The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution: A Practitioner's Guide Review

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The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution: A Practitioner's Guide ReviewIt has been quite a while since I have been excited about a book in our field. With so many new titles popping up in the standard cataloges and the shelves of bookstores, you would think there would either be 1) more to be excited about, or 2) nothing new to get excited about. Not untilBernie Mayer's brand new "The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution: A Practitioner's Guide" have I felt the resources of paper and ink, and human time and energy were well worth it.
This book covers all the things I have wanted a conflict resolution book to do. It covers all the key pieces and concepts of conflict and conflict resolution; it understands and articulates the distinction between conflict resolution and mediation; it speaks to the concerns that have been raised about social justice, power, culture, and the nature(s) of mediation.
When I have taught in the past, and in my current course in conflict management and mediation, I end up using a chapter from here, an article from there, and creating additional writings and handouts as there has not been one title that has given a good description of conflict resolution principles, used good examples from different arenas, and addressed information and questions about mediation. Bernie has done this for me -I mean us- here; the book is readable and understandable, and uses illustrative case examples to help make points clear.
In addition - and this really knocks my socks off - it isn't another how-to book for those looking to do better in their mediation business; yes, the understandings of conflict presented here will help them do that as the author explains. But what I am so, so happy about is that it is from that place where conflict resolution and the work we do in it isn't just about a profession and a business, but the meanings and values that are at the heart of it.In Bernie's words: ". . .In its earlier days it was easy to think of conflict resolution as a social movement, and to focus on demonstrating its relevance and effectiveness, creating new applications, and promoting a common set of practice principles and procedures. Now that the field is more accepted and institutionalized, it is easy to lose sight of the foundational values of our work. . . As we practitioners move from the initial excitement of creating a new field of practice to the less dramatic but equally important challenge of deepening the field's foundation and institutional structure, it is crucial that we retain a clear view of the core values of our work."
It is this `deepening' that has caught my attention and gotten my praise. In my courses I have been talking about power sources, how the dominant culture effects the work and its appropriateness and inappropriateness, even using examples of the Roma and Kosovo. And here they are all in this book.
Bernie is also upfront about not wanting to be "overly prescriptive about what conflict resolvers should do" (he in fact concentrates on the useful ways "thinking about conflict and its resolution") or present set, rigid theories. Instead he allows the reader to take it all in and reflect on their own work and experiences and he hopes "this will stimulate readers to deepen their own thinking or to put forward their own ideas, sometimes, perhaps, by way of disagreeing with mine." Others have spoken somewhat similar words; this time you believe it.
I hope I am asked to teach again next spring. Now I have the book I would have written had Bernie not already done it.The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution: A Practitioner's Guide Overview

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Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age Review

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Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age ReviewThe question of self identity is a classical philosophical question and also a fundamental issue for any social/ sociological theory which deals with the subject, the active agent. The approach to this issue can be either set out in a philosophical manner or that of a social science. By "social science" I refer to the narrow sense of a somewhat empirical and experimental tradition.
Giddens adopts the latter. He argues from results of psychological experiments that human beings are subject to a sense of security since a newborn. By the sense can one assure the continuity of the self-identity. The continuity furtherly guarantees that the person not get into psychological disorder.
The self-identity in "high-modernity" has to cope with new problems. Giddens avoids using the term "postmodern", but he does points out the failure of the Enlightenment project which other postmodernists recognize. Giddens admits that human knowledge cannot reach so far as to set out a orderly plan of the society. The uncertainty signified by the sphere of the unknown/ unrealizable forms a great challenge to the self identity he mentioned above. Giddens tries to describe the society in high-modernity as a "risk community" and politics of life. The former concept may be inspired by Ulrich Beck. And the latter means an incorporation of global or domestic issues into everyday decisions, such as whether or not to buy environment-friendly products.
The style of this book can be seemed as a detail part of his structuration theory, which attempts to combined the conflicting individualist and structuralist perspectives. Those who are familiar with the agent/ structure controversies may find this book helpful.
On the contrary, those who have a better taste for philosophy or postmodern discourse would find the arguments of Giddens implausible. He seeks justifications from the validity and reliability of psychological experiments. Unfortunately, psychology itself is suspicious, since the explanation and attribution of experiment results are also subject to our cognitive framework. This critique may leads to phenomenological or postmodern reflexions, the former of which remains in line with subject philosophy while the latter of which de-construct the subject and put their eyes on language, discourse and desire.Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age Overview

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Leadership Without Easy Answers Review

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Leadership Without Easy Answers ReviewIf you're tired of the quick leadership fad books (10 steps to becoming a great leader, Leadership Lessons of So and So, etc) then this book is for you. We all take it for granted that we know what Leadership is. Heifetz does an excellent job of questioning our traditional assumptions of leadership by making a distinction between leadership and positions of authority. Too often we mistaken positions of authority as being leaders but in reality we all know many people who are leaders who aren't in positions of authority as well as people who are in positions of authority that we would never consider to be leaders.
Authority is confered power to perform a service - it's an expectation or a series of expectations. In this way, authority can be given and taken away. Heifetz describes two different kinds of authority: formal and informal. Formal authority is given to a person through a contract, job description, legislation, etc. Informal authority is given or taken away by the community to the person in authority - often its unspoken expecations. You can see this interaction all the time - for instance a teacher has the formal authority to instruct the class but students may not give the teacher the authority (informal) to do that and will not pay attention. Often you have to increase your informal authority in order to exercise your formal authority. In the work place you can see this play out too where a person may have positional authority but the subordinates don't respect that authority.
Heifetz explores leadership with a number of psychology tools. For instance, he makes constant reference to a "holding environment" which has it orgins in psychoanalysis. A holding environment consists of any relationship in which one party has the power to hold the attention of another party and facilitate adaptive work.
This is crucial in Heifetz's view of leadership in that a leader is someone who mobilizes a person or community to confront difficult issues/problems and to determine solutions. Often, people or a community will look to the leader to solve a problem but rarely are clear answers and solutions available. A leader must facilitate the community wrestling with the deeper issues rather than just simply trying to fix everything with simple answers. The issue of violence in schools is an example. While people look to positions of authority to solve the problem through gun control, school safety programs, etc. - those are all technical answers for something that is truly an adaptive problem for the community. It is a challenge to have the community question its own attitudes, actions, behavior, or beliefs.
Heifetz uses the rest of the book to describe adaptive leadership with examples ranging from civil rights to political decisions leading to war. It is an amazing exploration of leadership with Heifetz articulating different aspects of leadership that haven't been described before.
Again, this is not a step by step approach to leadership, but rather taking a step back and asking ourselves just what is leadership, what role does it play in society, what role should it play, and why are people resistant to it at times. From this understanding, you'll be better able to determine your own leadership strategies.Leadership Without Easy Answers Overview

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