In this unruly world, the sources of understanding and stability are often provisional and the ability to learn and to manage change is at a premium. The diversity of society contributes to conflicts over goals, interests, and frames of reference. These characteristics create an ongoing need for the ability to craft stable agreements that advance interests, build trust, and construct understanding in complex and unstable environments. They create the need to understand conflict, to organize forums for dialogue, and to purposefully engage in negotiation.

The course combines skill building with the developing of a command of analytic theory in a ‘hands-on’ format. It draws on the interdisciplinary background that has developed in response to the challenge of making sense of how conflicts start, develop, and are sustained in social and political settings and how actors in such settings might inform their designs for action through such structured reflection on empirical experience. This course focuses primarily on social and political (or public) conflict and adds the lens of (neuro)biology to the more conventional social science repertoire.

Negotiation and dialogues and conflict diagnosis and transformation, in this light, are about the management of interdependence. This approach raises a series of questions that cut across the boundary between theory and practice that create a rationale for teaching in a format that is both hands-on and theoretically oriented. The course provides this by helping participants learn about conflict diagnosis and negotiation by developing their skills in role-play exercises and in case-oriented research. Reflection on experience is linked to a systematic body of theory that offers different perspectives on what it means to understand conflict and what it means to act purposefully in a situation of interdependence. This includes theory and findings from social science and from neurobiology, which can help us recognize and monitor how our physical and psychological responses contribute to the incidence of escalation of conflict and the development of cooperation.

Coordinators

David Laws, Zeineb Al-Itejawi

Timetable

All lectures will take place on-campus and we assume you can be physically present during the scheduled hours. You can find the timetable on Datanose.

Registration

Registration is possible for students participating in an Honours programme. The registration for the Honours courses will start on June 5, 10 am -  June 11, 11.59 pm. You can register through the online registration form that will appear on Honoursmodules IIS. (registration is NOT through SIS)

Please note: There is no guarantee for placement if you register after June 11, so make sure you register on time. You will hear which course(s) you are registered for before June 30. 

For questions about registration, please contact us at: Honours-iis@uva.nl

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