Intergroup Conflict Models
Research on intractable and ethnopolitical conflicts have introduced new models for understanding the role of communication in conflicts, especially ones rooted in group identity (Ellis, 2006; Fiol, Pratt, & O’Connor, 2009; Putnam & Wondolleck, 2003).
Intractable conflicts involve power imbalances, threats to the identity of particular groups, social and political separation of groups, and extreme emotional reactions (Ellis, 2006). In such conflicts, a group’s identity is often defined through being in opposition to the other group. Communication is central to intractable conflicts through both micro- and macrointeractions in which symbols and meaning stem from the social and political circumstances that bind people to social systems. Communication plays a central role in managing these disputes through language patterns rooted deeply in first- and second-order changes that lead to conflict transformation rather than persistence or more of the same (Ellis, 2006). Second- order changes work on the content and the relational aspects of messages (Pearce & Littlejohn, 1997), creating an atmosphere in which the participants can talk about perceptions of each other through interactive problem-solving groups (Kelman, 1997), dialogue groups (Maoz & Ellis, 2006), and apology and reconciliation (Doxtader, 2003).
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