One of the reasons I feel so strongly about the value of the Stone Soup Project is that it inspires us to develop deeper understandings about how conflicts unfold. I have encouraged colleagues to assign students to get detailed accounts of cases from the outset – not focus only on the tail end – because … Continue reading Conflict in Context
Grande Lum, former director of the Community Relations Service (CRS), just published an important article in The Hill newspaper urging Congress to maintain independent funding for the agency. “Historically, CRS has played a significant role in facilitating dialogue, developing constructive relationships, and reducing the possibility of violence. Its mediators and conciliators played a key role … Continue reading Grande Lum’s Article Criticizing Proposal to Effectively Eliminate the Community Relations Service
A recent episode of the Modern Love podcast told the story of a man struggling to deal with conflicting desires of his mother and wife to cook him delicious meals. While having too much good food may not seem problematic, negotiating serially with one’s wife and mother sure can be. This account reveals subtle ways … Continue reading Culinary Negotiation
Our field aspires to promote restorative justice and healing when one person has wronged another. This can truly happen only when the person committing the wrong takes responsibility, typically reflected in an acknowledgment of having done the wrong and an apology. Forgiveness can help people restore themselves as morally acceptable members of society as seen … Continue reading An Example of The Power of Apology and Forgiveness
I have known Forrest (Woody) Mosten for quite a while. He co-authored several articles on collaborative law with me, putting him at risk of tarnishing his stellar reputation. We also co-authored an article, Family Lawyering: Past, Present, and Future. Much more significantly, Woody is known as the “father of unbundling” (as well as being a … Continue reading Mosten and Scully’s New Book on Unbundled Legal Services
Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, director of Creighton’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, Puerto Ricans are Hardly U.S. Citizens. They are Colonial Subjects. It reviews the history of how Puerto Ricans gained US citizenship without self-determination. Click the title of this post to see the link and take a look.
I have written a lot recently about apologies (and non-apologies), most recently a post focusing on Louis C.K.’s apology (which links to prior posts). Today, the New York Times ran a piece entitled “Mea Culpa. Kinda Sorta.” in which several writers parse the language in the apologies of Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Louis C.K., Kevin … Continue reading Mea Culpa. Kinda Sorta.
I just listened to an episode of a This American Life podcast entitled 129 Cars, referring to a car dealership’s monthly sales quota. A team of reporters followed various people at a Long Island dealership for a month and the episode sounds like a sitcom. But it is very real, reflecting tensions in negotiations between … Continue reading Real Car Dealing
Since the recent publications about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged serial sexual misconduct, there has been a wave of stories about others who have allegedly committed sexual misconduct. The comedian Louis C.K. is one of the men who has been accused. He publicly acknowledged that the accusations were true and apologized. Political science professor Nancy D. Wadsworth … Continue reading Louis C.K.’s Apology
As they say, if two people always agree, one of them is unnecessary. It may seem odd that I advocate for more disagreements in a blog named Indisputably. But that’s exactly what I’m doing. Actually, just more good disagreements. Dying Art of Disagreement This post riffs on a column by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, … Continue reading In Praise of (Good) Disagreements
