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Challenge 18
We must find ways to
WORK WITHIN CIRCLES OF TRUST
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Social groups base their actions on the views of trusted opinion leaders while excluding the advice of experts from other, less-trusted groups. This means that advocates of change must find allies and champions within each conflict community, so that new approaches can be proposed from within each group's circle of trust, not from the outside.
Trust has long been recognized as absolutely central to efforts to address conflict problems. Without trust, the fear of being double-crossed can lead people to reject agreements that would otherwise be very advantageous. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of material related to trust, trust building (which we prefer to call trust earning), and agreement enforcement strategies.
Less recognized is the effect of "communities of trust." In a world where people routinely listen to only trusted information sources (those that tell people what they want to hear), it can be very hard to communicate the often "hard to hear" ideas that are essential to approaching conflict more constructively. It is especially difficult if new ideas come from outside an individual's trusted community.
This is why it's so important for each sociocultural community to take it upon itself to develop, from within its own traditions, more constructive approaches.
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Meeting the Challenge: What We Now Know
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Distrust Distrust can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, where every
move another person makes is interpreted as evidence to distrust him/her. When
the other person reciprocates this sentiment, there is mutual distrust that
further fuels the escalation of conflict.
Knowledge |
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Utilization |
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Managing Interpersonal Trust and Distrust Trust has often been praised as
the "glue" that holds relationships together and enables individuals to pool
their resources with others. Unfortunately, when conflict escalates to a
dysfunctional level, trust is often one of the first casualties.
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Trust and Trust Building Trust comes from the understanding that humans
are interdependent, that they need each other to survive. Third parties can
attempt to use this insight to promote trust between disputing parties.
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Identity Issues Israelis and Palestinians, Protestants and Catholics,
whites and blacks, labor and management...these are all examples of identities
that have resulted in conflicts. This essay discusses the importance of
identity in intractable conflicts.
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Cultural and Worldview Frames Intractable conflict is inextricably bound
up with who we see ourselves to be and what meaning we make of the world. Many
intractable conflicts occur when people feel their identities or worldviews
are threatened.
Other Resources of Interest:
- Huczynski, Andrsej and Wolf, William B. Encyclopedia of Organizational Change Methods. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2001.
Publisher's Description
- F. Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press, 2005.
Vendor's Description
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- Brian Heuser, "Social Cohesion and Voluntary Associations," in Peabody Journal of Education, (80:4, 2005), pp. 16-29.
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