The Culture and Conflict Reader

Read the Introduction.

Culture is the lens through which we make sense of the world. In any conflict, from petty disputes to wars between nation-states, the players invariably view that conflict through the filter of their own cultural experiences. This innovative volume prompts us to pause and think through our most fundamental assumptions about how conflict arises and how it is resolved.

Even as certain culturally based disputes, such as the high-profile cases in which an immigrant engages in conduct considered normal in the homeland but which is explicitly illegal in his/her new country, enter public consciousness, many of the most basic intersections of culture and conflict remain unexamined. How are some processes cultured, gendered, or racialized? In what ways do certain groups and cultures define such concepts as "justice" and "fairness" differently? Do women and men perceive events in similar fashion, use different reasoning, or emphasize disparate values and goals?

Spanning a wide array of disciplines, from anthropology and psychology to law and business, and culling dozens of intriguing essays, The Culture and Conflict Reader is edited for maximum pedagogical usefulness and represents a bedrock text for anyone interested in conflict and dispute resolution.

Contributors include: Kevin Avruch, Peter W. Black, Jeffrey Z. Rubin, Frank E. A. Sander, John Paul Lederach, Heather Forest, Sara Cobb, Janet Rifkin, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Laura Nader, Pat Chew, Stella Ting-Toomey, Harry C. Triandis, Christopher McCusker, C. Harry Hui, Anita Taylor, Judi Beinstein Miller, Carol Gilligan, Trina Grillo, James W. Grosch, Karen G. Duffy, Paul V. Olczak, Michele Hermann, Martha Chamallas, Loraleigh Keashly, Phil Zuckerman, Tracy E. Higgins, Howard Gadlin, Janie Victoria Ward, Kyeyoung Park, Taunya Lovell Banks, Margaret Read MacDonald, Mary Patrice Erdmans, Manu Aluli Meyer, Doriane Lambelet Coleman, Bruce D. Bonta, Paul E. Salem, Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Marc H. Ross, Z.D. Gurevitch, Mari J. Matsuda, Charles R. Lawrence III, Hsien Chin Hu, Glenn R. Butterton,Walter Otto Weyrauch, Maureen Anne Bell, Martti Gronfors, Thomas Donaldson, Marjorie Shostak, and Heather Forest.