Storytelling plays a central role in human communication and in conflict. This activity can be used to teach students the importance of telling stories to better understand conflict or simply to practice storytelling. By engaging in mediations, students simulate the process of resolving conflict, practice storytelling, and improve their active…

Peer-mediation in a school environment, when carried out correctly, can benefit not only the parties of the conflict, but also their environment, including the school, the team, the family and the mediator. A serious same has been designed and a prototype developed for the training of minors and young adults as mediators. The core of the game is a…

Simulations are traditionally divided into three phases, namely preparation, interaction, and debriefing. This article argues that the first phase has been neglected. The preparation phase is indeed widely seen as necessary but merely instrumental to the interaction phase of simulations rather than as a self-contained activity that may also…

We have used a role-play exercise to help students understand the role of the whips in British parliamentary politics, a subject with which students often struggle. In itself, this proved a valuable learning and teaching tool, but we found it became even more useful when we incorporated a practitioner into the exercise. This overcame some of the…

Simulations and games can offer valuable insight into the management of conflict and the achievement of peace. This special symposium issue of "Simulation & Gaming" examines several such approaches, used in both educational settings and to prepare practitioners to deal with the concrete challenges of peacebuilding. In the introduction, the authors…

Playing With Conflict is a weekend course for graduate students in Portland State University's Conflict Resolution program and undergraduates in all majors. Students participate in simulations, games, and experiential exercises to learn and practice conflict resolution skills. Graduate students create a guided role-play of a conflict. In addition…

This article outlines the Idea Factory exercise, an interactive exercise designed to help participants examine group, individual, and organizational factors that affect intergroup conflict. Specific emphasis is placed on exploring the relationship between intra- and intergroup dynamics and identifying managerial practices that foster effective…

Successful construction management depends primarily on the representatives of the involved construction project parties. In addition to effective application of construction management tools and concepts, human factors impact significantly on the processes of any construction management endeavour. How can human factors in construction management…

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is normally included as part of an introductory business law/legal environment course. While some business schools offer stand-alone ADR courses, the majority do not. As a result, a business student's only exposure to ADR processes may be through a Legal Studies in Business course. Several scholars have created…

Although stakeholder participation is expected to promote equitable and sustainable natural resource management, lessons from the past tell us that more careful attention needs to be paid to achieving equitable impacts. Now the question is how to address social inequities and power asymmetries. Some authors emphasize the need for more dialogue,…

Simple role-play simulations can not only demonstrate the dynamics of a conflict but also create awareness of multiple perspectives even among populations relatively set in their opinions. To teach my student population of military officers, I utilize simple, nongame simulations of multisided Middle East conflicts that not only facilitate learning…

This article describes a process of role-playing simulation (RPS) as it was used during an educational exercise in community dialogue in the Karkonosze Mountains region of southwest Poland. Over the past decade Karkonosze National Park, a regional tourist magnet, has provided an excellent example of environmental conflict emerging from the…

The final report summarizes goals and accomplishments of a project which developed and field tested materials to facilitate interagency cooperation in serving exceptional persons. The project developed a manual (which is appended) designed to acquaint the reader with major research findings on interagency agreement; describe a model for…

A conference on terrorism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was taken over by terrorists, hostages were seized, and negotiations failed. The goal of the conference was to teach about international terrorism. The events of the simulation are described and the exercise's accomplishments are discussed. (MLW)

The nature of negotiation, particularly bargaining, is explored, and it is suggested that legal educators use a distributive bargaining simulation as the teaching method. Appropriate materials for such a simulation are offered, followed by an explanation of the development of the simulation. An integrative bargaining simulation is also presented.…