‘Conflict as default’ was the title of the 2022 edition of the State of Conflict conference, organized by the University of Amsterdam, Public Mediation, and WesselinkVanZijst. Annually, professionals and academics gather to sharpen their minds and to have their own beliefs challenged and debated.

This year, we've reflected on the meaning of conflict surrounding societal issues. Should we understand conflict as a temporary disruption, a bump in the road that we can maneuver around? Or should we consider conflict as a constant that we must always contend with? Because the first notion seems more common, this edition of State of Conflict space offered for that second idea. When we see conflict as a constant, it requires professionals to create the conditions in which conflict can make a constructive contribution to social development. A number of these conditions are trust, recognition, and creativity.

Trust

When tensions rise, the understandable reflex is to de-escalate, pause, or avoid. The latter manifests, for example, in opaque decision-making, long silences, and late dissemination of information about initiatives. When this is how governments behave, it can be perceived as a gesture of distrust towards citizens. And because trust is reciprocal, this has the unwanted effect that citizens also begin to distrust the government.

Emanuela Saporito is a board member of LABSUS (Laboratorio sulla sussidiarietà/Laboratory for Subsidiarity). She demonstrated how she tries to break this cycle. LABSUS is an initiative that more than 280 Italian municipalities have joined. Municipalities have a point of contact where residents can submit initiatives. The initiatives are assessed against a number of criteria, such as their social added value (relative to the investment) and their contribution to the common good. Every proposal is given a chance. This gives citizens confidence and appeals to their leadership. This requires a different view of the citizen, namely that of a driver rather than a risk to social projects. This approach strengthens cooperation and trust between local authorities and citizens. The opposite is also true: giving trust leads to receiving trust. And a foundation of trust provides a better basis for resolving conflicts.

Recognition

In the Netherlands, increasing polarization has led to a program at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations called: Societal Unrest and Discontent. This is led by Saskia Tempelman. She called for not shying away from confrontations, but facing them with an open mind. Not avoiding, but being honest and offering recognition are the guidelines:

• Get real! Realize that you are causing harm to the other person.
• Get in there! Be truly present, listen, and go towards the pain.
• Open up! Be honest about doubts and uncertainties
• Get clear! Be honest about positions and limitations

Creativity

Another reflex is to tightly direct exciting matters. After all, it's exciting to give up direction and lose control. Martien Kuitenbrouwer (Public MediationThis year, a call was made to professionals to not approach processes and interventions in escalating tensions between parties in a fully directed and controlled manner, but rather to focus more on creating the right conditions for building trust. This includes a safe environment that allows for recognition, but also for confrontation, learning, creativity, and experimentation. By providing the right conditions, parties themselves can go a long way in forming mutual understanding and in developing solutions that hold the greatest possible value for all parties involved.

In short, conflict is the fuel for transformation, but it needs good embedding to function as a constructive force leading to desired results. State of Conflict this year shows that this embedding consists of at least trust, recognition, and creativity.

See here State of Conflict 2022 video Made by Gilles Cohen.

Senior consultant

Robin Schram