Recounts an interview with cultural critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Explains that the study of cultural politics is an examination of how politics devises cultural explanations for managing crises. Argues that the composition theory/practice distinction is artificial. Suggests that mediation of two positions often favors one side or the other.…

An Elmira, New York, elementary school resolves its playground disputes by allowing students to settle most of their own disagreements with the help of upperelementary students trained as conflict managers. Adult supervisors stop fights and give disputants a choice: discuss the problem with the principal or the conflict managers. Kids invariably…

Defines the cooperative group decision-making process of consensus, contrasts it with voting and compromise, and presents an illustrative situation. Describes individual consensus skills, the role of group facilitator, pitfalls of the process, and use of consensus in educational settings and large organizations. (SV)

Conflict often arises among researchers when papers are reviewed, articles refereed, or peer reviews undertaken, because one's philosophy of research affects one's perception of it. This article presents a perspective of how professionals should consider their philosophy, demonstrating an interrelationship among kinds of research, philosophies…

Notes that social scientists are exploring macro applications of human behavior theory to peace interventions. Provides an overview of an international intervention conducted by Carl R. Rogers and his colleagues. Describes the format of the Central American Challenge, an international conference conducted in Rust, Austria; conference participants;…

Discusses five causes of unjust conflict that may originate in religious commitment including arrogant intolerance; hostile remembrance; ethnocentrism; fundamentalism; and religious myths. Causes of conflict other than religion are suggested, and religion as a force for peace and unity is discussed. (KRN)

Examined whether children's goals in peer conflict situations were related to the strategies they proposed for resolving conflicts, and how these strategies were related to acceptance by peers. Subjects were 142 fourth through sixth graders. Found that peer acceptance was negatively related to hostile/coercive strategies for girls, and negatively…

Organizational endurance depends on a leader's adherence to a moral code while gaining consensus to accomplish goals. Gaining consensus means dealing with each follower's conflicting moral codes. The result is indecisiveness, guilt, or creation of a substitute action to harmonize code differences. This article presents a model ethical code based…

Authorized by Title X of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Community Relations Service (CRS) is a mediation service dealing with community racial disputes. CRS has spent much of the past three years working in Los Angeles and is now handling problem solving in multiracial, multicultural schools in Stockton, California. Workshop participants usually…

Some violence prevention programs do not work because they are poorly targeted, provide materials without implementation strategies, apply neighborhood methods to school settings, and project unrealistic notions about the social forces underlying violence. Schools cannot eliminate all conflict but should go beyond violence prevention to create a…

There are many situations of potential conflict that can be defused with humor. Humor in discipline can be used when it is a natural part of the adult's personality and style, and/or there is a relationship that has been built with a child that allows for off-beat words or actions to be accepted in a nondefensive way. (Author)

Role expectations, ways of learning, and styles of verbal and nonverbal interaction are culturally acquired. Adult educators bear responsibility for understanding the dynamics of cross-cultural interaction and conflict in teaching diverse groups. (SK)

Presents personal comments and anecdotes relating to the sanctioning of counteraggression in special education and treatment settings, and ways to counteract this philosophy of management. Advocates teaching troubled youth the same crisis management techniques that taught to those who manage facilities for these youth, and presents advice for…

Recognizing youth violence as a major public health issue, the National Centers for Disease Control in 1993 launched an $11 million effort to evaluate 15 violence-prevention programs used in U.S. schools. The schools will evaluate programs, using various criteria. "ASBJ" examined programs in five urban areas, highlighting major emphases,…

Studies conflict-handling behavior of employees within organizations in an inductive investigation aimed at overcoming problems of assuming two dimensions of conflict behavior. Develops a descriptive model of conflict-handling behavior which delineates and defines strategy categories based on actor-salient aspects of specific behavior in specific…