PACS 3800 TOPICS IN PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES: COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

COURSE LENGTH AND DELIVERY FORMAT

This is a self-paced online course. "Self-paced" means you can start when you want to and finish when you want to, within the 6-month deadline (from registration) which is imposed by the Department of Continuing Education. You can get one six-month extension, but that is costly.

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Instructor:  Heidi Burgess

Telephone: 303-492-1635
Primary Email: heidi.burgess@colorado.edu
Virtual Office Hours: None pre-set, but I check my email many times a day and am available by phone most afternoons, as well as many mornings.

INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY

Heidi Burgess earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Colorado, specializing in social conflict and conflict resolution. Her research interests are focused on better ways of dealing with difficult and intractable conflicts, and the intersection between conflict, governance (at all levels and across sectors) and peace. 

Dr. Burgess has been teaching conflict-related courses in the CU sociology and communication departments since 1978, and for the last five years has also been teaching in the Korbel School of International Studies and the Conflict Resolution Institute at the University of Denver.

Together with her husband, Dr. Guy Burgess, Dr. Heidi Burgess established the Conflict Information Consortium - a multi-disciplinary research and practical conflict resolution program in 1988, where they have served as co-directors ever since.

The Burgesses also developed and maintain a number of large conflict-related online knowledge bases. The first is www.CRInfo.org--the Conflict Resolution Information Source, which was established in the mid-1990s as a "one-stop-shop" for conflict-resolution information on the Web. The second online project, begun in 2001, is www.BeyondIntractability.org, which is an online encyclopedia on better ways of dealing with intractable conflicts. Both of these sites still exist, and are being updated during the 2011-2012 year. The most recent project (started last year) is www.TheGovernanceCommons.org which is focused on ways to improve governance to foster peace and avoid violent conflict.

Almost all of the readings for this course are drawn from these three websites.

COMMUNICATION POLICIES

My preferred method of contact is my cu email address: heidi.burgess@colorado.edu. You can also call my office phone: 303-492-1635 or you are welcome to visit me (with an appointment) at my office on East Campus in Room A222 in the ARCE building (See Map) on M-W-F or in Norlin Library Room S423  (phone 303-492-6708)  on T/Th. Do make an appointment, please--I am not always there!

SUPPORT AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION

If you have questions about Desire2Learn, you can contact 5HELP or me - I can help with simple things; OIT can do the rest. This course includes a small amount of embedded audio and video resources. Most modern browsers should be able to display this content, however in some circumstances you may need to install the Flash or Quicktime media player. Should you have any difficulty accessing any of your course contents please view the student resources or troubleshooting information provided on the course homepage.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines the role of communication in conflict and in conflict management, with a special focus on conflict avoidance and conflict management skills: nonviolent and de-escalatory communication, cross-cultural communication, conflict styles, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, reconciliation, and conflict transformation. Students will examine what each of these approaches is, when each is useful and when not, how they are done, and what the costs and risks are of each.

In their homework assignments, students will have a choice of (1) applying these skills in their own settings with respect to their own conflicts and disputes or (2) analyzing how these skills have been (or haven't, but could have been) used in a public conflict of their choosing. Students who choose the latter approach are encouraged to focus on the same conflict throughout the course, thereby becoming something of an expert on that case, but it is also acceptable to examine a different conflict for each assignment, thereby gaining a broader, yet shallower, understanding of a number of different public policy conflicts.

By the end of this course, successful students are expected to be able to:

• Understand the components of conflicts and disputes and be able to "draw" a conflict map of any given conflict or dispute. ("Draw" is put in quotes because maps are usually done in text, not pictures.)
• Understand the best ways to avoid serious conflicts and disputes before they occur.
• Understand the options for personal ("first party") conflict/dispute resolution, including how these skills are done, when each is most appropriate, and how pitfalls of the various options can be avoided.
• Understand what third party conflict/dispute resolution options are available, how (and by whom) they are done, when each is best used, and how pitfalls of each can be avoided.
• Additional learning objectives are listed below, with each unit.

COURSE UNITS

Unit1: Understanding the Causes and Dynamics of Conflicts and Disputes

• Unit objectives:

In this introductory unit, you will understand what we mean by the terms "conflicts and disputes," what causes each, why some tend to be more difficult to transform or resolve than others, and how conflicts and disputes can actually be beneficial if handled constructively. The initial exercise also asks you to do an assessment of your own conflict "starting points" - your attitudes about and approaches to conflict behavior that you can then examine as you through the course to see if you can learn how to handle conflicts more constructively and with less anxiety.

• At the end of this unit students should know:
  1. What conflicts and disputes are, how they differ, and why they matter (what are their effects--costs and benefits)..
  2. What are your own, personal "starting points" vis-à-vis conflict.
  3. Why conflict attitudes and skills matter.
  4. What determines whether conflicts are constructive or destructive.
  5. What makes some conflicts harder to resolve than others (i.e., what makes some intractable).
  6. What a conflict map is - what are its elements, and how does one create one?

Unit II – Social and Psychological Dimensions of Conflict – Framing and Emotions

• Unit objectives:

  Our attitudes about conflict in general, and a particular dispute situation in particular, have a significant impact on the conflict outcome. In this unit you will learn how emotions determine what is defined as a conflict or dispute and what isn’t; how emotions often escalate conflicts to more destructive levels, but also how emotion—along with reason—is necessary to transform and resolve conflicts. In addition you will learn about the process of framing and reframing. One of the most difficult aspects of conflicts and disputes is that each person involved sees (that is, frames) the situation somewhat differently. This makes understanding the other’s motivations, interests and needs difficult, which makes resolution more difficult than it needs to be. By learning how to recognize and manipulate frames, conflicts and disputes can be addressed more constructively.

  At the end of this unit you should know:

• The psychological factors that drive conflicts.
• The relationship between emotions and reason in conflict and conflict management.
• What framing is and why it matters.
• How to recognize different kinds of frames,
• How reframing can help transform difficult conflicts and disputes into more manageable problems.
• The cultural dimensions of all of these issues.

Unit III: Power and Force

Unit objectives:

Power is an important aspect of conflict behavior.  It is not the only thing that determines who prevails—surprises do happen—but power is a critical factor.  The first part of this assignment asks you to assess your own ideas about power and its role in conflict before you do the readings.  So I don’t want to say much more here, thereby influencing your views before you even figure them out.  Just dig into the unit to learn how power, conflict, and resolution are deeply intertwined.

At the end of this unit you should know:

• 1. How power affects conflict and conflict resolution.
  2. How people get power (in other words what are “sources” of power?)
  3. How is power used (in other words what are the three primary power strategies?)
  4. The advantages and disadvantages of the three different power strategies.
  5. What the backlash coefficient is.
  6. How people or groups are “empowered” or "disempowered" and why this matters.
  7. What voice is and how it affects conflict resolution.
  8. How power relates to oppression.
  9. The origins of oppression and how it is maintained.
  10. How oppression can be overcome.

Unit IV – Communication and De-Escalating Strategies

Unit objectives:

Communication and conflict are deeply intertwined. Conflict is, in essence, a form of communication, and cannot take place without communication. But the interaction goes four ways: communication can make conflict better or worse, and conflict can make communication better or worse. The purpose of this unit is to learn how to engage in each to make the other better, and particularly, how to use effective communication to de-escalate conflicts and disputes.

At the end of this unit you should know:

• 1. How conflict can affect communication and communication can affect conflict.
  2. What communication strategies you can use to prevent conflicts and disputes from escalating in the first place, and what communication skills can help to to de-escalate and resolve conflicts once they occur.
  3. What de-escalating gestures are. Be able to design de-escalating gestures that would be appropriate in different situations.
  4. What empathic listening and I-messages are, and how they are done.
  5. What pitfalls empathic listening and I-messages have.
  6. When these skills should be used and when they should not be used.
  7. How dialogue and narrative can be used to de-escalate conflicts. How they differ from each other and from “regular” conversation and debate.
  8. What cooling-off periods are and when they are useful.
  9. What face is, and how it affects conflict and conflict resolution.
  10. What cultural factors are present in conflict communication.
  11. How interpersonal trust is built and maintained through communication.

Unit V – Negotiation

Unit objectives:

The fundamental way people solve conflicts on their own is negotiation—the give and take between two (or more) people, organizations, groups, or even nation states about who gets what. The theory and strategy of negotiation is well studied, as is illustrated by the articles below that explain different approaches to negotiation and what works best, when, why, and how.

At the end of this unit you should know:What negotiation is and when it is used.

• 1. What different approaches can be taken to negotiation.
  2. The benefits and costs of cooperative and competitive negotiation approaches.
  3. The relationship between cooperative and competitive approaches, distributive and integrative bargaining (or negotiation), and principled negotiation.
  4. What the principles of principled negotiation are.
  5. What a BATNA is and why it matters.
  6. What the ZOPA is and why it matters.
  7. What ripeness is, how it is attained, and why it matters.
  8. How cultural differences factor into all of this.
  9. What skills negotiators should use to be most effective—and how they can use those skills.

Unit VI – Third Party Processes

Unit objectives:

In the field of conflict resolution, intermediary and third party are interchangeable terms that refer to a person or group of people who enter a conflict in order to help the disputing parties manage, analyze, or resolve their disputes. Third parties can be informal or formal. Some third parties get drawn into the role by association or circumstance. For example, an informal intermediary could simply be a friend who is asked to help two friends resolve their dispute. Formal intermediaries, on the other hand, are professionals hired specifically to perform the third party role—the most common being mediators and arbitrators. As you will read below, Bill Ury has developed a new concept of “third sider”—someone who can be a disputant OR a third party, but who acts to be a conciliator, trying to help de-escalate conflicts and bring them to resolution, even if they are a “first party” as well as a “third sider.”

At the end of this unit you should know:

• 1. What does ADR stand for and what processes are included in that category?
  2. What is mediation? How is it done? When is it used? What are the benefits and the costs?
  3. What is arbitration? How is it done? When is it used? What are the benefits and the costs?
  4. What is the difference between “settlement” and “resolution”?
  5. What is the difference between arbitration, mediation, and adjudication?
  6. When is adjudication needed? What are its benefits and costs?
  7. What is the difference between third parties and “third siders”? What are the similarities?
  8. What are the ten third-roles? What does each type of person do? (Be able to give both an interpersonal and public policy/international example).
  9. Be able to identify which third side roles are most appropriate for which circumstances.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Each of these units has a set of online readings and interactive exercises (usually totaling about 150-200 pages if you print it out) and a written assignment which is based on the readings. (While this may seem like a lot of reading, keep in mind that you are replacing lectures (in a face-to-face class) with readings here. A face-to-face class has 37.5 hours of classroom time, so if you read 30 pages per hour, that alone gives you time to read over 1000 pages!

Students are expected to do the readings (and introductory exercises where they exist) first, and then take an online quiz to prove to me that you did the readings and exercises and understood them. (These quizzes are a combination of multiple choice and short answer.)

Then you will write a paper applying the ideas in the unit readings to a real conflict situation. Here you have three choices.

1. You can apply the concepts in the readings to your own life experiences by trying the skills out on a real current situation, or you can reflect on a past conflict or dispute you personally have been involved in.
2. You can apply the concepts in the readings to an "outside" public policy conflict (such as such as gay marriage or abortion) or an international or non-US civil conflict (such as Israel/Palestine, India/Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Congo, etc.)
3. You can do a combination of the two, answering some of the papers on the basis of your own life, and others on the basis of outside conflicts.

The purpose of these written assignments is three-fold: First, they help you connect the ideas being learned in the course to "real life." Second, they let me see how well you understand and can apply the key ideas from each unit. And third, it lets you practice the skills you are learning in the readings yourself - although this is more true if you do option (1) and less true for option (2). Aim for 4-6 pages per paper, double spaced for each assignment.

REQUIRED TEXTS

All the reading for this course is available online, from the three websites listed above. While these websites are free, students are asked to pay a one-time $25.00 "materials fee" when they register to allow us to maintain the websites for student use. However, there are no other text book costs at all.

CATALOG DESCRIPTION

Examines specific theoretical perspectives in peace and conflict studies and conducts in-depth research projects using a case-study approach. Emphasizes using critical thinking skills. Case study examples include: U.S. violence, peacemaking/keeping in ethnonationalist conflicts, environmental conflict resolution. Prereq., PACS 2500 or instructor consent.

GRADING CRITERIA FOR ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

I am looking for five things:

• Did you choose an appropriate dispute or conflict to analyze? (Students sometimes get in trouble if they analyze something that isn't really a conflict or a dispute. They can also have trouble if they try to do a fairly "meaty" assignment--such as the negotiation analysis--on a very simple dispute that was resolved in 5 minutes with a quick discussion. Yes, it might have been a dispute, but not a complex enough one to show you understand negotiation concepts and processes.
• Does the assignment illustrate a good understanding of the key concepts being covered?
• Does the assignment answer all the questions asked?
• Is the assignment well written? Clarity, organization, proper grammar and spelling, and proofreading matter--lack of those items will diminish your grade. I am more lenient with foreign students - let me know if English is not your native language and I will discuss an alternative policy for you. But if English is your native language, please take the care to use it properly.
• Does the assignment illustrate care and thoughtfulness, or does it look like it was done quickly, just to "get by?"

Of these five, the most important are numbers two and three, but if you fail on number one, it will make doing a good job on numbers two and three very difficult or even impossible. Poorly written assignments cannot earn As; the top possible grade for a poorly written assignment is a B (unless you are a foreign student for whom English is a second language). Short, sloppy assignments done apparently "just to get by" cannot get higher than a C; they will probably get a D or F. In sum, if you want a good grade in this course, please take the time to do these assignments carefully!

The student will then complete a "take home" final exam. This exam gives you a story about a fictional community conflict, and you are asked 25 questions about how best to deal with this conflict at various stages. Your goal is to pull in as many of the ideas from the course as you can into your answers - thereby showing me how much you learned and remembered of the course material. The grading criteria for the final is the same as the criteria for unit papers, although I am giving you the scenario so criteria one does not apply. Numbers 2-5 do, as does the additional criteria of pulling in as many different ideas as possible, where they properly fit. Show me you learned a lot!!

You should do the units in order, since each builds from the previous ones. And you should definitely do the readings and exercises, then the quiz, and then the written assignment, as again, each builds from the other.

While it is possible to pass this course without doing all the assignments and/or without taking the final, your grade will take a serious hit. Examine carefully the point distribution listed below to see if you can get to your desired grade without completing all of the units.

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION POLICIES

• Please write your assignments in MS Word, or any other word processing program. If you are using a program other than MS Word, however, please save your file as a .txt or .rtf file, which I can open with word. (All word processors have the ability to save to those two file formats - just select "save as" and choose one or the other as the "file type.")
• Be sure to put your name, your course number and section (PACS-3800-640), and the assignment number at the top of each assignment.
• Also put your last name, course number, and assignment number in your file name. For instance "Barstow-pacs3800-640-4" means that this is Lisa Barstow's submission for unit 4 for the online section of PACS 3800. (I also teach a face-to-face version of the course, so putting the section number in your file name will help me keep your papers separate from the papers for that course. I will send back a file called "Barstow-pacs3800-640-4g which means I have graded it and it has comments on it. (I usually write extensive comments, so please be sure to open and read the graded papers.)
• Put your paper in the D2L “Dropbox.” Please make sure when you do that that the paper has a  .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf extension visible at the end.  If that extension is not visible, I may not be able to open the file.
• I try to get papers graded within three days of reception; often earlier, unless I have notified you that I am on vacation. If you do not hear back within five days, please check back with me to make sure your paper (or my response) did not get lost.
• I allow students to re-do a max of two papers for a higher grade, but the maximum grade you can get on a redone paper is a B. (Redo grades are calculated by grading the assignment as if it were "new," and then subtracting 15%.  So an assignment that would have gotten 100% originally would get 85% if it is a re-do.)

 If you have any questions about the reading or assignments, please contact me at heidi.burgess@colorado.edu, or by phone at 303-492-1635.

FINAL GRADE CALCULATIONS

The points for the various course segments are as follows:

Grading scale for all assignments:

• A = 93% or higher; superior/excellent, 4.0
• A- = 90 - 92%; 3.7
• B+ = 87 - 89%; 3.3
• B = 83 - 86%; good/better than average, 3.0
• B- = 80 - 82%; 2.7
• C+ = 77 - 79%; 2.3
• C = 72 - 77%; competent/average, 2.0
• C- = 70 - 72%; 1.7
• D+ = 67 - 69%; 1.3
• D = 62 - 67%; 1.0
• D- = 60 - 62%; minimum passing; 0.7
• F = 59.9% and below; failing; 0.0

You should do the units in order, since each builds from the previous ones. And you should definitely do the readings, then the quiz, and then the written assignment, as again, each builds from the other.

While it is possible to pass this course without doing all the assignments and/or without taking the final, your grade will take a serious hit. Examine carefully the point distribution listed below to see if you can get to your desired grade without completing all of the units.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is the act of passing off another's work as your own. Stealing, buying, or otherwise using someone else's work, in whole or in part, constitutes plagiarism and is against university policy. Such behavior is taken seriously by the Honors Council, to which many such incidents are referred. Consult www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode to learn more about the CU Honor Code.
Plagiarism does not always take such blatant forms, however. Of equal concern, especially in a course like this one where you will be encouraged to draw on others' ideas in your own writing, are the more subtle forms of plagiarism. For example, you probably know that all words taken directly from a source need to be quoted and cited, and that there are specific conventions for doing this properly. However, you may not know that merely changing a few words in a passage - say, by using the thesaurus function on your word-processing program - does not protect you from the charge of plagiarism. Passages that are similar to their sources in syntax, organization, or wording but are not cited are considered to be plagiarized. In fact, even if you cite the source but do not make it clear to your readers that the phrasing of a passage is not your own, the source is still considered to be plagiarized. Any time you use another's work - ideas, theories, statistics, graphs, photos, or facts that are not common knowledge - you must acknowledge the author.

If I suspect your paper exhibits plagiarism, I will discuss the problem with you. If it cannot be resolved, you will receive a grade of 0 on the paper, and if the problem is severe, the situation will be referred to the Honors Council. Play it safe! Do your own writing, and when in doubt, cite!

UNIVERSITY POLICIES

Disabilities:If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit a letter from Disability Services tome in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. 
Contact: 303-492-8671, Willard 322, or www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices.

Honor Code:All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include cheating, plagiarism, academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. I will report all incidents of academic misconduct to the Honor Code Council. Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). 
See www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/.

Discrimination and sexual harassment: The University of Colorado policy on Sexual Harassment and the University of Colorado policy on Amorous Relationships apply to all students, staff and faculty. Any student, staff member, or faculty member who believes s/he has been the subject of discrimination or harassment based upon race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status should contact the Office of Discrimination and Harassment at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. For information and campus resources
see www.colorado.edu/odh.

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