Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Abstract of "Civil conflict, education, and the work of schools: Twelve propositions" by James H. Williams

Citation:
James H. Williams. 2004. "Civil conflict, education, and the work of schools: Twelve propositions." In Conflict Resolution Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 4, Summer. 471-481.

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Author Abstract

Education and civil conflict are deeply intertwined in complex ways. The author posits a series of hypotheses about interrelationships by which schools are a natural arena for conflict - attracting violence, sometimes helping to prevent it, and fostering it as well. Violence affects schools at multiple levels; attacking individuals, communities, and systems, and weakening their sense of agency.

War is, at first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off. -- Karl Kraus

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