By
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess
When we first started working on BI, colleagues often asked us "who is your audience"? We annoyed many of them by answering "everyone"! We understand that a large part of our audience is likely to be students—high school through Ph.D. students who are in a "learning mode." But we believed at the beginning, and believe even more strongly now, that we are not going to overcome our serious societal-level conflict problems unless everyone—youth and adults in all walks of life—understand how dangerous our societal conflicts have become, how they, personally are probably making them worse, and how we all can and must take steps to change our behavior to reduce social conflict before it destroys us all.
Beyond Intractability and the newer Moving Beyond Intractability MOOS recognize that those interested in more constructive approaches to conflict approach the problem from very different perspectives and with differing levels of background and time availability. We have, therefore, tried to set up the system in ways that, within the limits of available resources, do the best we can to meet the needs of five key audiences:
- Citizens wanting information about conflict problems and more constructive ways of handling them.
- Advocates and Activists wanting to pursue their causes more effectively, avoiding, whenever possible, destructive conflict dynamics that prevent progress.
- Students and Educators at the undergraduate and graduate level looking for a structured exploration of the intractable conflict problem and how these conflicts can best be approached.
- Practitioners in formal and informal conflict roles looking for ways to improve their practice, or looking for resources for their clients.
- Expert scholars and practitioners with substantial background in intractable conflict-related fields interested in helping to advance the frontier of the field.
In order to provide materials that would interest each of these groups, we have developed several different Seminars, Blogs, and Social Media streams of materials. Although everyone is welcome to utilize any and all of these options, the ones that we think are likely to be of interest to each group are detailed below. We should also note that all of our materials try hard to avoid technical jargon, in an effort to make them understandable by people from many different fields, and for whom English may not be their native language. We also honor many different "ways of knowing and learning." While this is a university-based project, we tried very hard to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that scientific insight is the only valid form of knowledge.
For Everyone:
While we have a number of different seminars designed for these different audiences--as described below--we also have a newsletter that contains articles and information that has broad applicability. The current newsletter started in April 2017, and was distributed through MailChimp until June of 2022, when we are switching over to SubStack. Click here to subscribe to the newsletter.
For Citizens:
We are assuming that this group does not have much background conflict knowledge, nor do they have a whole lot of time to acquire the same. But many do try to keep abreast of civic issues and are interested in learning more effective ways of engaging in both personal and public conflicts. The following resources have many "bite-sized" materials that can be browsed, and/or searched to find just the "nuggets" that are most useful. Suggested resources include:
- Things YOU Can Do to Help - This blog contains posts highlighting things everyone--not just powerful people, not just important or rich people--but everyone of us --can do to help limit the dynamics that lead to destructive and intractable conflicts. It includes a series of short posts explaining each idea, links to additional information, and supporting Infographics.
- CRInfo "Core Knowledge" Articles - these provide very short overviews of about 100 key conflict and conflict-resolution ideas.
- The Conflict Fundamentals Seminar - This seminar provides short overviews of the big and largely "proven" ideas from the peace and conflict field. It also contains information on how to deal with day-to-day conflicts--how to communicate more effectively, how to negotiate, when to seek help, etc.
- Beyond Intractability Blogs. Our current blog focuses particularly on the hyper-polarization crisis facing the United States and many other nations. This blog contains a discussion that is just now starting as a joint effort of BI and the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. This blog was preceded by the Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog which has a broader focus. We will continue to add posts to that blog as well, as we write or find things that are useful to the wider skill of constructively handling intractable conflicts, but which do not relate directly to hyper-polarization.
For Advocates and Activists:
Advocates and activists are likely to have more conflict experience, but they may also have run into buzz saws of opposition. These materials are likely to help disputants engage in conflicts more effectively.
- The Frontiers Seminar on Constructive Confrontation - Much advocacy is pursued in a competitive win-lose way which unnecessarily antagonizes the other side. This seminar discusses ways to pursue one's goals in more constructive ways that is more likely to succeed without generating unecessary backlash.
- The MOOS Conflict Fundamentals Seminar - Many of the conflict management skills developed for third parties to intervening in conflicts and help disputants resolve them are also useful for disputants to use themselves. This seminar provides short overviews of the big and largely "proven" ideas from the peace and conflict field. It also contains information on how to deal with day-to-day conflicts--how to communicate more effectively, how to negotiate, when to seek help, etc.
- Beyond Intractability Blogs. Our current blog focuses particularly on the hyper-polarization crisis facing the United States and many other nations. This blog contains a discussion that is just now starting as a joint effort of BI and the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. This blog was preceded by the Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog which has a broader focus. We will continue to add posts to that blog as well, as we write or find things that are useful to the wider skill of constructively handling intractable conflicts, but which do not relate directly to hyper-polarization.
- BI-In-Context-Blog - This blog contains links and short descriptions of articles (news and/or editorial) pulled from outside sources that effectively illustrate many important conflict resolution ideas and applications. Many of these will be written from a partisan (rather than third party) point of view.
- CRInfo "Core Knowledge" Articles - These provide very short overviews of about 100 key conflict and conflict-resolution ideas, most of which can be applied from a partisan perspective.
- Beyond Intractability "Essays" - These are longer explorations of about about 400 conflict topics covering both day-to-day conflicts and long-standing and complex "intractable" conflicts. Most of these, too, apply to disputants as much (or even more so) than to intermediaries.
Students and Educators:
Students have a widely varying background in conflict and conflict resolution, but they are often have more time to study and are seeking more in-depth information than the general citizen. The same is true of the educators who teach them. We suspect this group is likely to be interested in all our materials, but again, some are matched better to different levels of student, as suggested below.
- Beyond Intractability Blogs. Our current blog focuses particularly on the hyper-polarization crisis facing the United States and many other nations. This blog contains a discussion that is just now starting as a joint effort of BI and the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. This blog was preceded by the Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog which has a broader focus. We will continue to add posts to that blog as well, as we write or find things that are useful to the wider skill of constructively handling intractable conflicts, but which do not relate directly to hyper-polarization.
- The MOOS Conflict Fundamentals Seminar - This seminar provides short overviews of the big and largely "proven" ideas from the peace and conflict field. It will be of most interest, we expect, to undergraduate and graduate students who are new to the conflict field. This seminar also contains information on how to deal with day-to-day conflicts--how to communicate more effectively, how to negotiate, when to seek help, etc.
- The MOOS Conflict Frontiers Seminar - This seminar examines "frontier of the field" ideas that go beyond what is explored in the Fundamentals Seminar to look at how we can take the peace and conflict field further, to better deal with complex problems and intractable conflicts. Here we will be focusing particularly on conflicts, such as the political conflict in the United States, that have so far eluded almost all conflict management, resolution, or transformation efforts. We expect this seminar will be of most interest to advanced undergraduates who have some conflict background, graduate students, and educators who teach these groups, or who want, independently, to help explore the frontiers of the conflict resolution field.
- BI-In-Context-Blog - This blog contains links and short descriptions of articles (news and/or editorial) pulled from outside sources that effectively illustrate many important conflict resolution ideas and applications. Many of these will be written from a partisan (rather than third party) point of view.
- CRInfo "Core Knowledge" Articles - these provide very short overviews of about 100 key conflict and conflict-resolution ideas. These are likely to be of most interest to beginning students..more advanced students will be more interested in the longer, more detailed, BI essays (see below) and the videos in the Frontiers Seminar (see above).
- Beyond Intractability "Essays" - are longer explorations of about about 400 conflict topics covering both day-to-day conflicts and long-standing and complex "intractable" conflicts. Most of these, too, apply to disputants as much (or even more so) than to intermediaries.
- Colleague Activities Blog - In this blog we plan to showcase materials developed by our colleagues that add to this effort. We hope conflict educators will let us know about your work so we can use it ourselves and share it with others!
Conflict Practitioners
By this term, we mean professional conflict resolvers (such as facilitators, mediators, and arbitrators) as well as peacebuilders and allied professionals such as human rights workers, development workers, humanitarian aid providers, etc. These people often have a lot of conflict experience (though some may be just starting their careers). Materials likely to be of most interest to this group seems likely to include:
- Beyond Intractability Blogs. Our current blog focuses particularly on the hyper-polarization crisis facing the United States and many other nations. This blog contains a discussion that is just now starting as a joint effort of BI and the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. This blog was preceded by the Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog which has a broader focus. We will continue to add posts to that blog as well, as we write or find things that are useful to the wider skill of constructively handling intractable conflicts, but which do not relate directly to hyper-polarization.
- The Conflict Frontiers Seminar -This seminar examines "frontier of the field" ideas that go beyond what is explored in the Fundamentals Seminar to look at how we can take the peace and conflict field further, to better deal with complex problems and intractable conflicts. Here we will be focusing particularly on conflicts, such as the political conflict in the United States, that have so far eluded almost all conflict management, resolution, or transformation efforts.
- BI-In-Context-Blog - This blog contains links and short descriptions of articles (news and/or editorial) pulled from outside sources that effectively illustrate many important conflict resolution ideas and applications. Many of these will be written from a partisan (rather than third party) point of view.
Expert Scholars and Practitioners
This is the group of people who have been working in the conflict area for a long time, and are quite knowledgeable about the field's strengths and weaknesses. We very much hope these folk will check out some of our posts, contribute to the discussions, suggest useful materials for us to include (their own or others) and hopefully engage in spin off projects designed to both increase the utilization of the fields insights (capacity building) and to increase the quality of those insights, (knowledge generation) so that our field is better equipped to deal with the many intractable conflicts our world now faces. Materials likely to be of most interest to these people are:
- Beyond Intractability Blogs. Our current blog focuses particularly on the hyper-polarization crisis facing the United States and many other nations. This blog contains a discussion that is just now starting as a joint effort of BI and the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. This blog was preceded by the Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog and the Constructive Conflict Initiative itself which has a broader focus. We will continue to add posts to that blog as well, as we write or find things that are useful to the wider skill of constructively handling intractable conflicts, but which do not relate directly to hyper-polarization.
- The Conflict Frontiers Seminar - This seminar examines "frontier of the field" ideas that go beyond what is explored in the Fundamentals Seminar to look at how we can take the peace and conflict field further, to better deal with complex problems and intractable conflicts. Here we will be focusing particularly on conflicts, such as the political conflict in the United States, that have so far eluded almost all conflict management, resolution, or transformation efforts.
- Colleague Activities Blog - In this blog we plan to showcase materials developed by our colleagues that add to this effort. Please let us know about your work so we can use it ourselves and share it with others!