Wagner - Pacifi y Hall PDF

SO38CH09-Wagner ARI 2 June 2012 11:56
ANNUAL
REVIEWS Further Resolution of Social Conflict
Click here for quick links to
Annual Reviews content online,
including: Robin Wagner-Pacifici and Meredith Hall
Access provided by El Colegio de Michoacan A.C. (COLMICH) on 05/29/19. For personal use only.
• Other articles in this volume Department of Sociology, The New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10003;
• Top cited articles email: wagnerpr@newschool.edu, hallm274@newschool.edu
• Top downloaded articles
• Our comprehensive search
Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2012.38:181-199. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2012. 38:181–99 Keywords

The Annual Review of Sociology is online at dispute, reconciliation, negotiation, transitional justice, mediation,
soc.annualreviews.org
alternative dispute resolution
This article’s doi:
10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150110 Abstract
Copyright c 2012 by Annual Reviews. For generations, sociological theorists have debated the relative func-
All rights reserved
tion, utility, and harm of social conflict and its resolution. This review
0360-0572/12/0811-0181$20.00 identifies some of the most prominent among recent contested forms
of conflict resolution as well as their social histories, worldviews, and
ways of operating. In sorting out the myriad theoretical traditions and
positions guiding this field, we note that the resolution of social conflict
is a thing in itself, and hence any design of its study should be directed at
this liminal moment during which change is occurring. We conclude by
examining four aspects of resolution—violence, spatiality, temporality,
and language—using these themes to demarcate fault lines or gaps in
the literature and to suggest new directions for future research.
181
INTRODUCTION toward practical and programmatic handbooks

and exposition aimed at producing specific out-
The designated title of this Annual Review of
comes. Sociology proper is more analytical and
Sociology article, “The Resolution of Social
historical in its examination of the resolution of
Conflict,” sounds decisive and straightforward.
social conflict. This review aims to illuminate
Yet do we really know what we mean by the
these positions and fault lines within the lit-
terms social conflict and resolution? Further-
erature, while simultaneously presenting new
more, can we assume that the resolution of
angles of vision onto the issue. It first unpacks
social conflict is a universal desideratum and
the critical terms, social conflict and resolu-
universally recognized when it occurs? For soci-
tion, and then identifies varying types of social
ologists and academics in cognate disciplines in-
conflict and types, agents, and mechanisms
terested in conflict, such assumptions are not a
available and employed for their resolution.

given (Coser 1956, Simmel 1964, Burton 1990).
Specific forms of resolution and themes related
Social conflicts can run the gamut from
to resolution are then discussed, with four
an argument at a family dinner (Vuchinich

aspects highlighted at the end of the review
1990) to an armed battle between states. Res-
for the particular analytical purchase they
olution of social conflicts can take the widely
provide: violence, spatiality, temporality, and
variable forms of annihilation of one party,
language.
submission/surrender of one party to another
(Wagner-Pacifici 2005), withdrawal of some
or all parties (Dersley & Wootton 2001, CONCEPTUALIZING SOCIAL
Collins 2009, Scott 2009), long-term standoffs CONFLICT
(Wagner-Pacifici 2000), active problem solving All social conflicts begin their lives as divergent
by conflicting parties (Burton 1969, Hopmann experiences of social situations. Some such
1995, Kelman 1996), power sharing (Kaufmann experience coalesces into a dispute. Felstiner
1996), truth and reconciliation commissions et al. (1980–1981, p. 632) describe the tra-
(Galtung 1975, Kaye 1997, Minow 1998, jectory by which experience becomes dispute:
Norval 1998, Teitel 2000, Lerner 2007), and “[E]xperiences become grievances, grievances
reconciliation of all parties (Turner 1974, become disputes, and disputes take various
Ackerman 1994, Soyinka 1999, Ross 2004). shapes, follow particular dispute processing
Given this variability in the meaning and paths.” Burton (1995) distinguishes disputes
approach to the resolution of social conflict, from conflicts, claiming that disputes entail
the many disciplinary and interdisciplinary negotiable interests, whereas conflicts develop
paradigms for its study are unsurprising. For ex- around nonnegotiable issues of basic human
ample, an entire discipline has grown up around needs. Implicit in these characterizations is
the term conflict resolution, with its origins the assumption that these divergent and prob-
closely tied to the Journal of Conflict Resolution, lematic experiences move through both social
founded by, among others, the economist interactions and institutions, making their
Kenneth Boulding in 1957. Accordingly, this transformation (into disputes and/or conflicts)
review draws widely from the fields of sociol- phenomenological and material at the same
ogy, conflict resolution, international relations, time. Sociologists interested in conflict have
philosophy, political science, legal studies, and offered varying definitions of it (Kriesberg
anthropology. A related caveat regards the 1973). According to Coser (1967, p. 232), “so-
distinction between descriptive and prescrip- cial conflict [is] a struggle over values or claims
tive tendencies in this expansive and varied to status, power, and scarce resources, in which
literature. There is a normative quality in much the aims of the conflict groups are not only to
of the conflict resolution scholarship (conflict gain the desired values, but also to neutralize,
ought to be resolved) and thus a tendency injure, or eliminate rivals.” Oberschall (1978,
182 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

p. 291) writes, “Conflict results from purposeful ritual in conflict situations, Rössel & Collins
interaction among two or more parties in a (2001) argue that sociologists can understand
competitive setting. It refers to overt behavior both social solidarity and shared culture
rather than to potential for action and to while being analytically aware of conflict
subjective states. . . . ‘Social’ conflict refers to and domination. This double consciousness
conflict in which the parties are an aggregate involves identifying the ways that solidarity
of individuals, such as groups, organizations, and culture are generated on the micro level in
communities, and crowds, rather than single a fluid process of mobilization of resources and
individuals, as in role conflict.” Black (2011, emotions, instead of assuming that there are
p. 3), highlighting the fundamentally dynamic fixed, solidary macroentities called societies (or
nature of conflict, emphasizes the negative any other identities or meaning systems).
social resonance of conflict: “All conflict Deutsch’s (1973) social-psychological ap-

concerns something defined as wrong or bad proach views conflict as a natural and inevitable
or otherwise undesirable, whether illegal, part of social life that can be either fruitful
immoral, improper, or impolite.” or destructive. Habermas (1995), in his philo-

sophical debate with Rawls, presses on Rawls’s
approach to the “question of stability” in just
NORMATIVE EVALUATION societies and on the overlapping consensus it
OF CONFLICT assumes. His own acknowledgment of endur-
In spite of conflict’s generally bad reputation, ing pluralism leads Habermas (1995, p. 125), in
several sociological theorists have argued that turn, to insist on a discourse ethics that accepts
conflict can be positive and socially produc- an inevitable, temporal, middle-run state of
tive (Coser 1956, Simmel 1964, Deutsch 1973, “reasonable disagreement”:
Bercovitch 1984, Collins 2009). Thus, its reso-
lution may not always be an unmitigated good. “Reasonable comprehensive doctrines” are ul-
Simmel (1964, p. 3) goes so far as to claim timately distinguished by their recognition of
that conflict itself can be reparative: “Conflict the burdens of proof, which enables groups
is . . . designed to resolve divergent dualisms; it with competing ideologies to accept—for the
is a way of achieving some kind of unity, even time being—a “reasonable disagreement” as
if it be through the annihilation of one of the the basis of their peaceful coexistence. Since
conflicting parties.” For Simmel, conflict is pos- disputes concerning metaphysical and reli-
itive, constitutive, and socially necessary and gious truths remain unresolved under condi-
contains valuable relational elements. Social or- tions of enduring pluralism, only the reason-
ganization, in his opinion, rests on an intertwin- ableness of this kind of reflexive consciousness
ing of cooperation and conflict. can be transferred as a validity predicate to a
Others point to conflict’s ability to incite political conception of justice compatible with
social change and increase group unity. Coser all reasonable doctrines.
(1956, pp. 154–55) writes, “Conflict can have
stabilizing and integrative functions for the re-
lationship. It enables social structures to read- CONCEPTUALIZING
just by eliminating sources of dissatisfaction and RESOLUTION
eliminating the causes for disassociation.” Even with its ambivalent status, conflict is gen-
The relationship between conflict and erally understood to be best resolved—for the
change is key. Conflict can promote change or sake of peace and for sustaining relationships.
prevent it, but focusing on conflict allows the The resolution of conflict is as multifaceted as
processes of social formation and deformation conflict itself. First and foremost, as suggested
to be visible. With attention to the micro- by the very existence of this article, the res-
processes and experiences of emotion and olution of social conflict must be recognized
www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 183

as a thing in itself: “The ending of conflict (1995, p. 115) compares settlements, with their
is a specific enterprise. It belongs neither to “implie[d] negotiated or arbitrated solutions,”
war nor to peace, just as a bridge is different to resolution, with its focus on “satisfaction
from either bank it connects. The sociology of of basic human needs of all parties involved.”
conflict thus requires, at least as an appendix, More equivocal than settlements, for some
an analysis of the forms in which a fight scholars, are so-called resolutions that smack
terminates” (Simmel 1964, p. 110). of co-optation. Kurtz & Ritter (2011) recount
Thus, to study the resolution of social con- the story of conflict resolution scholar John
flict requires looking specifically at a moment Jay Lederach, who arrived in Central America
of transition—a liminal moment during which in the 1980s deploying a vocabulary of conflict
change is occurring, when a before is being resolution and management. For colleagues in
demarcated from an after, a condition of war that region, Lederach comes to understand,
is transforming into one of peace. Whether a “resolution carried with it a danger of co-
clean break or an indeterminate ending, as one optation, an attempt to get rid of conflict when
scholar characterized the demise of apartheid people were raising important and legitimate
in South Africa (Norval 1998, p. 257), reso- issues” (Kurtz & Ritter 2011, p. 1). Clearly,
lution must be recognizable as such. Clearly the normative undercurrents of different
there is a significant difference between a res- approaches to the resolution of conflict appear
olution that anticipates and yields victors and even in the terminology used to characterize
vanquished and those that expect and aim for it, with some frameworks susceptible to being
compromise and negotiated settlements. Yet equated with preemptive cauterization of
even with clear-cut victors and vanquished, the continuing conflict. Interestingly, the field of
resolution of conflict is, in all but the most ex- conflict resolution was itself, in part, moti-
treme cases, a distinctly reciprocal project of in- vated by those founding scholars’ diffidence
teraction (Coser 1961, p. 348; Wagner-Pacifici toward the rational-choice (Oberschall 1978)
2000) requiring coordination of the involved and cost-benefit approaches to resolution by
parties. Perhaps it is useful to distinguish be- scholars in international relations. However,
tween resolutions of conflicts and mere ends international relations scholars ought not to be
of conflicts, with degrees of coordination be- stereotyped, given scholars such as Kaufmann
tween antagonists being one diacritical marker. (1996), who works with the concepts of power
Leung (2002) indicates in her survey of “con- sharing, rebuilding states, and (re)constructing
flict talk” that some degree of collaboration is more inclusive civic identities through the
necessary to end conflict episodes, even when intervention of international brokers of peace
the manifest issue is not resolved. Another dia- in ethnic civil wars.
critical marker is the presence or absence of ex- The concept of peace, at least since Kant
plicit rules and provisions for ending conflicts framed it in his 1795 essay, Perpetual Peace:
or, in other words, the relative contingency of A Philosophical Essay, might appear to be the
the ending. A lack of mutuality can lead, in the highest-order state of (temporally extended)
most extreme cases, to annihilation: “If no mu- conflict resolution. It also draws useful ana-
tual agreements are made at some time during lytical attention to the way that the resolution
the struggle, it ‘ceaseth only in death’ or in to- of social conflict can be understood both as
tal destruction of at least one of the antagonists” a process and as a structured state of affairs
(Coser 1961, p. 347). (more on this below). Definitions of peace vary,
Thus, there is wide variability in the ways with Johan Galtung, a founder of the peace
that social conflicts terminate. And scholars and conflict studies discipline, differentiating
differ on the characterization of resolution and between negative and positive peace (Galtung
on ways of differentiating it from other kinds & Jacobsen 2000). Negative peace indicates
of endings of conflicts. For example, Burton merely the absence of overt violence against

people, whereas positive peace includes the let bygones be bygones.” Abel (1973, p. 228)
absence of structural and cultural violence thus distinguishes between dispute outcomes
due to such things as poverty and injustice. that exist at given points of time and decisions
This distinction raises the issue of the relation that promise more finality. But even this fi-
between conflict resolution and social justice. nality, in conflicts ranging from neighborhood
Tilly (1998) addresses the construction of disputes to full-scale wars between states, is
systematic inequalities in organizations, where recognized as transitory. The very speech acts
peace, purchased through institutionalization employed in conflict resolution reveal such
and bureaucratization, comes at the price of ephemerality. For example, the etymology of
radical social exclusion. On a more global scale, surrender, a seemingly extreme and definitive
the self-insulating architecture of the interna- end to battle and war, incorporates a notion
tional state system is cited as a major vehicle of return (Wagner-Pacifici 2005). On a more
of injustice, as it partitioned political space in micro level, the linguist Goodwin (1990) notes
ways that effectively excluded transnational that many local arguments he ethnographically
democratic decision making on issues of justice observed on “Maple Street” ended when one
(Hardt & Negri 2000, Fraser 2005). of the disputants simply broke the ongoing
Höglund & Kovacs (2010) in turn distin- argument frame through topic switch, which
guish between secure and insecure peace. Such may or may not hold.
distinctions necessarily involve issues of tem- In spite of such conceptual qualifications,
porality in their conceptualizations—how long conflicts often end because some pivotal object
can such states of peace endure? One concept or condition has been achieved or lost. Coser
that combines the preoccupation with the ex- (1961, p. 350) notes that the decision about
istential nature of an extant state of peace with when to end conflict often rests upon a sym-
its temporal extension is that of conflict trans- bolic event (e.g., the taking of the capital) and
formation (Miall et al. 1999; Kriesberg 2008; that both parties need to be clear on what set
Smithey 2009, 2011). of events constitute a decisive symbol of defeat.
According to Kriesberg (2008, p. 401), Typically, and only apparently paradoxically,
conflict transformation “generally refers to a resolutions are preceded by both escalations
fundamental and enduring change away from a and de-escalations of conflict. Collins (1990)
protracted, destructive struggle between adver- identifies two trajectories of conflict that lead to
saries toward a constructive accommodation moments of decision about outcomes. The first
between them.” Another approach to the choice concerns the material resources that are used
of transformation rather than resolution ter- up during conflicts. Thus, a conflict outcome is
minology suggests an agnostic position on the dependent not only upon who has the greatest
question of the positive or negative functions resources at the beginning of, for example, a
of conflict (as opposed to violence) generally. war, but also upon whose supplies diminish
Gawerc (2006, p. 439) highlights Lederach’s more slowly over the course of the war. The sec-
recognition of the alternately constructive or ond trajectory involves the diminution of ritual
destructive ways that conflict can progress. solidarity if groups cannot periodically con-
Of course, also implicit in the terminology of vene to renew or create the emotional energy
conflict transformation is the idea that there necessary to sustain a fight. Even with a clear
is never a truly definitive resolution to social victory, there is often no revelatory moment
conflict. Felstiner et al. (1980–1981, p. 639) of breakthrough to a new world: “The result
write that attending to transformations reveals of conflict is never the utopia envisioned in the
that “the sequence of behaviors that constitute moments of intense ideological mobilization;
generating and carrying on a dispute has a there are hard-won gains, usually embedded in
tendency to avoid closure. People never fully an expanded bureaucratic shell” (Collins 1993,
relegate disputes to the past, never completely p. 296).

TYPES OF CONFLICT pressure points aimed at resolution or at

spurring conflict in the direction of bene-
Some scholars of conflict, such as Boulding
fiting organizational performance. Likewise,
(1962), individuate social conflicts according to
Morrill’s (1995) comparative ethnographic
separate societal or cultural domains, e.g., in
study notes executives’ use of formal authority
his rendering, economic, industrial, ideologi-
to obscure responsibility and legal liability in
cal, and ethical. Yet it is difficult to keep the
intraorganizational disputes with lower-level
boundaries of specific conflicts and types of
managers. A microanalytic lens, on the other
conflict insulated, both practically and concep-
hand, productively illuminates the sometimes
tually, from each other. Writing about the ways
volatile or contingent qualities of conflict,
that ethnic wars internal to a state can ignite
their less checked conditions of eruption, and
or transform into global conflicts, for exam-
the lack of a rational resolution at their close

ple, Burton (1995, p. 56) notes that “conflict
(Vuchinich 1987, 1990). According to such
is a generic phenomenon that knows no system
a perspective, conflicts appear as patterned,
boundaries.”
interactional speech activities, primarily ex-
More often than not, the dynamic nature
pressive and episodic in nature (Vuchinich
of conflicts resists systematic assessments of
1987, Collins 2009).
similitude or difference. Nevertheless, it is
Yet these apparently distinct approaches of
possible to characterize conflicts according
macro- and microanalysis are more complex
to various categorical axes and along various
than they might appear at first glance. Pondy’s
continua according to these axes. Thus, as
(1967, p. 300) conflict typology ultimately takes
is evidenced below, there are more or less
shape within the context of microlevel percep-
formalized/institutionalized conflicts, more
tions of latent conditions and manifest actions.
or less violent conflicts, more or less local
Even in the work that deals explicitly with for-
(or contained) conflicts, and more or less
mal organization, demarcating clear differences
public conflicts. As well, some conflicts can
between the jurisdiction of formal and informal
be characterized according to conventional
institutional mechanisms is complicated. Such
binaries: two-party versus multiparty; ideolog-
is the case when Stinchcombe (2001, p. 19) ar-
ically based versus identity based; acute versus
gues for distinguishing between the informality
chronic; micro versus macro. These binaries
that chooses among embedded formalities by
appear throughout this review, although they
a somewhat informal process, an “informally
are also systematically undermined in the way
embedded formality,” and reified formality that
they operate empirically.
pays no attention to the system. We see this
To take one case in point, macrolevel analy-
also when some structurally oriented scholars
ses frequently address conflict in the context of
seamlessly analogize micro and macro events
institutions, with a focus on the varying degrees
while theorizing conflict. Black (2011, p. 50)
of formality and on institutional mechanisms
thus can write: “A declaration of independence
that alternately augment or constrain conflict
by a number of British colonies in North
(Coser 1956, Skocpol 1979, Stinchcombe
America caused the American Revolutionary
1999). Focusing on management and organi-
War in the eighteenth century. . . . All such
zations, Pondy (1967, p. 319) identifies three
movements belong to the same family as di-
foundational macroanalytic models of conflict:
vorce, desertion, and running away.” Similarly,
the bargaining model, the bureaucratic model,
some Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
and the systems model. These variable types
scholars have problematized the distinction
of conflict then elicit institutionalized means
between public and private disputes and
for dealing with recurrent conflict within
conflict when assessing the justice potential
organizations. Perceptive managers are able
of these private alternatives to public trials.
to identify and engage conflict type–relevant
Reuben (1999–2000) goes so far as to propose

minimal due process standards for ADR Before discussing these particular types,
forums, including the possibility of presenting agents, and mechanisms of resolution of so-
evidence and a right to counsel. cial conflict, it is necessary to reprise some
The anthropologist Victor Turner (1974) analytical issues already introduced. One im-
developed the framework of the “social drama” portant issue involves the need to understand
to describe and analyze those experiences that resolution as alternately (or both) a structure
were triggered by discrete and local breaching and a process (Wagner-Pacifici 2000). Reso-
confrontations and were elaborated as full-scale lution understood as a structure draws atten-
societal crises requiring active redress—thus tion to such things as institutions, formal rules,
those conflicts that did not respect the categor- and codified roles. Resolution as a process and
ical distinctions offered above. His four-phase procedure highlights situational contingency,
model—breach, crisis, redress, and reconcili- culturally variable practices, and interactional
ation or schism—has provided scholars with dynamics. Of course, both sets of issues can
a useful architecture for angling productively be analytically reconceptualized as either struc-
into the structures and the dynamic processes tural or processual, depending upon the per-
of social conflicts, while simultaneously be- spective. Nevertheless, as a first pass through
ing sensitive to the social ontologies of diverse typifying resolutions of conflict, this distinc-
levels and domains (Wagner-Pacifici 1986, tion is valuable. Thus, some scholars tend to
McFarland 2004). Most critical are Turner’s stress the structures of conflict resolution, while
ideas of the breach having to occur in a cru- others stress process and procedures. Interest-
cial social relationship, a crisis that moves along ingly, not all scholars focusing on process adopt
a major dichotomous cleavage of the relevant a relativist position. Philosophically committed
group, and legal or ritual means of redress to fairness as a universalizing principle, Hamp-
aimed at reconciliation. An important lesson to shire (2000, p. 4) writes, “fairness in procedures
draw from studies of conflicts both experienced for resolving conflicts is the fundamental kind
and analyzed from micro and macro levels, from of fairness, and that it is acknowledged as a value
local and societal vantages, from private and in most cultures, places, and times: fairness in
public perspectives, and from informal and for- procedure is an invariable value, a constant in
mal angles of vision is that these angles of vision human nature.”
will variably illuminate conflict’s many faces. Other related issues pervading the adoption
of particular types of resolution are those of the
degree of institutionalization and the degree of
TYPES, AGENTS, AND formality involved. Regardless of any univer-
MECHANISMS OF RESOLUTION sality of the principle of procedural fairness,
Simmel (1964) recognized five main types in practice procedures vary widely around pre-
of patterns in the termination of conflict: cisely these axes. Are there permanent bodies
(a) disappearance of the object of conflict, established to carry out conflict resolution, or
(b) victory for one of the parties, (c) compro- are ad hoc commissions set up? Are there fixed
mise, (d ) conciliation, and (e) irreconcilability. rules about possible outcomes and prescribed
Later theorists and practitioners of conflict pathways to these outcomes, or are there
have elaborated on these basic outcomes by contingent agreements? Are there designated
delineating the institutions, mechanisms, and agents of resolutions, or are there spontaneous,
modalities that lead to them. These include emergent participants? The answers to these
courts, administrative agencies, mediators, questions give shape to the particular structures
arbitrators, therapists, negotiators, treaties, and practices that have emerged.
peace accords, commissions, international Although the formal/informal and institu-
authorities, political officials, compensation, tional/extrainstitutional alternatives appear to
reparations, and apologies, among others. describe mutually exclusive forms of resolution,

there have actually been highly institutional critique these roles, claiming that they often
conflict arbitrators and arbitrations acting with insinuate authoritative control back into an
significant degrees of informality. For exam- apparently informal and alternative process.
ple, Gawerc (2006, p. 444) describes what he Thus, the nature of these agents to conflict
calls a Track Two systems approach to peace, in resolution merits a closer look.
which politically influential individuals who are
not actual political or governmental officials can
have both influence and flexibility in the process Mediators, Interveners, Third Parties
of resolving conflict. Similarly, Lederach (2003) With a focus on the structure of conflict
and Kelman (1996) point out the credibility situations, Black (1993) identifies 12 potential
and generalized access of professionals who can roles for third parties to conflicts, 10 of which
draw on preexisting relationships across conflict fall under the two general categories of support
lines. There is a faint echo of Gramsci’s (1971) and settlement. They are informer, advisor,
idea of the “organic intellectual” here, capable advocate, ally, surrogate, friendly peacemaker,
of speaking across different social classes, hav- mediator, arbitrator, judge, and repressive
ing a foot in different economic, cultural, or ide- peacemaker. These roles vary according to the
ological worlds (see also Wagner-Pacifici 1994, distance between the third parties and the re-
for the concept of “organic mediators”). spective antagonists, the nature of intervention,
Certain degrees and types of informality and the degree of intervention. Third parties,
have been promoted as beneficial to the for example, can operate with diverse stances
resolution of disputes and conflicts at a variety and aims. They can be viewed fundamentally as
of levels. Gawerc (2006, p. 442) claims that in facilitating bargaining between the antagonists.
the Northern Ireland and South Africa cases In fact, Hopmann (1995) discerns a preference
“informal diplomacy, public involvement, and for bargaining over problem solving in interna-
grassroots dialogue were critical elements in tional negotiations because of the dominance of
their relatively successful peace processes.” a realist paradigm among diplomats trained in
Nordstrom (1997, p. 144) draws attention international relations. Nevertheless, he claims
to the ways that communities in war-torn that problem solving allows greater flexibility,
Mozambique generated local, ad hoc conflict efficiency, equity, and durability. Burton
resolution mechanisms, none of which “were & Sandole (1986) remark that the conflict
institutionalized through governing bodies or resolution literature has spurred a paradigm
formalized social services.” Merry & Milner shift away from settlement of conflict through
(1995), in their book-length case study of the authoritative controls toward a problem-
San Francisco Community Board system of solving approach. Problem solving, though, is
the 1980s, explored the benefits and problems critiqued in its own turn. Bush (1994) contrasts
of these boards’ ADR approach to disputes and a problem-solving approach to mediation with
conflicts. Although generally positive, the book a transformative approach to mediation that
nevertheless criticizes several aspects of this emphasizes recognition, not settlement.
approach, which they characterize as having a One contentious issue regarding conflict
mainstream, harmonic, and depoliticized vision mediation is that of mediator neutrality. Black
of community. As well, some chapters critique (1993) defines neutrality compositionally as
the particular interests of the official mediators “equidistance.” For other scholars (Laue &
and the way these boards slight indigenous Cormick 1978, Cobb & Rifkin 1991, Feer
expertise. The pivotal role of the third party, 1992, Silbey 1993), the question of the neutral-
mediator, or intervener (as they are variously ity of the third party is not so straightforward.
characterized) illuminates many of the complex Cobb & Rifkin (1991) reveal the paradoxical
issues associated with the questions about in- nature of the neutral stance and neutralizing
stitutionalization and formality. Some scholars practices. Distinguishing between neutrality

as impartiality and neutrality as equidistance, Reconciliation

they critique the paradoxical quality of medi-
Reconciliation has become a desideratum
ation’s ethical code: “To practice equidistance
for periods of post-conflict as an avenue for
mediators must balance power by represent-
achieving a more durable peace (Ackermann
ing interests; yet, if they do so, the existing
1994, Lerner 2007).1 Toward such a goal,
rhetoric of neutrality-as-impartiality defines
truth commissions, truth and reconciliation
these actions as ‘biased.’ And if mediators
commissions, and performative symbolic and
do not practice bias . . . then they unwittingly
ritual gestures mapping a “symbolic landscape”
contribute to maintaining power imbalances
(Ross 2007) have been offered as alternatives
in the session” (Cobb & Rifkin 1991, p. 45).
to Nuremberg-style trials, especially in cases
Yet, as Feer (1992) argues in his critique of
of transition to democracy after authoritarian
Cobb & Rifkin, attention to narrative sequence

dictatorships or forms of totalitarian regimes
within mediation practices can preempt such
(for example, in Chile, South Africa, El
conundrums. In a similar way, Garcia (1991)
Salvador, Peru, and Mozambique, among

focuses on the language of the interactions in
others). Such alternatives as the South African
mediation hearings and finds that it promotes
Truth and Reconciliation Commission have
agreement while precluding the use of the
been criticized for “sacrificing justice for
disputing techniques (e.g., accusation-denial
reconciliation—from both sides—of victims
speech sequences) of ordinary conversation.
angry at no punishment of perpetrators and
perpetrators angry at the lack of procedural
protections” (Norval 1998, p. 253). Teitel’s
MECHANISMS OF RESOLUTION (2000, p. 81) authoritative, comparative study
of the subject of transitional justice, particularly
Coser (1961, p. 347) reminds us that “re-
in late-twentieth-century national contexts,
sistance to the last man” is almost always
identified the mandates of the emergent truth
apocryphal: “The fact is that most conflicts
commissions as “principled compromises on
do indeed end long before the defeated has
the transitional justice issue of ‘punishment
been totally crushed.” Thus, annihilation is the
or impunity.’” Further, examining the specific
rare extreme mechanism of resolution. Stinch-
cases of truth commissions in El Salvador and
combe (1999), writing about the outcomes
Honduras, Kaye (1997) draws attention to the
of revolutions, provides a typology of what
way that such mechanisms offer transitional
he calls “stabilizing devices”: Thermidor or
governments a politically viable way to nav-
conservative authoritarianism, independence,
igate the contradictory impulses to punish
military defeat and occupation government,
and forgive, to look back and move forward,
totalitarianism, democracy, caudillismo.
without setting off a backlash in the transition
Kaufmann (1996, p. 139) provides an interna-
to democracy.
tional relations menu on the ways wars can end:
In varying degrees along a continuum of
“with complete victory of one side; . . . tempo-
“more” to “less,” reconciliations necessarily
rary suppression of the conflict by third party
involve changes in participant identity, e.g.,
military occupations; or . . . self-governance
from enemy to neighbor. Scholars generally
of separate communities.” As well, reporting
maintain that all reconciliation should involve
data from recent ethnic civil wars, Kaufmann
notes that they display a range of outcomes,
from total victory of one side, to territorial 1
Post-conflict is an ambiguous and problematic term, one
partition, to military occupation by a third that implies resolution as clean historical breaks. Two re-
party. Few were resolved in an agreement that lated issues are addressed in later sections of this review: the
role of violence as a demarcating point between conflict and
did not partition the country. But no one type post-conflict and the role of temporal frameworks for char-
of resolution predominated (Kaufmann 1996). acterizing historical periods.

truth-telling (Norval 1998, Borer 2006) and reintegrate them into civilian life” (Nordstrom
the generation of democratic procedures and 1997, p. 144).
rules for any sustainable peace. Furthermore, Even with strong claims made for robust rec-
in order to constitute genuine turning points in onciliation, there remains a deeper critique of
the resolution of social conflict, reconciliation it as a mandate of conflict resolution. J.K. Olick
requires representational, demonstrative, (personal correspondence) identifies two prob-
and performative features in its transactions lems with reconciliation: outsized expectations
(Wagner-Pacifici 2005). for all participants (victims, perpetrators, sur-
Reconciliation advocates critique the more vivors, families, and bystanders) and the idea
mainstream political science and international that it can be effective in the short term. Al-
relations approach to peacemaking. These lat- ternatively, he argues that truth commissions
ter approaches, they claim, aim toward the de- should properly aim at the second generation,
velopment of “new patterns of behavior built on including the offspring of all sides.
institutions and practices that reward the par-
ties for desirable behavior and punish them for Forms of Resolution
unwanted actions” (Ross 2004, p. 200). True Resolutions to conflicts take particular shapes.
reconciliation is not part of the framework. They emerge as mediated agreements, with-
Alternatively, a more robust concept of rec- drawals by one or both parties, compromises,
onciliation is advanced by scholars emphasiz- surrenders, laying down of arms, peace treaties,
ing the roles of symbols, narratives, dramas, armistices, constitutions, trials, amnesties, par-
rituals, art, and cultural performance in tem- dons, purges, international covenants, apolo-
porally extended resolutions of social conflict gies, laws, topic changes in arguments, and
(Turner 1974; Nordstrom 1997; Soyinka 1999; reparations (among others). Each of these forms
Ross 2004, 2007; Smithey 2009). Attention to of resolution has its own social history, world-
issues of identity, engaging the aegis of lan- view, and ways of operating. Each entails a set
guage and symbols, can be particularly salient of assumptions about winners and losers, power
in ethnic conflict. As well, public art is pro- dynamics, justice, identity, and the relationship
posed as a medium for transforming collective between the past and the future. In considering
identities in these so-called post-conflict peri- these diverse forms, scholars have debated their
ods. Smithey (2009) comments on the chang- capabilities and vulnerabilities. Here we briefly
ing themes and images on murals in Loyalist consider some of the most prominent among
neighborhoods in Northern Ireland. In East these debated forms.
Belfast, for example, an initiative to redesign Decisions by victorious forces during tran-
paramilitary murals to display more nonsec- sitional periods about how to treat the defeated
tarian themes (the local construction of the often juxtapose various kinds of amnesties
Titanic is one) utilized public art to expand with various types of punitive measures. Teitel
ideas of community belonging. Even stronger (2000) claims that these apparently opposed ap-
claims are made for reconciling ceremonies proaches are actually two sides of the same coin,
and rituals for dealing with the trauma of war both demonstrating the definitive sovereignty
and other violent conflict. In her ethnographic of the victor. In fact, she goes as far as to
study of the civil war in late-twentieth-century write that “[a]mnesties, particularly where con-
Mozambique, Nordstrom identifies powerful ditional and granted on an individual basis, can
ceremonies aimed at removing the trauma of operate like punishment. Punishment’s waiver,
war even as the war still continued. One act like its threat, can be an effective form of tran-
involved “kidnapping soldiers and taking them sitional political regulation. Thus, for example,
back to their villages to put them through after the American Civil War, amnesties were
ceremonies to remove them from the war— made conditional on the Confederacy’s contin-
and to remove the war from them—and to ued loyalty to the Union” (Teitel 2000, p. 54).

Amnesties evoke attitudes of forgiveness, a continuing negotiation and conversation. Ac-

stance that Auerbach (2004, p. 153) describes cording to Stinchcombe (1999, p. 64), writing
as adding “a spiritual and moral aspect to about post-revolutionary constitutions, such
the psychological process of reconciliation.” documents reflect a commitment to regard the
Finnegan’s (2010) case study of forgiveness votes of fellow citizens as binding. Arato (2004),
discourse among Acholi people in Northern focusing on the even more liminal forms of
Uganda connects this stance to war fatigue interim constitutions, such as the one codified
and a sense of collective identity that allows in Iraq in the period immediately after the
some former victims to have an experience of US-led coalition toppled the Saddam Hussein
interpersonal empowerment. regime, identifies three features such interim
The obverse of forgiveness is apology documents must have to be successful: They
and remorse, and Olick (2007; 2009, p. 87) must serve the antidictatorial impulse, provide
draws attention to a new phenomenon he greater legitimacy to the emerging political
terms “the politics of regret” and the way order, and facilitate constitutional learning.
that “[c]ontemporary politics are filled with

examples of public apology, redress move-
ments, acknowledgment of wrongdoing, and Elements of Resolution
sorry commemoration.” Olick claims that Recognition has emerged as a significant el-
this phenomenon derives from several social ement of conflict resolution in several ways.
characteristics of modernity: differentiation, Honneth (1996) and Fraser & Honneth (2003)
secularization, and temporalization. present (and debate) a political philosophical
Celermajer (2009) sees contemporary polit- framework for understanding the importance
ical apologies as a kind of crossover of practices of recognition (and redistribution) for parties
that originated in the religious sphere, capa- to conflicts. Closely related to this is the ac-
ble of acknowledging collective responsibility. knowledgment of cultural variability in conflict
Taking a strong stance against a normative for- resolution (Fry & Fry 1997). Avruch & Black
giveness stance are such scholars as Brudholm (1993), in their assessment of conflict resolu-
(2008); he adopts and expands upon Holocaust tion in intercultural settings, propose cultural
survivor Jean Amery’s defense of resentment as differences as a lens through which actual causes
a kind of moral protest. of conflict can be refracted and make a dis-
Constitution-making is a specific form of tinction between “experience near” and “expe-
conflict resolution that acts to reorient and rience distant” concepts of culture operant in
reconfigure polities undergoing transition, such settings. Ross (2007) posits the possibil-
a form that proliferated widely in the late ity of reconstructing cultural identities as for-
twentieth century and continues unabated mer opponents develop more complex views
in the twenty-first (e.g., Iraq and Turkey). of each other through such things as integra-
Hart (2001, p. 153) writes, “A constitution tive narratives. Although some scholars view
has traditionally been seen as the docu- increased cross-cultural contact as augmenting
mentary record of a settlement of conflict. stereotyping (Coser 1956), others (Rydgren &
This traditional constitution is an enactive Sofi 2011) argue that the kind of brokerage
document, consummating the creation of a occurring in interethnic neighborhoods, work-
polity.” Supplementing that traditional view places, and voluntary organizations can actually
of constitutions, Hart adds their important aid reconciliation.
function of recognizing identities. As well, Finally, the issue of power must be counted
drawing on examples from Canada, Northern among the most significant regarding the res-
Ireland, and South Africa, she considers olution of social conflict. We have already en-
constitution-making as, itself, part of the countered this issue in discussions of the role
process of conflict transformation through its of mediators and alternative conflict resolution

forums. Deutsch (1973, p. 9) makes the point interstate armed conflicts between 1989 and
that clarity about the respective power of for- 2003, while during that same period there were
mer competitors and/or antagonists can be one 116 active armed conflicts within 78 individual
productive outcome of conflict and can lead to countries. How did these violent conflicts end?
the establishment of a new equilibrium. Höglund & Kovacs (2010, p. 367) report that
It is also important to acknowledge the
power of institutions deploying their dominant
[b]etween 1989 and 2005 a total of 144 peace
definitions of situations of conflict, at every
agreements were signed in one-third of the
level. Mehan (1990) notes that in the context
121 armed conflicts active since the end of the
of psychiatric hospitals, there is a distinct
Cold War. Forty-three of these agreements
tendency of conflicts between patients and
were comprehensive peace agreements, where
psychiatrists being resolved with institutional

the warring parties agreed to settle the incom-
definitions of the situation trumping lay defini-
patibility at stake. The remaining agreements
tions. Yet power can sometimes be paradoxical.
were either partial agreements regulating only

Schellenberg (1996, p. 67) notes that Simmel
parts of the incompatibility or so called peace
(1964) goes so far as to say that in some
process agreements, aiming at the initiation of
personal conflicts, yielding may be a way of
a negotiated settlement.
demonstrating superiority: “[T]he yielding of
a party before the other has conclusively made
its case . . . is felt by the more powerful one as Although some scholars argue that the more ex-
a sort of offense; it is as if it actually were the treme the violence of the conflict, the lower the
weaker of the two and the other had for some chances for reconciliation (Kaufmann 1996),
reason yielded without having had to.” This other scholars acknowledge that there are vari-
paradox is highlighted in the apparently passive able patterns and degrees of violence afflicting
nature of the victor accepting the surrender of contemporary intractable conflicts (Crocker
the vanquished. In these cases, iconographic et al. 2004).
renderings have a difficult time representing a In any case, social conflicts that involve vio-
passive power (Wagner-Pacifici 2005). lence require mechanisms that halt the violence,
such as cease-fires, armistices, laying down of
arms, decommissioning, and the establishment
RESOLUTION OF SOCIAL of violence-free zones. The manner in which
CONFLICT: FOUR THEMATIC such actions are carried out can have a large im-
ANGLES OF VISION pact on future relations among the former an-
tagonists and on the probability of a recurrence
Violence
of violence (Wagner-Pacifici 2000, 2005). The
Certain social conflicts become violent and re- monopoly of legitimate violence over a given
quire specific mechanisms and actions to end territory that famously defines Weber’s (1958)
the violence. These can be conflicts at any level state ends active violent conflict within that ter-
of social interaction—from fistfights and duels ritory, making such monopolized violence iron-
to large-scale military battles and wars. There ically synonymous with domestic peace (Elias
is, thus, no one pattern of violence—some vio- 1982). This raises the issue of the relation be-
lence is highly choreographed, even ritualized, tween de facto states of affairs at the conclusion
some is limited and rule bound, and some is of social conflict and de jure codification and
unrestrained and chaotic (Collins 2009). recognition of them. Stinchcombe (1999), for
What percentage of recent social conflict example, notes that treaties entailing indepen-
has risen to the status of war? Gawerc (2006, dence of new sovereign entities at the ends of
pp. 435–36) cites a study by Eriksson & revolutions often simply recognize de facto re-
Wallensteen (2004) identifying only seven gional independence already fully developed.

Finally, differentiating among kinds and de- At a more social-philosophical level,

grees of violence (and claiming functionality for Habermas (1995, p. 117) has developed what
some kinds of staged or ritualized violence) is he calls “discourse ethics” to characterize a
anathema to those scholars and practitioners normative strategy of intersubjective argu-
who assert nonviolence as both ethical impri- mentation that recognizes the multiplicity of
matur and strategy for solving social conflict perspectives while “enjoin[ing] those involved
(Sharp 1973, Galtung & Jacobsen 2000, Kurtz to an idealizing enlargement of their interpre-
& Ritter 2011). tive perspectives.” For Habermas, language is
the most powerful and meaningful medium for
the resolution of social conflict.
Language Finally, language can signify through its ab-
Although it is possible to have social conflict sence; that is, through silence. Scholars point
that does not entail violence, it appears to be to the refusal to talk (Tannen 1990), to respond
impossible to conceive of conflict without the explicitly to a prior turn of talk (Greatbatch
active role of language. It is also hard to con- & Dingwall 1997), or to bypass accusations
ceive of a resolution to conflict that does not (Garcia 1991) as forms of conflict resolution or,
proceed, at least partly, through the medium at the minimum, diminution.
of language. Conflict resolution often occurs
through the discourse(s) of negotiation. Firth’s
(1995) collection of 14 studies of negotiation Spaces of Conflict Resolution
discourse surveys a wide variety of situations, Social conflicts almost always have a spatial
not all of them overtly conflictual, eliciting ne- context (Rydgren & Sofi 2011) and often in-
gotiations to shape compromise and bargain volve disputes over territory. Further, conflicts
over wages, among other things. These studies often limn perimeters and points of ingress and
highlight variable strategies and forms (polite- egress, especially when they crystallize into
ness, the use of summarizing statements, cod- standoffs (Wagner-Pacifici 2000). Likewise,
ification of formulations) to demonstrate the the resolution of social conflict occurs in spec-
dynamism of language in interaction (see also ified spaces and places, with access accorded
Grimshaw 1990 for another important collec- to some participants in specified manners.
tion of “conflict talk”). When resolutions take place, antagonists and
Certain speech forms, in particular, have former antagonists must come together to
caught the attention of scholars of conflict. For lay down arms and sign documents, exchange
example, a significant, if equivocal, role has symbolic objects (Wagner-Pacifici 2005), and
been assigned to narrative in such settings as so- put forward competing narratives of causality
cial movements (Polletta 2006), truth and rec- and motive (Ross 2007). Physical separations
onciliation commissions (Minow 1998), medi- occur as former antagonists may be purposely
ation sessions (Cobb & Rifkin 1991), and mass separated by reconfigured territory or outright
media productions (Lauzen & Dozier 2008). relocations. International relations scholar
What seems to matter most are which narrative Kaufmann (1996, p. 161) goes so far as to
comes first (Cobb & Rifkin 1991, p. 61), the way argue that “settlements must aim at physically
that third parties manage the sequence of nar- separating the warring communities and estab-
ratives (Greatbatch & Dingwall 1989), and who lishing a balance of relative strength that makes
is a featured storyteller (for example, Lauzen & it unprofitable for either side to attempt to
Dozier find that having at least one woman sto- revise the territorial settlement.” However, the
ryteller featured in a television show during the act of bringing former enemies together around
2004–2005 season increased the odds of more symbolically charged spaces (battlefields, pa-
equitable use of conflict resolution strategies rade routes, sites of uprisings, memorials)
used by the show’s characters). (Ross 2004, Smithey 2011) and, in the process,

reconfiguring those spaces as more universally apparently successful post-conflict is declared

resonant can aid the resolution of conflict. subsequent to a recognized resolution, the
Space is not always or completely literal. durability of the achieved state of harmony or
Space can also be metaphorical, a kind of peace is uncertain. Once again, the concept of
social space (Black 2011) that rests on an idea reconciliation is presented as a key to long-term
of social distance. Space can also be made stability. Bar-Siman-Tov (2004) emphasizes
irrelevant, at least in its traditional roles. the need to involve members of communities
Brooks (2004) has written about the unraveling in these efforts along with community leaders.
of the traditional paradigm of armed conflict Yet durable peace remains elusive (Höglund &
with the emergence of the war on terror in the Kovacs 2010), with most of the more than 80
late twentieth century, including that aspect of peace agreements signed in the 1990s having
the paradigm that specifies boundaries between failed to lead to durable settlements (Gawerc
zones of war and zones of peace. She argues 2006).
that the deterritorialized nature of this war Part of the challenge of durability regards
potentially allows any space to be designated a the implementation and long-term goals of
zone of combat and allows any such space to be peace accords and other forms of resolution.
dominated by the law of armed conflict, with Some scholars define such goals in a minimalist
troubling domestic consequences. Of course, yet still rigorous way. For example, Kaufmann
such fluidity in definitions of space has wider (1996) describes the work of humanitarian
consequences for social orientation and situ- interveners in ethnic civil war as aiming toward
atedness generally. It makes problematic the “lasting safety” rather than “perfect peace.”
structural framework of precisely such scholars Others critique the concept of post-conflict in
as Black (2011, p. xi), who proposes that the such places as Angola, Guatemala, El Salvador,
“management of conflict depends on its loca- and Mozambique by identifying the enduring
tion and direction in social space, including the effects of conflict that leave “countries . . . awash
social distance between those involved, such as in weapons, with webs of people trained to
their degree of intimacy, inequality, and cul- use them and a civil society accustomed to
tural diversity.” Individuals and collectivities the horrors of violence, as well as widows,
need to be able to accurately calibrate such orphans, whole communities traumatized and
social distance, an ability partly undermined populations distrustful of the authorities”
by the deterritorialization of conflict. (Menjivar & Agadjanian 2011, p. 1). Current
scholarship on conflict transformation (rather
than resolution) (Lederach 2003, Kriesberg
Temporalities of Conflict Resolution 2008, Smithey 2009) represents an attempt to
The resolution of social conflict implies an focus on longer-term relationship building and
ability to demarcate a before and an after—a rebuilding at multiple levels.
period of conflict and one of post-conflict. Dif- Sometimes, of course, time itself is a
ferent mechanisms and concepts of resolution medium of resolution. Teitel (2000, p. 183)
manage this periodicity challenge differently. reminds us that “[s]ometimes time resolves
For example, the imposition of deadlines entails through forgetfulness.” J.K. Olick (personal
an idea of a clean break between a before and correspondence) qualifies this embrace of for-
an after (Wagner-Pacifici 2000), one that often getfulness by describing the way in which such
does not coordinate well with conflicts that are an approach has variable effects. Writing about
protracted and/or intractable (Burton 1987, strategic forgetting and amnesty, he notes,
Kriesberg et al. 1989, Azar 1990, Crocker et al. “We are caught between the equally overstated
2004, Smithey 2011) and/or involve enemies, mantras of Santayana (that whoever forgets the
such as al Qaeda, that are not easily recognized past is condemned to repeat it) and Nietzsche
and located (Brooks 2004). Even when an (that too much memory can be the gravedigger

of the present).” Perhaps one way to imagine of computer-mediated technologies that

resolution beyond this conundrum is to build on complicate any easy distinction between the
Boulding’s (1991) proposal to incorporate a role global and the local. In addition to the changes
for the future, where the present draws on both in kind, the scale of conflict has transformed.
the past and the future to resolve its conflicts. Spatial formations have been reorganized to
be often at once hyperlocal and cosmopolitan,
virtual and material. Technological innovation
CONCLUSION has opened the door to possibilities of cyber
This article surveys the resolution of social con- conflict and revolutionized combat with the
flict vis-à-vis a number of disciplinary and cross- advent of unmanned drones, while at the same
disciplinary lines of inquiry. We propose at least time emerging technologies of surveillance
five different analytical angles of vision through have obviated or foreclosed upon, perhaps at
which to examine this field. The first probes the times to society’s detriment, certain possibili-
extent to which reaching resolution is always ties for overt conflicts in the forms of protest
desirable. The second distinguishes the main and dissent.

types of patterns that conflict and its resolu- Engaging these issues and locating their sig-
tion can take. The third explores power as a nificance within this field requires investigating
key issue, asking specifically who is involved, modalities and domains of conflict that have
in what way, and with what consequences. The yet to be confronted. While acknowledging the
fourth asks how deep any given resolution is, increasingly central role of digitalization and
with the fifth centering on the question of how computer-centered networks, the dynamic na-
enduring. Each interrogative modality helps us ture of conflict resolution studies demands new
think about the distinct social structures and ways of thinking that resist solely “technologi-
processes involved in the study and practice of cal interpretive readings” and instead recognize
conflict resolution. It is important to note that “the embeddedness of these technologies and
the different investigative veins of this typol- their variable outcomes for different economic,
ogy rarely stand alone and, more often than political, and social orders” (Latham & Sassen
not, converge in a striking array of combina- 2005, p. 4). Future contributions to this field
tions within each context of interaction. might expand sociology’s analytical purchases
To conclude, we briefly touch on some new on the precarious objects of study such as
horizons of possibility for the study of conflict cyberspace and globalization by incorporating
and its resolution. The vicissitudes of contem- methods, concepts, and data from disciplines
porary geopolitics have brought with them an as diverse as geography, critical legal studies,
array of new issues and questions about emerg- communication research, and gender studies.
ing forms of sociability and conflict. Many have Ultimately, we believe that such continued
yet to be answered by the existing literature on cross-disciplinary fertilization can help better
conflict resolution. These include new debates explain the forces that dictate or resolve social
over the nature of post-Westphalian sovereign- conflict in the conversations, communities,
ties as well as new deterritorialized networks and institutions of our ever-changing world.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The authors are not aware of any affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that
might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.
LITERATURE CITED
Abel R. 1973. A comparative theory of dispute institutions in society. Law Soc. Rev. 8:217–347

Ackermann A. 1994. Reconciliation as a peace-building process in post-war Europe: the Franco-German case.
Peace Change 19:229–50
Arato A. 2004. Interim imposition. Ethics Int. Aff. 18(3):25–50
Auerbach Y. 2004. The role of forgiveness in reconciliation. See Bar-Siman-Tov 2004, pp. 149–76
Avruch K, Black PW. 1993. Conflict resolution in intercultural settings: problems and prospects. In Conflict
Resolution Theory and Practice: Integration and Application, ed. D Sandole, H van der Merwe, pp. 131–45.
Manchester/New York: Manchester Univ. Press
Azar EE. 1990. The Management of Protracted Social Conflict: Theory and Cases. Hampshire, UK: Dartmouth
Bar-Siman-Tov Y, ed. 2004. From Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press
Bercovitch J. 1984. Social Conflicts and Third Parties. Boulder, CO: Westview
Black D. 1993. The Social Structure of Right and Wrong. San Diego, CA: Academic
Black D. 2011. Moral Time. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press
Borer TA. 2006. Telling the Truths: Truth Telling and Peace Building in Post-Conflict Societies. Notre Dame, IN:
Univ. Notre Dame Press
Boulding E. 1991. The challenge of imaging peace in wartime. Confl. Res. Notes 8(4):34–36
Boulding K. 1962. Conflict and Defense. New York: Harper Torchbooks

Brooks RE. 2004. War everywhere: rights, national security law, and the law of armed conflict in the age of
terror. Univ. Pa. Law Rev. 153:675–761
Brudholm T. 2008. Resentment’s Virtue: Jean Amery and the Refusal to Forgive. Philadelphia: Temple Univ.
Press
Burton JW. 1969. Conflict and Communication: The Use of Controlled Communication in International Relations.
London: Macmillan
Burton JW. 1987. Resolving Deep-Rooted Conflict: A Handbook. Lanham, MD: Univ. Press Am.
Burton JW. 1990. Conflict: Resolution and Prevention. London: Macmillan
Burton JW. 1995. Conflict resolution as a political system. In Beyond Confrontation, ed. JA Vasquez, pp. 115–27.
Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press
Burton JW, Sandole DJ. Generic theory: the basis of conflict resolution. Negot. J. 2:333–44
Bush RA. 1994. The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict Through Empowerment and Recognition. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Celermajer D. 2009. The Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apologies. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
Cobb S, Rifkin J. 1991. Practice and paradox: deconstructing neutrality in mediation. Law Soc. Inq. 16(1):35–62
Collins R. 1990. Violent conflict and social organization: some theoretical implications of the sociology of
war. Amst. Sociol. Tijdschr. 16(4):63–87
Collins R. 1993. What does conflict theory predict about America’s future? Sociol. Perspect. 36:298–313
Collins R. 2009. Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
Coser L. 1956. The Functions of Social Conflict. New York: Free Press
Coser L. 1961. The termination of conflict. J. Confl. Resolut. 5(4):347–53
Coser L. 1967. Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict. New York: Free Press
Crocker C, Hampson FO, Aall P. 2004. Taming Conflicts: Mediation in the Hardest Cases. Washington, DC: US
Inst. Peace Press
Dersley I, Wootton AJ. 2001. In the heat of the sequence: interactional features preceding walkouts from
argumentative talk. Lang. Soc. 30:611–38
Deutsch M. 1973. The Resolution of Conflict. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
Elias N. 1982. The Civilizing Process. Vol. 2: Power and Civility. Transl. E Jephcott. New York: Pantheon
Eriksson M, Wallensteen P. 2004. Armed conflict, 1989–2003. J. Peace Res. 41:625–36
Feer M. 1992. On “Toward a new discourse for mediation: a critique of neutrality” (MQ 9:2). Mediat. Q.
10(2):173–77
Felstiner WL, Abel RL, Sarat A. 1980–1981. The emergence and transformation of disputes: naming, blaming,
claiming. . . . Law Soc. Rev. 15(3/4):631–54
Finnegan AC. 2010. Forging forgiveness: collective efforts amidst war in northern Uganda. Sociol. Inq.
80(3):424–47
Firth A. 1995. The Discourse of Negotiation: Studies of Language in the Workplace. Oxford: Pergamon

Fraser N. 2005. Reframing justice. New Left Rev. 36:1–19

Fraser N, Honneth A. 2003. Redistribution or Recognition: A Political-Philosophical Exchange. New York: Verso
Fry DP, Fry CB. 1997. Culture and conflict resolution models: exploring alternatives to violence. In Cultural
Variation in Conflict Resolution, ed. DP Fry, K Björkqvist, pp. 9–25. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Galtung J. 1975. Three approaches to peace: peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding. In Peace, War
and Defense—Essays in Peace Research, 2:282–304. Copenhagen: Christian Ejlers
Galtung J, Jacobsen CG. 2000. Searching for Peace: The Road to TRANSCEND. London: Pluto
Garcia A. 1991. Dispute resolution without disputing: how the interactional organization of mediation hearings
minimizes argument. Am. Sociol. Rev. 56:818–35
Gawerc M. 2006. Peace building: theoretical and concrete perspectives. Peace Change 31(4):435–78
Goodwin MH. 1990. He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization Among Black Children. Bloomington: Indiana
Univ. Press
Gramsci A. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence & Wishart
Greatbatch D, Dingwall R. 1989. Selective facilitation: some preliminary observations on a strategy used by
divorce mediators. Law Soc. Rev. 23(4):613–42
Greatbatch D, Dingwall R. 1997. Argumentative talk in divorce mediation sessions. Am. Sociol. Rev. 62:151–70
Grimshaw AD. 1990. Conflict Talk: Sociolinguistic Investigations in Conversations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
Univ. Press
Habermas J. 1995. Reconciliation through the public use of reason: remarks on John Rawls’s political liber-
alism. J. Philos. 92(3):109–31
Hampshire S. 2000. Conflict is Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
Hardt M, Negri A. 2000. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
Hart V. 2001. Constitution-making and the transformation of conflict. Peace Change 26(2):153–76
Höglund K, Kovacs MS. 2010. Beyond the absence of war: the diversity of peace in post-settlement societies.
Rev. Int. Stud. 36:367–90
Honneth A. 1996. The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Oxford: Polity
Hopmann PT. 1995. Two paradigms of negotiation: bargaining and problem solving. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit.
Soc. Sci. 542:24–47
Kant I. 1917 (1795). Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay. Transl. MC Smith. London: George Allen & Unwin
Kaufmann C. 1996. Possible and impossible solutions to ethnic civil wars. Int. Secur. 20(4):136–75
Kaye M. 1997. The role of the truth commission in the search for justice, reconciliation and democratization:
the Salvadorian and Honduran cases. J. Lat. Am. Stud. 29:693–716
Kelman H. 1996. The interactive problem-solving approach. In Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses
to International Conflict, ed. CA Crocker, FO Hampson, pp. 501–19. Washington, DC: U.S. Inst. Peace
Kriesberg L. 1973. Sociology of Social Conflicts. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall
Kriesberg L. 2008. Conflict transformation. In The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace & Conflict, ed. LR Kurtz,
pp. 401–12. San Diego, CA: Academic
Kriesberg L, Northrup T, Thorson S, eds. 1989. Intractable Conflicts and Their Transformation. Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse Univ. Press
Kurtz LR, Ritter D. 2011. Conflict resolution, provocation or transformation? Ask Gandhi. Presented at Annu.
Meet. Am. Sociol. Assoc., Eur. Univ. Inst.
Latham R, Sassen S. 2005. Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in the Global Realm. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton Univ. Press
Laue J, Cormick G. 1978. The ethics of intervention in community disputes. In The Ethics of Social Intervention,
ed. H Kelman, D Warwick, pp. 205–32. Washington, DC: Halstead
Lauzen MM, Dozier DM. 2008. Civilizing prime time: gender and conflict resolution in the 2004-05 season.
Mass Commun. Soc. 11(3):300–18
Lederach JP. 2003. The Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Intercourse, PA: Good Books
Lerner RP. 2007. Between conflict and reconciliation: the hard truth. Hum. Stud. 30(2):115–30
Leung S. 2002. Conflict talk: a discourse analytical perspective. Work. Pap., TESOL & Appl. Linguist., Vol. 2,
No. 3. Teachers Coll., Columbia Univ.
McFarland DA. 2004. Resistance as a social drama—a study of change-oriented encounters. Am. J. Sociol.
109(6):1249–318

Mehan H. 1990. Oracular reasoning in a psychiatric exam: the resolution of conflict in language. See Grimshaw
1990, pp. 160–77
Menjivar C, Agadjanian V. 2011. War after peace: enduring social effects of protracted conflicts in South Africa and
Central America. Presented at Annu. Meet. Am. Sociol. Assoc., Las Vegas, NV, Aug. 20–23
Merry SE, Milner N. 1995. The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of Community Mediation in the United
States. Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press
Miall H, Ramsbotham O, Woodhouse T. 1999. Contemporary Conflict Resolution. Malden, MA: Polity
Minow M. 1998. Between Vengeance and Forgiveness. Boston, MA: Beacon
Morrill C. 1995. The Executive Way: Conflict Management in Corporations. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
Nordstrom C. 1997. A Different Kind of War Story. Philadelphia: Univ. Pa. Press
Norval A. 1998. Memory, identity and the (im)possibility of reconciliation: the work of the Truth and Rec-
onciliation Commission in South Africa. Constellations 5(2):250–65
Oberschall A. 1978. Theories of social conflict. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 4:291–315

Olick JK. 2007. The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Moral Responsibility. New York: Routledge
Olick JK. 2009. Times for forgiveness: an historical perspective. In Considering Forgiveness, ed. A Wagner, C
Kuoni, pp. 84–92. New York: Vera List Cent. Arts Polit.
Polletta F. 2006. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
Pondy LR. 1967. Organizational conflict: concepts and models. Adm. Sci. Q. 12:296–320
Reuben RC. 1999–2000. Constitutional gravity: a unitary theory of alternative dispute resolution and public
civil justice. UCLA Law Rev. 47:949–55
Ross MH. 2004. Ritual and the politics of reconciliation. See Bar-Siman-Tov 2004, pp. 199–223
Ross MH. 2007. Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
Rössel J, Collins R. 2001. Conflict theory and interaction rituals: the microfoundations of conflict theory. In
Handbook of Sociological Theory, ed. JH Turner, pp. 509–32. New York: Kluwer Acad./Plenum
Rydgren J, Sofi D. 2011. Interethnic relations in northern Iraq: brokerage, social capital and the potential for
reconciliation. Int. Sociol. 26(1):25–49
Schellenberg JA. 1996. Conflict Resolution: Theory, Research, and Practice. Albany: SUNY Press
Scott J. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT:
Yale Univ. Press
Sharp G. 1973. The Dynamics of Non-Violent Action. Boston: P. Sargent
Silbey S. 1993. Mediation mythology. Negot. J. 9(4):349–53
Simmel G. 1964. The sociological nature of conflict. In Conflict and the Web of Group Affiliations. Transl. KH
Wolff, R Bendix, pp. 13–56. New York: Free Press
Skocpol T. 1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. New York:
Cambridge Univ. Press
Smithey LA. 2009. Conflict transformation, cultural innovation, and loyalist identity in Northern Ireland. In
Culture and Belonging in Divided Societies: Contestation and Symbolic Landscapes, ed. M Ross, pp. 85–106.
Philadelphia: Univ. Pa. Press
Smithey LA. 2011. Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press
Soyinka W. 1999. The Burden of Memory, The Muse of Forgiveness. New York: Oxford Univ. Press
Stinchcombe AL. 1999. Ending revolutions and building new governments. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 2:49–73
Stinchcombe AL. 2001. When Formality Works: Authority and Abstraction in Law and Organizations. Chicago:
Univ. Chicago Press
Tannen D. 1990. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Morrow
Teitel R. 2000. Transitional Justice. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press
Tilly C. 1998. Durable Inequalities. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
Turner V. 1974. Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ.
Press
Vuchinich S. 1987. Starting and stopping spontaneous family conflicts. J. Marriage Fam. 49:591–601
Vuchinich S. 1990. The sequential organization of closing in verbal family conflict. See Grimshaw 1990,
pp. 118–38

Wagner-Pacifici R. 1986. The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
Wagner-Pacifici R. 1994. Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia versus MOVE. Chicago: Univ.
Chicago Press
Wagner-Pacifici R. 2000. Theorizing the Standoff: Contingency in Action. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
Wagner-Pacifici R. 2005. The Art of Surrender: Decomposing Sovereignty at Conflict’s End. Chicago: Univ.
Chicago Press
Weber M. 1958. Politics as a vocation. In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. HH Gerth, CW Mills,
pp. 77–128. New York: Oxford Univ. Press

SO38-Frontmatter ARI 28 May 2012 12:26
Annual Review
of Sociology
Contents Volume 38, 2012
Prefatory Chapters
My Life in Sociology
Nathan Glazer p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 1
The Race Discrimination System

Barbara Reskin p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p17
Theory and Methods
Instrumental Variables in Sociology and the Social Sciences
Kenneth A. Bollen p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p37
Rational Choice Theory and Empirical Research: Methodological
and Theoretical Contributions in Europe
Clemens Kroneberg and Frank Kalter p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p73
Social Processes
Network Effects and Social Inequality
Paul DiMaggio and Filiz Garip p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p93
Youth Political Participation: Bridging Activism and Electoral Politics
Dana R. Fisher p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 119
Brokerage
Katherine Stovel and Lynette Shaw p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 139
Group Culture and the Interaction Order: Local Sociology
on the Meso-Level
Gary Alan Fine p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 159
Resolution of Social Conflict
Robin Wagner-Pacifici and Meredith Hall p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 181
Toward a Comparative Sociology of Valuation and Evaluation
Michèle Lamont p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 201
Construction, Concentration, and (Dis)Continuities
in Social Valuations
Ezra W. Zuckerman p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 223
v
Institutions and Culture

A Cultural Sociology of Religion: New Directions
Penny Edgell p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 247
Formal Organizations
Status: Insights from Organizational Sociology
Michael Sauder, Freda Lynn, and Joel M. Podolny p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 267
Outsourcing Social Transformation: Development NGOs
as Organizations
Susan Cotts Watkins, Ann Swidler, and Thomas Hannan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 285
Political and Economic Sociology

The Arc of Neoliberalism

Miguel A. Centeno and Joseph N. Cohen p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 317
Differentiation and Stratification
Economic Insecurity and Social Stratification
Bruce Western, Deirdre Bloome, Benjamin Sosnaud, and Laura Tach p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 341
The Sociology of Elites
Shamus Rahman Khan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 361
Social and Economic Returns to College Education
in the United States
Michael Hout p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 379
Individual and Society
Race Relations Within the US Military
James Burk and Evelyn Espinoza p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 401
Demography
The Future of Historical Family Demography
Steven Ruggles p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 423
Causes and Consequences of Skewed Sex Ratios
Tim Dyson p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 443
Marital Instability and Female Labor Supply
Berkay Özcan and Richard Breen p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 463
Urban and Rural Community Sociology
Urbanization and the Southern United States
Richard Lloyd p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 483
Making a Place for Space: Spatial Thinking in Social Science
John R. Logan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 507
vi Contents
Sociology and World Regions

Islam Moves West: Religious Change in the First and Second
Generations
David Voas and Fenella Fleischmann p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 525
Indexes
Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 29–38 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 547

Cumulative Index of Chapter Titles, Volumes 29–38 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 551
Errata
An online log of corrections to Annual Review of Sociology articles may be found at
http://soc.annualreviews.org/errata.shtml
Contents vii

Wagner - Pacifi y Hall PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Wagner - Pacifi y Hall PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Wagner - Pacifi y Hall PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SO38CH09-Wagner ARI 2 June 2012 11:56

Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2012. 38:181–99 Keywords

INTRODUCTION toward practical and programmatic handbooks

available and employed for their resolution.

an argument at a family dinner (Vuchinich

182 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

social resonance of conﬂict: “All conﬂict Deutsch’s (1973) social-psychological ap-

immoral, improper, or impolite.” or destructive. Habermas (1995), in his philo-

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 183

184 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 185

TYPES OF CONFLICT pressure points aimed at resolution or at

the lack of a rational resolution at their close

186 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 187

188 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

as impartiality and neutrality as equidistance, Reconciliation

Cobb & Rifkin, attention to narrative sequence

Salvador, Peru, and Mozambique, among

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 189

190 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

Amnesties evoke attitudes of forgiveness, a continuing negotiation and conversation. Ac-

that “[c]ontemporary politics are ﬁlled with

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 191

psychiatrists being resolved with institutional

were either partial agreements regulating only

192 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

Finally, differentiating among kinds and de- At a more social-philosophical level,

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 193

reconﬁguring those spaces as more universally apparently successful post-conﬂict is declared

194 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

of the present).” Perhaps one way to imagine of computer-mediated technologies that

desirable. The second distinguishes the main and dissent.

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 195

Boulding K. 1962. Conﬂict and Defense. New York: Harper Torchbooks

196 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

Fraser N. 2005. Reframing justice. New Left Rev. 36:1–19

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 197

Oberschall A. 1978. Theories of social conﬂict. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 4:291–315

198 Wagner-Pacifici · Hall

www.annualreviews.org • Resolution of Social Conflict 199

Contents Volume 38, 2012

The Race Discrimination System

Institutions and Culture

Political and Economic Sociology

The Arc of Neoliberalism

Sociology and World Regions

Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 29–38 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 547

You might also like