Conflict Across Cultures: A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences

A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences

Author: Michelle Lebaron and Venashri Pillay

Conflict across Cultures is written by a new generation of conflict resolution scholars from four parts of the world: Canada, South Africa, Japan and the US. They describe processes and help build the skills necessary for successful conflict resolution. Here is a new framework for understanding others--a map for making progress through differences that can otherwise overwhelm us. Conflict across Cultures offers hope in countering the view that differences must divide us.

Cultural differences among members of a group, be it a multinational business team or a multinational family, are frequently the source of misunderstanding and conflict. Using stories to illustrate techniques for resolving culture-inspired conflicts, this book attempts to demystify the intricate relationships between conflict and culture.

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Description

Stories, which are at the heart of the book, come from a wide variety of groups and locations, and they give sound counsel for all kinds of settings: business, law, government, non-governmental agencies, schools, communities and families. Conflict across Cultures is written by a new generation of conflict resolution scholars from four parts of the world: Canada, South Africa, Japan and the US. They describe processes and help build the skills necessary for successful conflict resolution. Here is a new framework for understanding others-a map for making progress through differences that can otherwise overwhelm us. Conflict across Cultures offers hope in countering the view that differences must divide us.

Critic Reviews

“Conflict Across Cultures teaches how each of us can build bridges across the chasms that separate different cultures. With insights born of rich experiences, the authors explore metaphor, ritual and storytelling to help people understand one another, and by helping us to recognize what is sacred to others, they help us to find our own sacred ground.”

Remarkably readable, and even more valuable for its contribution to understanding the problems that underpin virtually every major conflict in the world today. - Ambassador John W. McDonald, Chairman, The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy

I found the advice in this book honest, practical and above all immensely challenging. - Marion James, Sunday's Zaman (Istanbul)

Learning to handle cross-cultural conflict is emerging as a central problem in human relations. And no one is better qualified to describe the intricate ins and outs of that learning process than the extraordinary and extraordinarily honest team that has written Conflict across Cultures.

Michelle and colleagues fused, with elegance, their substantial knowledge in the fields of peace, conflict and culture, with stories and experiences, and artistic imagination which made reading this book like a walk in terrain, or a swim in the river...with pleasant friends.

About the Author

Michelle Lebaron is professor of law and director of the UBC Program on Dispute Resolution. She consults on intercultural conflict around the world and is the author of three previous books, Bridging Cultural Conflicts: A New Approach for a Changing World, and Bridging Troubled Waters: Conflict Resolution From the Heart, Venashri Pillay is a senior researcher with ACCORD in South Africa and is completing her PhD in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University. She has practiced social work in diverse communities in South Africa and the United States.

More on this Book

Cultural differences among members of any group-be it a multinational business team or an international family-are frequently the source of misunderstanding and can lead to conflict. With powerful techniques for resolving or at least reducing conflicts, scholars and teachers from around the globe demystify the intricate and important relationship between conflict and culture. Stories, which are at the heart of the book, come from a wide variety of groups and locations, and they give sound counsel for all kinds of settings: business, law, government, non-governmental agencies, schools, communities and families. Conflict across Cultures is written by a new generation of conflict resolution scholars from four parts of the world: Canada, South Africa, Japan and the US. They describe processes and help build the skills necessary for successful conflict resolution. Here is a new framework for understanding others-a map for making progress through differences that can otherwise overwhelm us. Conflict across Cultures offers hope in countering the view that differences must divide us.