Beyond Prescription

Perspectives on Conflict, Culture, and Training

Beyond Prescription: Perspectives on Conflict, Culture, and Training
"Culture is rooted in social knowledge and represents a vast resource, a rich seedbed for producing a multitude of approaches and models in dealing with conflict."

While the fields of conflict resolution and mediation have grown and expanded, and the interest in applications across and in multicultural settings have heightened, little has been written about the function or methodology of training in these practices, except in the vein of manuals and training materials. Through this essay I intend to open a constructive dialogue on the purpose and practice of training in the field of conflict resolution and more specifically mediation, particularly as they have expanded from a mainstream North American base and have pushed across cultural, ethnic, and national boundaries.

The document provided constitutes the pre-published manuscript of the book Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures.

Lederach, John Paul. Beyond Prescription: Perspectives on Conflict, Culture, and Training. Inter-Racial and Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution Project. Waterloo, Ontario: Conrad Grebel College, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, 1994.

Shared with the permission of the MCC Library and the library collections of MCC Canada and MCC U.S.

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