Power and Privilege in Conflict Resolution - Essay Example

Power and Privilege in Conflict Resolution Introduction The areas of conflict resolution have been an area of major concern. This is because of the diversity of people’s status and other demographics, disagreements are bound to arise. This could be between individuals or different parties. Effective resolution of conflict is important in ensuring that people live together in harmony. Failure to resolve conflict amicably may have adverse consequences on the parties involved, and extreme cases may lead to break out of war and in some cases have resulted in homicide. In order to effectively solve conflicts, it is important to understand some of the factors that could be the source of the conflict. Some of these factors are power and privilege (Ramsbotham 2). This paper seeks to address how power and privilege influences the resolution of conflict in relation to real life examples. How is Power and Privilege Relevant to Conflict resolution Effort? In his article “Power and Conflicts”, Coleman clearly outlines how power is related to conflict resolution. According to him, there are different ways of defining power which could be power over, power with and dependence and powerless. He says that in conflict resolution, when one of the conflicting parties feels that the solution that is reached gives the other party power over them, the resolution is not satisfactory. This means that the same kind of conflict is likely to arise in future. In order to reach a lasting resolution, competition should not be created in resolving conflicts, and the parties involved should not feel like they are in a win-lose position. There should be more emphasis on promoting cooperation, independent power and shared power. It is also evident that the people who possess power have a tendency to justify having this power and using it in the manner that they feel fit. They are also not willing to share this power with those they perceive to be powerless. The parties with low power on the other hand are likely to show discontentment with their situation and are shortsighted. They in most cases roll their discontentment to people who have less power than them (Coleman 12). This ruins their chances of being empowered and makes it even harder for the conflicts to be resolved. It is only through coalition building and cooperation where power is neutralized that conflicts can be resolved completely. Privileges also play a vital role in conflict resolution since they give power to the privileged and take power from the underprivileged. In dealing with conflicts that come with one party having power over the others because of one being privileged, there are certain things that need to be considered. For instance, gender equality has been a source of conflict for many years. Women complain of not being equally treated in education, work and other situation. Dealing with this kind of situation would require that the men acknowledge the fact that they are privileged and accept to lose some of the privileges in order to resolve the conflict (McIntosh 3). This is because in most cases, although it may be universally acknowledged that women are under-privileged, men would not agree to the fact that they are privileged. This could be the reason why we are still very far away from dealing with the issue of gender equality. The question of truth and morality is an intricate one and it is crucial to understand this relationship in conflict resolution. This is especially based on the fact that a person may have wrong motives but his actions lead to good results while another one may have good intention but the ends become terrible. Truth is thus the harsh reality that people have to live with while morality is judged in terms of good intentions (Kriesberg, 3). Truth and morality are related to conflict resolution in the sense that morality and truth seeks to social justice and reconciliation and conflict resolutions are part of this quest. Take the example of the situation where single mothers who do not have partners are taken to take advantage of the welfare program. This is because most women opt to stay at home and benefit from the welfare instead of going to work. This has led to the budget allocated to welfare programs escalating, and this is becoming a burden on the tax payers, most of whom are men. However, this issue of welfare has been a result of the system making the women to be underprivileged. You will find that in most cases, these single mothers are young women who become pregnant while they are still teenagers. They end up dropping out of school while men who impregnate them continue with their schooling. With the minimal education, they are unable to get good employment opportunities. Moreover, research has shown that most jobs still pay women lower wages than men despite the fact that they may be performing the same roles. The capitalistic society has also made it hard for women to advance. For one to get a promotion, they are expected to have given their best contribution to a company. The society also dictates that women are the care givers. This means that because the single working mothers are not able to give their best performance at works and do not get a promotion. They end up getting minimal pay while the men who do not have care giving responsibility continue to advance in their career (Mixin 34). The welfare program gives the women a chance where they can either stay at home or get time to spend with their children without spending any money on child care. On the other hand, they can choose to work, pay a huge percentage of their salary for child care, be short of time to spend with their children and be left with small amount of money for food and other expenses. Most women choose the former option as it exposes them to less hustle, and they cannot be blamed for that. Dealing with this situation would require that the government realizes the factors that have made women to be prone to being poor and resolve them. Men also need to recognize that they have privilege over women and should be ready to lose some of their privileges for the gender equality issues to be resolved. The focus should be more on creating equal opportunity for women to advance and not on placing them on welfare programs (Hirschmann and Liebert, 217). This is because the welfare programs have been seen to result in dependency and has not solved the problem of poverty but has actually made it worse. Another example on how privilege affects in the issue of conflict resolution is in on the issue of racism. Racism in America is still as ripe as it was in the 1960s. It is quite ironic that a country whose first family is black could still be racist. It has become hard for racism as a social evil to be overcome because the people who are privileged in the racist system have failed to acknowledge this fact. Most Caucasians in America would not admit that they are in the privileged position that they may be of power and wealth as a result of benefitting from a racist system. As a result, they are not willing to give up some of their privileges in order to create an equal society (Reifowitz 1). What they need to understand is that racism affects everyone, both the privileged and underprivileged. The society can only achieve greater development by promoting equality and cooperation between the majority and minority groups in America. Work Cited Avruch, Kevin. "Type I and Type II Errors in Culturally Sensitive Conflict Resolution Practice." Conflict Resolution Quarterly 20.3 (2003): 351-71. Print. Coleman, Peter. "Power and Conflict." The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. Eds. Deutsch, M., P.T. Coleman and E.C. Marcus: Wiley, 2011. Print. Hirschmann, Nancy. J., and Liebert, Ulrike. Women and welfare: theory and practice in the United States and Europe. New Brunswick, NJ [u.a.], Rutgers Univ. Press. 2001. Print. Kriesberg, Louis. "Truth and Morality." Peace and Conflict Studies: A Reader. Eds. Webel, C.P. and J. Johansen: Taylor & Francis Group, 2011. Print. McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” DeAnza College. DeAnza College, 1988. Web. 26 April 2013. Minxin, Pei. "The Paradoxes of American Nationalism." Foreign Policy, 136 (2003): 30-37. Print. Ramsbotham, O., T. Woodhouse and H. Miall. Contemporary Conflict Resolution. Eds. Ramsbotham, O., T. Woodhouse and H. Miall: Wiley, 2011. Chapter 14. Print. Reifowitz, Ian. “Is America a Racist Country?” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 26 April 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-reifowitz/is-america-a-racist-country_b_2773132.html Read More