The Punctuation and Trajectories of Conflict as Bearing on Community Engagement
Rarely does a researcher step into a community, get to know all the participants, learn about groups with their competing interests, and then watch a conflict completely unfold before her or his eyes.
More often, researchers step into communities and their issues midstream and have to account for how members view their experiences in that community, including their takes on relevant conflicts. Almost inevitably, competing narratives of the conflict will surface, with differing views of origins, substance, protagonists, and antagonists as well as goals. The punctuation of the conflict by each participant and party will be important for the researcher to understand.Still, Nagda and Zuniga (2003) note that critical for effective intergroup dialogue is “the potential of building alliances across differences, whereby old patterns of competition, oppression, and division are challenged in favor of new ties that engender possibilities, of joining together to promote social justice” (p. 114). Indeed, the current social movement literature features the theme of coalition building, including across community issues and accustomed differences; this applies to levels from local community mobilization to global action (Chavez, 2011; Mix, 2011; Van Dyke & McCammon, 2010). Keeping a focus on present interactions and possibilities, while the past is sufficiently honored in discussion, can allow community groups to move into a fully dialogic mode, which orients to some degree toward listening, understanding, and grappling with the views of the Other.
Forecasting group relationships and conflicts with other groups is an important part of developing a planned approach to intergroup dialogue. Often success within a particular community is based on building alliances and enlisting other “voices.” For example, efforts against school bullying and harassment would have limited success without clear commitment from faculty and staff (Dessel, 2010), who may, in some cases and ways, serve as enablers (Pellegrini et al., 2010). Finally, conflict trajectories can be better understood by gaining perspective and social awareness. A critical approach to a group’s position in terms of a larger historical backdrop can clarify constraining forces, historical progress, and opportunities for growth.
Processes characterized by an integrative win-win approach with collaborative problem solving alongside compromise (see, e.g., Folger, Poole, & Stuttman, 2006) suggest greater overall gain for community groups. Their interdependence makes cooperation and collaboration a more beneficial strategy than competition given the mutual interest of remaining community members. Therefore, full awareness of intergroup conflict within the larger community, as well as the potentials for both conflict and collaboration between the researchers and the community groups/ partners, is crucial.