difference.

This book will be of great interest to students of conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies, ethnic conflict and International Relations in general.

Oliver Ramsbotham is Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford, UK, Chair of the Oxford Research Group, President of the Conflict Research Society and co-author of Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415552080
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/21/2010
Series:	Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Oliver Ramsbotham is Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford, UK, Chair of the Oxford Research Group, President of the Conflict Research Society and co-author of Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Conflict.

Table of Contents

List of figures and boxes ix

Preface xi

Prologue: having The first word 1

Part I Radical disagreement and intractable conflict 15

1 Radical disagreement and discourse analysis 17

2 Radical disagreement and conflict analysis 33

3 Radical disagreement and conflict resolution 52

Part II Radical disagreement and the transformation of violent conflict 93

4 Methodology: studying agonistic dialogue 95

5 Phenomenology: exploring agonistic dialogue 109

6 Epistemology: understanding agonistic dialogue 133

7 Praxis: managing agonistic dialogue 165

8 Re-entry: feeding back into conflict settlement and conflict transformation 205

Part III Radical disagreement and the future: theoretical and practical implications 223

9 Radical disagreement and human difference 225

10 Radical disagreement and human survival 240

Epilogue: having the last word 249

Glossary 253

References 255

Index 267