Concepts of Social Conflict: Use in Social Work Curriculum

Design-Driven Conflicts: Exploring the Contribution of Design for Constructing Social Controversies from a Theoretical Standpoint

“…As a result of this stereotype, they often fail to reveal other aspects of the problem and lose the benefit of diversity [8,42,43]. Despite the consequences of controversies on group efficiency, the truth is that neither all personal aspects of perceived conflicts nor all social consequences of ruptures are problematic [12,46]. In other words, the impact of conflict (i.e., the resulting changes after conflicts) as a dynamic form of social relationships can also be "constructive" [18].…”

“…Moreover, the review of the literature showed that, in social systems, conflict(s) between human agents is an essential property of human relationships that 'stimulates' the dynamic nature (self-organization property) of the social system [8,[46][47][48]. It is a common consequence of human life and a necessity for continuous growth in every society [12,13,46,49]. In the short-term, controversies shape the individual's decisions, behaviors, or actions.…”

“…Based on this feature, 'social changes' are normally a gradual and continuous state of reform in which normative factors 'gradually' change the dominant discourse and social equilibriums [61][62][63]. For instance, reframing social structures, changing the status quo, and even shifting the values or norms by reframing patterns of relationships all lead to such changes in the long term [12,62].…”

“…Therefore, in contrast to the self-organization nature of social systems, controversy, as a form of social relation, can act as a fuel that triggers the speed of reforms [21] (p. 123). In other words, the success of reform, i.e., the extent to which changes reframe the dominant discourse and the rate of the changes (i.e., how long it takes to reframe the existing system and boundaries) are entangled with controversies as a process of change [12,60]. In the next part, to further unfold the process and the consequences of such changes, we examine the relationship between the outcome of conflicts (higher-order learning) and the emergence of a new reality.…”

“…In general, communication and interactions in social systems take different forms [5,11]. Some types of relations are cooperative and some are competitive, but in the context of complexity, interactions between actors are more contradictory [5,[10][11][12][13]. Such complexity is partly associated with the subject dependence of social systems and partly with the plurality of world views [1,14].…”