Learning objectives
The expectation is that, at the end of the module, the student will be able in:
- Understanding the generative and, on the other hand, destructive potential of conflict,
- focusing on verbal and non-verbal communication influence on conflicts;
- Recognizing and analyzing an interpersonal conflict or a conflict between social groups;
- Describing the fundamental elements of conflict and violence, and the difference between them;
- Identifying the values and techniques of nonviolence as keys to constructive conflict management;
- Recognizing what exacerbates conflict or leads to its transformation in a constructive sense;
- Reflecting on one's own way of living conflicts;
- Recognizing the essential elements of negotiation and mediation in conflicts.
Prerequisites
None.
Course unit content
Conflict is part of every human experience. It can be constructive sense if the approach is not to suffocating or even dominating it in a zero-sum game, but an attempt to make it an opportunity for personal and social growth at every level. This is true in intimate relationships – family relation, friendship... - as in work, in every sector, when the relationship between colleagues or between the different levels of an organization can be a source of friction and hinder the performance of assigned tasks.
Even in relationships between groups, between cultures, between states there is the risk of blocking the conflict or of interpreting it in an exclusively destructive way, transforming the other into an enemy to be destroyed.
Framing and living the conflict according to the perspective of nonviolence means thinking of it as a dynamic relationship that can be managed and transformed in an evolutionary sense.
With this course, the University intends to contribute to a cultural maturation process regarding various disciplines, to form citizens capable of recognizing conflict, understanding its elements, consciously accepting the emotional aspects that inevitably move in its actors. It also means choosing strategies to manage conflict respecting the reasons of other. It also means, in the face of violence, making a third way conceivable with respect to passivity or escalation; a way of being in the conflict that does not give in to the construction of the enemy and does not renounce dialogue, even if this means putting one's own security at stake.
Theoretical elements will be proposed for the definition and analysis of conflicts and illustrated nonviolent experiences at a micro, meso and macro level, in the past and in the present, with references to nonviolent actions, campaigns, historical cases, key figures.
Full programme
Bibliography
We will also online texts from authors as Aldo Capitini, Johan Glatung, Pat Patfoort, Alexander Langer, Bertrand Rosenberg Marshall, Carl Rogers, Hannah Arendt, Lorenzo Milani, altri.
Most of their texts are online.
Teaching methods
We will privilege interactive methods and laboratories through the analysis of cases.
The experiential data will be integrated and systematized through theoretical contributions.
Assessment methods and criteria
The verification of learning will take place through a written exam including partly multiple choice questions and partly short presentations of cases of conflict to be analyzed taking into account the theoretical approaches and methodologies learned in class.
Other information
The teaching material used during the lessons will be available to students on the Elly portal.
The slides of the lessons will be published on Elly, at the end of each lesson.
Students have the option of booking telephone appointments or TEAMS meetings with the teacher by sending an e-mail to elena.buccoliero@unipr.it
