Communication And Conflict Studies

This book explores relations between communication and conflict. How one thinks about communication is demonstrated as shaping how one approaches conflict, and vice versa. Individuals engaged in conflict transformation apply the tools and strategies of their field while communicating to widely divergent audiences. Professional communicators not only create an infinite range of documents to help ensure that work is accomplished effectively, efficiently, and safely, but also address conflicts in the workplace and in the public sphere. Thoughtfully exploring connections between communication studies and conflict studies, this collection engages with research and practice on topics including the potential of social media during revolution, the role of gender during mediation, and the importance of critical genre usage during industrial crisis.

This book analyses the use of communication in resolving conflicts, with a focus on de-escalation and processes of peacebuilding and peace formation. From the employment of hate radio in the Rwanda genocide, to the current conflict between Russia and the Ukraine following events in the Crimea, communication and the media are widely recognized as powerful tools in conflicts and war. Although there has been significant academic attention on the relationship between the media, conflict and war, academic efforts to understand this relationship have tended to focus primarily on the links between communication and conflict, rather than on communication and peace. In order to make sense of peace it is essential to look at communication in its many facets, mediated or not. This is true within many of the diverse strands that make up the field of communication and peace, but it is also true in the sense that a holistic and interdisciplinary approach is missing from the literature. This book addresses this widely acknowledged lacuna by providing an interdisciplinary perspective on the field, bringing together relevant, but so far largely isolated, streams of research. In doing so, it aims to provide a platform for further reflection of the meaning of, and requirements for, peace in our contemporary world with a focus on de-escalation, conflict transformation, reconciliation and processes of peacebuilding – as opposed to conflict escalation or crisis intervention. This volume will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, peacebuilding, media and communication studies, security studies and IR in general.

A transformational approach to conflict argues that conflicts must be viewed as embedded within broader relational patterns and social and discursive structures. Central to this book is the idea that the origins of transformation can be momentary, situational, and small-scale or large-scale and systemic. The momentary involves shifts and meaningful changes in communication and related patterns that are created in communication between people. Momentary transformative changes can radiate out into more systemic levels, and systemic transformative changes can radiate inward to more personal levels. This book engages this transformative framework by bringing together current scholarship that epitomizes and highlights the contribution of communication scholarship and communication-centered approaches to conflict transformation in personal, family, and working relationships and organizational contexts. The resulting volume presents an engaging mix of scholarly chapters, think pieces, and personal experiences from the field of practice and everyday life. The book embraces a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, including narrative, critical, intersectional, rhetorical, and quantitative. It makes a valuable additive contribution to the ongoing dialogue across and between disciplines on how to transform conflicts creatively, sustainably, and ethically.

"This volume brings to the forefront a variety of critical conflicts in the world and a wide spectrum of peace communication approaches. The volume provides an in-depth look at how intricate and intractable conflicts can be and how the communicative aspects of conflicts can be equally challenging. The volume includes an incisive review and guide to past and present knowledge in the field of conflict and peace communication. It features an outstanding team of scholars, practitioners and activists and is truly interdisciplinary in spirit. It is divided into five easy to naviagate sections titled Theory Development, Method Development, Traditional/Digital Media and Peace and Conflict, Case Studies, and Innovative Approaches. A key theme throughout the Handbook is the utilization of past conflict communication theory to posit workable and innovative peace communication strategies that inform today's conflicts and can be a vital register of such communicative practices for the future. The volume also focuses on strategies of peace communication from the margins that acknowledge and elevate solutions for and from those who are most vulnerable. This volume will be indispensable to the teaching, study and practice of conflict negotiation, peacebuilding, intercultural communication, positively affecting race relations and much more. This timely publication provides students, academics and practitioners tools to navigate more and more complex local and global conflict and peace communication issues in our world."--

This book brings together leading edge scholarship and emerging approaches to conflict transformation from a communication perspective. It illustrates the centrality of communication in analyzing, understanding, and creating transformation in community, environmental, regional, and global conflicts.

Conflict and Communication introduces students to important theories, key concepts, and essential research in the study of conflict, along with practical skills for managing conflict in their daily lives. Author Fred E. Jandt illustrates how effective communication can be used to manage conflict in relationships and within organizational and group contexts. Along with foundational coverage of conflict styles, mediation, and negotiation skills, the text also features new and emerging models of conflict management, including chapters examining the challenges of conflict between cultures, a chapter on family and organizations, information on both face-to-face and online bullying, a detailed step-by-step guide for mediation, and more emphasis on online dispute resolution.

Contemporary Trends in Conflict and Communication: Technology and Social Media examines the myriad ways conflict communication occurs in mediated spaces, whether through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, on private social enterprise spaces, or through formal online dispute resolution (ODR) technologies. We were experiencing the increase of conflict communication in hybrid spaces prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the global lockdown that shifted everyone to remote teaching, learning, and working heightened our attention to the impact of technology and social media on conflict dynamics. While social media is often implicated in the spread of alternative facts, false news, and intimidation, technology and new media also have the capacity to enhance and transform conflict communication in education, workplace, and socio-political settings. The contributors to this volume showcase cutting-edge research that helps us make sense of the times we are living in and is organized in three sections: (1) Using technology to promote dialogue and collaboration, (2) Conflict communication on social media, (3) Online conflict management in education, training, and practice. This collection is relevant to scholars of conflict studies as it highlights key trends and areas for future research to improve conflict communication, dialogue, and collaboration and proposes ideas for using technology and social media to transform and connect rather than polarize and divide.