Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Many other people are doing important and interesting work in an effort to move beyond intractability--in theory and in practice, in different locations and on different conflicts. Please share what you are doing here so we can all learn from each other.
Things we are interested in hearing about, for instance, include (but are not limited to)
- Books and articles you have written or are writing that relate to either intractable conflict theory, intervention practice, or both.
- Practice activities you have undertaken or know about that are likely to be of interest to others.
- Constructive advocacy efforts.
- Any other work that relates to our topics here that might be of interest to our visitors.
Links to things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing to better address the tough issues being raised by the
Hyper-Polarization Discussion.
There are four ways to participate in BI Seminars and Discussions.
- Visiting and Searching: Browse the BI homepage or particular seminar landing pages (particularly the right side) to see what's new (or what you may have missed), or use our search tool if you are looking for specific information.
- Subscribe to Our Free Substack Newsletter: You can sign up for Beyond Intractability's newsletter and get updates about everything that is new sent directly to your email.
- Discuss: We are inviting anyone with thoughts on how to better meet the many challenges posed by hyper-polarization to contribute their ideas to the ongoing BI/CRQ discussion on the topic. The invitation to participate contains more details.
- Contribute: We, of course, appreciate financial contributions which we are now collecting with a GoFundMe Page. We also welcome suggestions about anything that might be done to strengthen Beyond Intractability, as well as information about things that you are doing that relate to BI. (We add information about these activities to our Colleague Activities Blog.)
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What If Listening Isn’t the Key to Persuasion – BCB #119
Listening may not change minds like we thought it did. Still, there are many other effective ways to build understanding and collaboration among those who disagree with you.
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The Wisdom of Cicadas
Those of us paying attention to various social movements for love, dignity, and justice should recognize the natural wisdom of a periodic convergence of broods.
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Dignity Wins at the VP Debate
The Dignity Index scored the two US Vice Presidential Candidates at their debate, finding that both candidates scored well, treating the other with respect.
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The Great Betrayal: How I messed with Progressive Perfection.
Our colleague Ashok Panikkar explains how he came to believe that progressive beliefs are not always correct -- and what happened when he said so.
Although we initially created a form for blog submissions, we also accept regular emails via our contact form.
We ask only that participants follow a few simple and common sense ground rules:
- The suggested submission must address some aspect of the intractable conflict problem in a constructive way.
- Advocacy projects must reflect an honest effort to be as constructive as possible, trying to understand and work with –or at least not further alienate--adversaries wherever possible.
- We understand that there are likely to be significant differences of opinion regarding what is "constructive" or not, and we will err on the side of inclusion. We are simply trying to avoid highly inflammatory posts which are so rampant in social media, and making the conflict problem worse.
