Learning objectives
The expectation is that, at the end of the module, the student will be able in:
- Understanding the generative and, on the other hand, destructive potential of conflict,
- focusing on verbal and non-verbal communication influence on conflicts;
- Recognizing and analyzing an interpersonal conflict or a conflict between social groups;
- Describing the fundamental elements of conflict and violence, and the difference between them;
- Identifying the values and techniques of nonviolence as keys to constructive conflict management;
- Recognizing what exacerbates conflict or leads to its transformation in a constructive sense;
- Reflecting on one's own way of living conflicts;
- Recognizing the essential elements of negotiation and mediation in conflicts.
Prerequisites
None.
Course unit content
What is conflict.
Because it's so hard. Avoidance, provocation, research, management.
Why do we need conflict?
Conflict configurations.
Assumptions and forms of communication in conflict management.
Different needs: expressing himselves, reaching the solution, protecting relations.
The weight of silence.
Listening that facilitates and listening that hinders. Nonviolent communication as a skill, as a choice and as an interaction.
The essential elements of conflict according to the approach of Johan Galtung
From conflict to violence: the steps of escalation.
The construction of the enemy.
Can any of us be violent?
Case analysis.
Pat Patfoort and the MmE model
Destructive mechanisms: the chain of violence, escalation, internalization:
Examples in micro, meso, macro contexts
Five possible conflict management styles: advantages, disadvantages, potential.
An attempt at personal analysis.
Exercise on the genesis of a violent fact in which individual and group behaviors converge, in an interweaving of implicit and explicit conflicts.
The permeability to violence and the personal and social conditions that accentuate it.
The strength of mechanisms of moral disengagement in justifying violence.
Can any of us be violent?
“Nonviolence is struggle” (Aldo Capitini): nonviolence beyond prejudices
What is nonviolent conflict management?
From escalation to de-escalation.
The determining value of listening.
Case study from everyday life.
“It always starts with one” (Aldo Capitini).
The personal choice of nonviolence as an objection. Examples of rejection of violence or nonviolent management of conflicts by individuals in different contexts.
Organized nonviolence as a collective work for change
Examples of nonviolent campaign in Italy and abroad.
When enemies choose to look each other in the eye: the search for a different kind of justice. Analysis of cases.
What does it mean to mediate? Areas and prerequisites for conflict mediation.
The intercultural conflict. Alexander Langer's attempt at a decalogue for an interethnic coexistence.
Exercise on a historic case of a nonviolent action against racism: how it took place and why it achieved its goal.
Discussion.
Full programme
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Bibliography
We will also online texts from authors as Aldo Capitini, Johan Glatung, Pat Patfoort, Alexander Langer, Bertrand Rosenberg Marshall, Carl Rogers, altri.
Most of their texts are online.
Teaching methods
We will privilege interactive methods and laboratories through the analysis of cases, role-plays, work in groups. The experiential data will be integrated and systematized through theoretical contributions.
Assessment methods and criteria
The assessment will take place through a written exam comprising partly multiple choice questions and partly open questions on the main contents of the course, to test the students' ability to analyze social conflict, making use of the theoretical approaches studied and the methodologies learned.
Other information
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2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
Gender Equality (Goal 5), Reduce Inequality (Goal 10), Sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), Peace, justice and strong institutions (Goal 16).
