CONF 730: STRUCTURAL SOURCES OF CONFLICT
Professor Ho-Won Jeong
George Mason University
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
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Lewis Coser. The Functions of Social Conflict, pp 33-66
Riley Smith
2/10/03
Conf 730
Ch. 1: Conflict and Group Boundaries: Proposition 1: Group-Binding
Functions of Conflict
Summarizing Sociologist Georg Simmel's proposition that "conflict
serves to establish and maintain the identity and boundary lines of
societies and groups."
-Important distinction between discussion of personal autonomy and group
autonomy. Conflict is important for full differentiation of ego personality
from outside world.
-Group binding characteristic of conflict: "In-group" with
shared identity and group consciousness within the system vs. "Out-group"
reciprocal repulsion. Example: Indian caste system's extreme stability.
Achieved vs. Ascribed status and legitimacy of unequal distribution
of rights.
-In systems that allow for mobility, the lower strata is simultaneously
attracted and hostile to the higher strata. Example: Marx's false consciousness,
which opens many doors to conflict.
-Important distinction between "conflict" and "hostile"
attitudes.
Ch. 2: Hostility and Tensions in Conflict Relationships:
Proposition 2: Group-Preserving Functions of Conflict and the Significance
of Safety-Valve Institutions.
Conflict can be seen as "performing group maintaining functions
insofar as it regulates systems of relationships."
-Without ways to vent hostility toward each other, and to express dissent,
group members might feel completely crushed and might react with withdrawal.
Conflict can clear the air, for "so foul a sky clears not without
a storm."
-Important distinction between conflict, which has the potential to
change relationships and structure, whereas hostile attitudes have no
such necessary effects.
-Behavioral manifestations of feelings of hostility:
(1) Direct expression of hostility against the person or group which
is the source of frustration.
(2) Displacement of such hostile behavior onto substitute objects. ("Safety
valves" or socially controlled forums for hostile release. Example:
duels and witchcraft persecution also known as scapegoating.) Does not
allow for social change and "an institution which serves to channel
hostility and to prevent release against the original object, thereby
maintaining the structure of the social system, may also have serious
dysfunctions for either the social system or the actor, or both."
(3) Tension-release activity which provides satisfaction in itself without
need for object or object substitute.
Proposition 3: Realistic and Nonrealistic Conflict
-Realistic conflict is a means toward an end, only one of several functional
alternatives to means. Does not imply that the means are adequate for
reaching the means, only that they are perceived as such by the participants.
Realistic conflicts arise when men clash in the pursuit of claims based
on frustration of demands and expectations of gains (relative deprivation).
-Nonrealistic conflict is conflict for conflict's sake or an end in
and of itself. No functional alternatives to means, only to objects.
Satisfaction is sought through the aggressive means and not in the result.
Nonrealistic conflicts arise from deprivations and frustrations stemming
from the socialization process and from later adult role obligations,
or from realistic antagonism, which was disallowed expression.
Proposition 4: Conflict and Hostile Impulses
-Feelings of hostility arise in the interplay between an impulse of
hostility and an opposing object, as Freud's "primary hostility
of men towards one another" cannot in itself account for social
conflict.
-Conflict as a social phenomenon can be understood only as occurring
within a pattern of interaction. Malinowski's four variables in the
"harnessing of aggression by culture"= inherent attributes
of human beings; social position; cultural norms; and social structure.
Conflict presupposes a relationship.
Proposition 5: Hostility in Close Social Relationships
-Social relationships of a closer more intimate nature involve both
converging and diverging motivations, both "love and hatred,"
which are intricately linked.
-There is more occasion for the rise of hostile feelings in primary
than in secondary groups, for the more the relationship is based upon
the participation of the total personality-as distinct from segmental
participation-the more it is likely to generate both love and hate.
Coser, Lewis. The Functions of Social Conflict. Pgs 111-157
Proposition 12: Ideology and Conflict
I. The two main types of conflicts are:
A. Personal and subjective
B. Impersonal and objective
II. Consequences of objective conflicts
A. Are likely to be more intransigent, "radical and merciless" (112)
B. Individuals in an objective or superindividual conflict act as representatives
of groups or ideas
i. "The individual who is expected to act as the representative of his
group sees himself as the embodiment of its purposes and of its power...His
energies are thereby strengthened and his fight imbued with feelings of power
derived from the power he ascribes to the collectivity." (114)
ii. A group member who has made sacrifices for the group feels a sense of investment
in the group. He has projected all or part of his personality onto the group
and as a consequence it has become an "extension" of his own personality,
thus threats to the group equal threats to his personality. (114)
iii. The superindividuality of a cause pushes individual, differing, and potentially
conflicting interests and desires to the side, focusing all attention and resources
on the immediate goal.
1. This increases the intransigence etc. of a conflict.
iv. A group builds and maintains its distinctiveness by transforming individuals
into conscious representatives of the group. (115)
C. Objectification itself isn't a unifying factor unless accompanied by other
unifying factors.
i. When both parties agree upon the goals of the conflict, the mutual rejection
of a personal basis for the conflict generates unity between the parties, but
when the parties pursue different goals objectification sharpens the distinction
between parties and fosters greater in-group unity. (118)
Proposition 13: Conflict Binds Antagonists
I. For a conflict to take place there has to be a relationship, which may or
may not precede the conflict, between the parties. (121-122)
II. Conflict tends to be followed by other types of relationships between the
parties.
A. It serves as a process for familiarizing the parties with each other.
B. "Hostile interaction thus often leads to subsequent friendly interaction,
conflict being a means to 'test' and 'know' the previously unknown." (122)
III. Conflict encourages the development or modification of common rules governing
the conduct of conflict, as well as the social world in general.
A. In part because the conflict takes place within a framework of social relations.
B. This only applies to conflicts over "applications" and not principles.
(123-124)
C. "By bringing about new situations, which are partly or totally undefined
by rules and norms, conflict acts as a stimulus for the establishment of new
rules and norms." (124)
a. ex. War to define borders leads to clarification of the principles of sovereignty
and territorial integrity.
b. Ex. Legal cases lead to the clarification of old laws and the creation of
new ones. (123-125)
D. Conflict also leads to the formation or growth of institutions to enforce
and interpret rules. (126)
IV. Conflict makes latent rules and norms apparent, binding groups closer
together.
Proposition 14: Unity of the Enemy
I. Groups which desire a similar degree of unity in their adversary when they
perceive themselves as having "a rough equality of strength."
a. Because an adversary with a similar degree of unity will be easier to predict,
more likely to agree on the format for the conflict and on how and when it is
resolved, and less likely to produce "spoilers."
b. Also, because the conflict can be carried out more efficiently. There is
only one opponent to be fought, rather than several smaller ones. (128-133)
Proposition 15: Conflict Establishes and Maintains Balance of Power
I. Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others according to your
own wishes
II. Conflict always involves power.
III. When no accurate means for measuring power exists, only actual conflict
can provides parties with knowledge about their relative strength.
IV. Efforts to mediate, arbitrate, etc. often face the difficulty of convincing
the parties that the situation merits negotiation-that there is more to be gained
from bargaining for peace than continuing to fight. A decision which is largely
based on their perceived ability to win (relative strength).
V. Conflict serves to reveal and then accomodate parties' relative power. It
modifies the basis for power relations. (133-137)
Proposition 16: Conflict Creates Associations and Coalitions
I. Conflict can lead to the unification (at least temporarily) of previously
unrelated parties in order to oppose a shared adversary more efficiently.
a. During this period of "antagonistic cooperation," the minor conflicts
of interest between the parties are subordinated while the greater conflict
between the parties and some external group is pursued.
b. Conflict against a common enemy may lead to the formation of a new group
or a more instrumental and more temporary alliance. Either of these may lead,
in time, to increased cohesion in social structures and rules for the groups.
c. Defensive alignments (coalitions) are particularly fragile and fleeting bacause
they contain only the minimum of unifying elements and the participants only
common interest is the survival of their independent unity. (139-149)