Conflict Transformation

A Working Definition

Conflict Transformation: A Working Definition
"Conflict transformation represents a comprehensive set of lenses for describing the way conflict emerges from, evolves in, and brings about changes in the personal, relational, and structural dimensions, and for intervening to promote peaceful change at those levels through nonviolent mechanisms."

At essence transformation refers to change. Transformation as change can be understood in two fundamental ways. Descriptively, transformation refers to the empirical impact of conflict, the effects that social conflict produces; it describes the general changes social conflict creates and the patterns it typically follows. Prescriptively, transformation implies deliberate intervention to effect change; it refers to the goals we have as intervenors as we work with conflict. At both levels, transformation is operative in four interdependent dimensions…

Lederach, John Paul. “Conflict Transformation: A Working Definition.” In Mediation and Facilitation Training Manual: Foundations and Skills for Constructive Conflict Transformation, edited by Carolyn Schrock-Shenk, 4th ed., 51. Akron, Pennsylvania: Mennonite Conciliation Service, 2000.

Published by and shared with the permission of the Mennonite Central Committee, previously called the Mennonite Conciliation Service.

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