Ken Fox’s new book, Perspectives on Conflict: Insights for Professional and Personal Practice, is a beautifully-written volume that provides a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at the nature of conflict.  It invites readers to understand conflict itself and not simply consider how to manage it.

The book is organized into three parts.  Part 1 explores foundational concepts.  It introduces three metaphors – conflict as mosaic, rushing river, and ecosystem – to produce more holistic ways of seeing conflict.

Part 2 takes readers on a tour through six perspectives of conflict:

• The body – including neuroscience, physiology, and somatic experience
• The non-conscious mind – automatic responses that shape behavior
• The strategic mind – conscious decision-making and pursuit of goals
• Language and symbols – how conflict is communicated through interaction
• The co-creation of meaning – how parties shape conflict together
• Systems and structures – institutional and social contexts of conflict

Part 3 brings the insights into practical focus.  Ken shows how the six perspectives can lead to different conflict outcomes.  He also offers reflections on themes that cut across all six perspectives, including impartiality, the role of representatives, and emotional intelligence.

Perspectives on Conflict is not a how-to book.  It doesn’t tell you what model to follow or what technique to use.  Instead, it offers a thoughtful analysis for readers who take conflict seriously and are dissatisfied with simplistic models or overconfident prescriptions.  It invites us to think deeply about what we are really doing when we deal with conflict.

Many readers of this blog know Ken, who is the founding university director of conflict studies at Hamline University and the University Professor of Critical Thinking and Conflict Management.  He is also a senior fellow of the Dispute Resolution Institute at Mitchell | Hamline School of Law.

Take a look.