Ways to resolve conflicts . Human existence is accompanied at every step by a variety of problematic situations that provoke acute confrontation. Some of these situations waste potential and time, poisoning people with negative emotions and having a detrimental effect on mental well-being and physical health. There are no individuals in the universe who do not find themselves in situations of confrontation. That is why it is necessary to study ways to resolve conflicts, the psychology of which is quite multifaceted. After all, many contradictions arise due to the characteristics of the temperament and character of the subjects. In addition, there are a number of individuals whose communicative interaction gives rise to conflicts. Therefore, the goal of conflict management is not to eliminate or ignore them, but to prevent opposing behavior associated with violent or destructive methods of resolving confrontation, and to direct conflicting opponents to find a mutually acceptable solution.
Ways to resolve social conflict
A conflict is a clash between two subjects or social communities due to the desire to possess something that is equally valuable to both parties.
The subjects of the conflict process are the participants in the confrontation, among whom there are instigators, witnesses, accomplices and mediators. Individuals who observe a confrontation situation from the outside are called witnesses. Instigators are subjects who push other individual participants to confrontation. Accomplices are persons who contribute to the escalation of the conflict with the help of advice, recommendations, and technical means. Mediators are people who try to prevent, stop or resolve a conflict situation.
You need to understand that not all persons participating in the conflict are in confrontation with each other. In addition, for the development of a conflict situation, a reason and a reason are necessary, as well as the presence of a subject of confrontation.
The benefit or issue that provoked the emergence of confrontation is the subject of conflict. Its causes are objective conditions, events that predetermine the emergence of a conflict. The cause of the conflict always has a relationship with the needs of the warring parties.
The reason for the emergence of a conflict situation may be a minor episode that contributes to its occurrence. At the same time, the situation of confrontation may not transform into a conflict.
To understand the causes and ways of resolving conflicts, it is necessary to distinguish between contradiction and conflict. A contradiction is a fundamental disagreement in important ethnic, political and economic interests. It is the foundation of any conflict process and is found in a feeling of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs and the desire to change it. The contradiction does not necessarily develop into open confrontation. In other words, contradiction expresses an invisible and static factor of the situation, and conflict is mobile and open.
Social conflict is the highest degree of escalation of contradictions in the structure of relationships between individuals, social groups, institutions, and society as a whole and is characterized by the multiplication of opposing views, interests of individual subjects and communities.
The cause of the conflict is always interconnected with the needs of the participants in the confrontation. The following reasons provoking social conflicts are identified:
- social heterogeneity of society, the presence of opposing life guidelines and views;
— differences in social status, income level, culture, education, access to information;
- differences of a religious nature;
— behavior of individuals, their socio-psychological characteristics (temperament, intelligence).
Basic ways to resolve conflicts. In order to skillfully manage conflicts and competently use ways to resolve conflicts in a team, it is necessary to know the stages that a social conflict goes through as it develops. There are three main stages, namely pre-conflict, conflict and the stage of conflict resolution. At the pre-conflict stage, participants realize the presence of emotional tension, try to overcome it, strive to understand the causes of the conflict, evaluate their own capabilities, and also choose a method of influencing the opposing side.
The conflict stage is the conflict itself. It is characterized by a lack of respect and the presence of mistrust towards the enemy. At this stage, agreement is impossible. The conflict stage is impossible without a reason or incident, that is, without social actions aimed at transforming the behavior of the warring parties. This stage also covers open and covert actions of opponents.
The conflict resolution stage marks the end of the incident, that is, the elimination of the factors that provoked the clash.
Experts identify the following ways to resolve conflicts in a team:
- solving the problem with the help of mutual concessions of the participating individuals, that is, the parties preferred a compromise;
- peaceful conversation between rivals to resolve the problem - negotiations;
- turning to a third party to resolve the conflict in absentia - mediation;
- seeking help in resolving the confrontation from an authority vested with special powers (arbitration or arbitration);
- unilateral use of power or position by the participant who considers himself stronger, is higher on the social ladder or service hierarchy.
Social, ethnosocial conflicts and ways to resolve them are as follows: restoration, waiting (non-interference), renewal.
Restoration represents the return of the community to the pre-conflict stage, that is, to the previous structure of social life, social institutions, which, taking into account new circumstances, continue to exist.
Waiting (non-interference) is the expectation that everything will work out without intervention, that is, by itself. This “strategy” follows the path of delaying and various reformist delays, shifting on the spot. If the confrontation does not threaten general failure, then in an open society, the described strategy of behavior can be fruitful under certain conditions.
Renewal is an active way out of the conflict process through discarding, renouncing the old and developing a new one.
Any social conflict is characterized by specificity and course in certain social circumstances. Therefore, psychology argues that the ways to resolve conflicts must correspond to the current situation.
And a global strategy for exiting collective confrontation should cover and combine the main ways of resolving conflicts listed above. The key to resolving any conflict situation is renewal. However, it is impossible to update absolutely everything due to the inertia of human consciousness. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the natural reaction of individuals - a rollback to a number of previous forms of being and values.
What are the causes?
Why do they arise? The causes of national and interethnic conflicts are slightly different. The first group includes the following factors:
- Ethnopsychological . Destruction of the usual way of cultural life, fear of losing established national values, rejection of new norms.
- Political . Different political leaders can have a certain influence on national communities, and this influence is not always positive. The impact can be very negative. There are cases in history when peoples were persecuted and discriminated against due to certain political actions.
- Socio-economic. If a certain ethnic society is criticized by society, its rights are infringed, this also affects the economic component of individuals. This infringement can lead to conflict.
- Cultural .
Conflicts occur due to cultural differences between certain ethnic groups that cannot accept the existence of these differences. Criticism and discrimination are an integral part of such a situation. Peoples cease to understand and hear each other; they try to prove that one ethnic group is better than another. Claims to cultural and traditional features are indicated, to which the opposition reacts especially emotionally.
The causes of interethnic conflicts include other factors:
- Geographical Disconformity .
Peoples are not happy with the establishment of territorial boundaries; the belonging of a territory to one or another ethnic group may be disputed. The situation becomes especially complicated if one territory once belonged to the first party, and after a certain time to the second. Then both peoples have the same rights and the fate of the territory becomes uncertain. - Social dissatisfaction . It can manifest itself both within one state and several at once.
- Story . In the past, there may have been contradictions and misunderstandings between certain peoples. Some issues may concern ethnic groups in the present, causing conflicts.
- Cultural and linguistic claims . Most often they happen due to the suppression of culture, the prohibition of a certain language.
- Natural resources . Different peoples can fight and war for them.
- Difference of religions . Commitment to one faith or another can become a real cause for conflict. A people can adhere to one religion and criticize another, imposing their views on their opponents.
A clash of views can arise for various reasons.
These can be both material, completely understandable contradictions, and intangible ones related to certain ideologies that make up a particular culture.
About interethnic relations and conflicts in this video:
Ways to resolve interethnic conflicts
Modern existence is saturated to the limit with various conflicts. However, even under such conditions, interethnic conflicts and clashes occupy a special place in terms of severity, scale and consequences for the state. In addition, they are often intertwined with other types of conflicts, namely: political disagreements, economic confrontation, etc. Often they serve only as a kind of amplifier, and sometimes as a barrier, for confrontation between political and other forces.
Ethnosocial conflicts and ways to resolve them. Ethnosocial clashes, like other conflicts, are characterized by the presence of a subject of confrontation, the parties involved, and stages.
From the point of view of law, the subject of interethnic clashes can be territories due to a dispute between ethnic groups, or disputes of a property or non-property nature between representatives of different nationalities. Often disagreements arise in issues of property rights, civil rights, administrative, and cultural rights. However, they are often quite closely intertwined, since administrative and civil discrimination often automatically awakens discrimination in the field of property and social rights.
The subjects of the conflict are considered to be different national communities living on the territory of one state. From a legal point of view, an interethnic conflict situation seems to break up into a mass of more detailed conflicts, the direct participants of which are legal entities and individuals: parliamentary parties, officials, government bodies, economic structures, various civil associations, individuals and their families. National communities are a kind of lobby, that is, pressure and interest groups.
Interethnic conflicts do not arise out of nowhere. For their appearance, as a rule, a certain deviation from the usual way of life is necessary, the destruction of the value system, which is accompanied by confusion, a feeling of frustration and discomfort, a feeling of doom, and often even a loss of the meaning of existence. In such circumstances, in the regulation of intersocial relationships in society, the ethnic factor comes to the fore as the more ancient one, performing the function of group survival in phylogenetic processes.
The action of the described psychological mechanism occurs in this way. When a threat arises to the existence of society as a single and independent subject of intersocial relationships, at the level of public perception of circumstances, social identification on a national basis occurs, socio-psychological defense mechanisms are activated, manifested in the form of intra-group cohesion, increased cohesion of “we”, external social discrimination and isolation from “ not ours." Such phenomena only lead to an escalation of confrontation.
Ways and methods of resolving conflicts caused by national discrimination. The analysis of a conflict situation that arises between states must begin with the definition of the “aggressor” - the actor to blame for the confrontation. Discarding the figure of the “aggressor”, ignoring it and dissolving it in a variety of factors of an abstract nature actually stimulates the “aggressor” to take active actions, which makes the “victim” even more defenseless. A serious obstacle to resolving confrontations is the fear of the ruling elite and social movements of ending up in the category of undemocratic, uncivilized states, countries with a totalitarian regime.
Analysis of many armed confrontations allows us to conclude:
- most interethnic conflicts arise as a result of disagreements regarding the status of the national-territorial structure, the fairness of the borders that separate ethnic groups;
- the use of paramilitary forces in interethnic conflicts must a priori be justified from a political point of view and the position of law, be of an exceptional nature, and the boundaries of their use must be delineated by law;
— militarized conflicts, as well as military confrontation, must be fought long before they arise.
Before you begin to look for specific causes and ways to resolve interethnic conflicts, you must try to reduce the degree of tension that has arisen between the warring parties. After which communication channels are established and dialogue begins. Often, attempts by participants in the confrontation to immediately resolve the problem through negotiations lead to collapse. The most important factor facilitating the establishment of contacts is the presence of trust among all conflicting parties. The main condition for preventing any confrontation, in particular armed conflict, is the harmonization of interethnic relations in the state. To achieve this, it is necessary to apply the following ways to prevent and resolve interethnic conflicts:
- the presence of a legal democratic state (there are two main guarantees of social peace, namely: a strong state based on a fair legislative framework, and a rational organization of society in which every individual has an income that allows him to exist with dignity;
— ensuring the integrity of the country, recognizing all powers of the authorities in protecting the state, fighting crime;
- providing living minorities with autonomy and the opportunity to independently decide on their own affairs, including taxes;
— decentralization, that is, delegation of authority to make government decisions to the local level;
— maintaining a policy to prevent various differences from escalating into conflict situations ending in bloodshed;
— democratization of relations between states, rejection of groundless interpretation of generally accepted norms of international law;
— equality of all nationalities, satisfaction of their linguistic, national, cultural, religious and other needs.
The main ways and methods of conflict resolution are presented below.
First, the avoidance method is used, which includes:
— ignoring the enemy, lack of response to the actions of the opposite side;
— the departure of the national leader from the political arena;
— resettlement of representatives of individual ethnic communities.
The next method is “postponement,” which includes such a path as avoiding confrontation and waiting for changes in circumstances and the emergence of favorable conditions conducive to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The third method is negotiation, in which participants themselves choose a more preferable action. Moreover, the number of participants in the negotiation process does not necessarily have to be equal to the number of parties involved in the confrontation. There is also such a method as arbitration, which consists of voluntarily transferring the conflict to a third party for trial. In this case, the decision of the third party is binding on the opposing parties.
The fifth method is to bring together the interests and views of the conflicting parties with the help of a mediator, either by organizing investigative commissions that either establish the facts provoking the confrontation or examine them, or by forming conciliation commissions capable of developing specific recommendations to the warring parties.
