An Emerging Role for Applied Anthropology: Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Magistro
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Team ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Salt Intrusion ◽  
Senegal River ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The U.S

In June, 1988 I arrived in Senegal to begin my doctoral field research as a member of an interdisciplinary team of social scientists from the U.S., Senegal, and France. At the invitation of the Senegalese government, I was to undertake a multi—year research initiative assessing the projected environmental and economic impacts resulting from cessation of the natural flood on the Senegal River. The main objective of the study was to understand how the impoundment of the Senegal River would affect the socioecological and political economic dimensions of production in the middle valley. It was also to document the responses of farmers, herders, and fishers to changing conditions of the river's hydrology and flooding. The river had been drastically altered in recent years by the construction of two dams, a high dam at Manantali, Mali completed in 1987, and a salt intrusion dam at Diama, Senegal, completed in 1986.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN INTERACTION BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mykola Somych ◽  
◽  
Yuiiia Vakulenko ◽  
Liudmyla Horbatiuk ◽  
Yurii Kovryzko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Personal Interest ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Legitimate Interests ◽  
System Of Parameters ◽  
Political Economic

The article summarizes the theoretical principles of defining the concept of «mechanism», «conflict management mechanism». The main types of conflicts according to the Law of Ukraine «On Civil Service» are clarified: official disputes and conflicts of interest – a situation in which the personal interest of a civil servant affects or may affect the objective performance of his duties and in which there is or may occur contradictions between the personal interest of the employee and the legitimate interests of citizens, organizations, society. The main types of conflict management mechanisms are identified: organizational, legal and socio-psychological, taking into account objective and subjective factors, which covers a system of parameters, sequential actions, a set of methods and measures of socio- psychological nature. The causes of conflict situations in the interaction of public authorities and the public are substantiated: objective (social, political, economic, ideological factors) and subjective (derived from objective). Conflict fields of contradictions that arise in the process of interaction are depicted: legislative principles, political sphere, personnel policy, undemocratic worldview of managers, economic competence. The analysis of the main conflict fields of contradictions of local governments of Poltava region is carried out. New, alternative methods of conflict resolution have been formed: competition, adaptation, compromise, avoidance, cooperation, their general characteristics have been determined. Officials were invited to use the open conversation technique in order to reach a compromise.

Historicizing the comparative survey of freedom: tracing the social trajectory of an influential indicator

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-144
Author(s):  
Emily Zerndt
Keyword(s):  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
Retrospective Account ◽  
Comparative Survey ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Freedom House

ArgumentThe Comparative Survey of Freedom, first published by Freedom House in 1973, is now the most widely used indicator of democracy by both academics and the U.S. government alike. However, literature examining the Survey’s origins is virtually nonexistent. In this article, I use archival records to challenge Freedom House’s retrospective account of the indicator’s creation. Rather than the outcome of a scientific methodology by multiple social scientists, the Survey was produced by a single political scientist, Raymond Gastil, according to his own hunches and impressions. How, then, did this indicator rise to such prominence? I argue that the Survey’s notoriety can be attributed to its early promotion in both political science and American foreign policy decision-making, as well as the fact that it fit the dominant scientific and political paradigms of the time.

The Newest South

2019 ◽  
pp. 61-108
Author(s):  
Brenda Plummer
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
New South ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Brenda Plummer examines the effect of the U.S. space program on race relations in key areas of the South, and the impact of that connection on popular culture. She also explores the intersection of the struggle for racial equality and aerospace exploration, as both constituted potent narratives of freedom in the American imaginary. Plummer disputes the assumption that NASA as an instrument of modernization and partner in the creation of the New South was implicitly allied with the civil rights movement. While the transformation of parts of the Deep South undeniably broke up earlier political, economic, and cultural patterns, aerospace research and development helped inaugurate a successor regime that neither challenged the structural foundations of racial inequality nor guarded against the production of new disparities.

Transnarodowa kwestia społeczna. Migracje i nierówności społeczne

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Thomas Faist
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Question ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ecological Aspects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Political Economic

The social question is back. Yet today’s social question is not primarily between labour and capital, as it was in the nineteenth century and throughout much of the twentieth. The contemporary social question is located at the interstices between the global South and the global North. It finds its expression in movements of people, seeking a better life or fleeing unsustainable social, political, economic, and ecological conditions. It is transnationalized because migrants and their significant others entertain ties across the borders of national states in transnational social spaces; because of the cross-border diffusion of norms; and because there are implications of migration for social inequalities within national states. The first section discusses the structure of social inequalities in migration and the politics around it. It starts, first, by elaborating upon the commonalities and differences of the social question in the 19th and 21st centuries and then, second, asks whether the increasing relevance of location compared to class for income and life chances has replaced voice as a main response by exit. This is followed, third, by an elaboration of the nexus between social inequalities and migration, i.e. migration being both an antecedent and a consequence of social inequalities. Fourth, the focus moves to the main changes in migration control, its externalization from border control to remote control. This is followed, fifth, by a consideration of the other side of the coin, internalization processes in countries of destination and origin, driven by processes such as marketization and securitization of migration. The second section then moves on to sketch one of the main challenges, the need to include ecological aspects into the discussion of the social question. The analysis concludes with reflections on the shifting form of the transnationalized social question. Finally, the outlook discusses the role of social scientists in discussing the transnationalized social question in the public sphere.

Remarks by Arthur Downey

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 179-185
Author(s):  
Arthur Downey ◽  
Leonore Burts
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Forward Movement ◽  
Soviet Policy ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The U.S

I think Professor Jacobsen’s analysis of the unity, the comprehensiveness of the forward movement of Soviet policy and its military, diplomatic, political, economic, cultural advance may be quite true, but I wonder if we are not really only talking about a difference in degree from the U.S. system. I think the fact that Soviet policy is conceived of as a web, and that individual geographic areas or political, military, economic issues are not viewed or treated in isolation, is a concept or a method of conducting policy that is not peculiar to the Soviet Union. We have the same thing, with perhaps only a slight difference in degree as a result in part of the ability of the Soviet system to centralize.

Communication between professionals

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane deLima Thomas ◽  
Amanda Moment ◽  
Janet Abrahm ◽  
Katie Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Interdisciplinary Team ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Interprofessional Communication ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
Palliative Care Consultation ◽  
Care Consultation ◽  
Provider Outcomes

This chapter discusses the importance of communication between professionals in palliative care. It begins by describing the evidence base that shows that patient and provider outcomes are significantly related to the effectiveness of interprofessional communication. Next it outlines the principles of good interprofessional communication including the importance of adopting an attitude of curiosity, recognizing that communication happens at several levels simultaneously, and acknowledging the importance of skilful conflict management. The following section on communication among members of an interdisciplinary team (IDT) reviews the barriers to good IDT communication, including team organization, provider hierarchy, and professional identity. The next section on communication between palliative consultants and other clinicians discusses consultation etiquette and its evidence base; highlights some of the particular challenges faced by palliative care consultants; and describes strategies for good communication in palliative care consultation. The chapter concludes with a description of future directions in the study and promulgation of interprofessional communication and the role that the field of palliative care can play.

scholarly journals Ethnographic movement methods: anthropology takes on the pesticide industry

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dvera I. Saxton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Methyl Iodide ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Food Crops ◽  
Soil Fumigant ◽  
Research Opportunities ◽  
Soil Fumigants ◽  
The U.S

In this article, I describe how the methods of anthropology proved productive and fruitful for research and environmental justice (EJ) activism against methyl iodide, a highly toxic soil fumigant pesticide used to sterilize soil before food crops like strawberries are transplanted. I continue a thread of discussion around what roles anthropology, and especially, public and applied anthropology, should play in addressing the serious problems traditionally encountered, documented, analyzed, and theorized through ethnographic research. Anthropological engagement and action on methyl iodide and other soil fumigants produced unique research opportunities and networks up and down the agricultural hierarchy, as well as spaces to contribute ethnographic labor and critical analysis and reflection to the EJ movement. While this activist approach— what I refer to as 'ethnographic movement methods'—presented some challenges, the victorious end-result of having methyl iodide's manufacturer pull their product from the U.S. market in 2012 also demonstrated how anthropologists, in cooperation with communities confronted by environmental suffering, can work cooperatively towards alternative agricultural and ecological futures.Keywords: activism; applied anthropology; environmental justice; farmworkers; ethnographic movement methods; pesticides

In the Beginning, All the World was America: American Exceptionalism in New Contexts

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The U.S

This article considers the concept of the so-called American exceptionalism in new contexts. It explains that American exceptionalism is a highly adaptable narrative for commentators on the political culture of the U.S. was first coined in the mid-twentieth century as part of an attempt by social scientists to explain the lack of a revolutionary socialist response to the failures of industrial capitalism in the Great Depression. The article suggests that rather than reversing or redeeming American exceptionalism, the theorist must now confront it and find new ways to read the role played by the U.S. in a new century, and refuse to be tempted by the easy and apolitical escape of identifying the one true and essential American soul.

scholarly journals Integrating the social sciences into the COVID-19 response in Alberta, Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. e002672
Author(s):  
Myles Leslie ◽  
Raad Fadaak ◽  
Jan Davies ◽  
Johanna Blaak ◽  
PG Forest ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Infection Prevention ◽  
Interdisciplinary Team ◽  
Infection Prevention And Control ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Communication ◽  
And Control

This paper outlines the rapid integration of social scientists into a Canadian province’s COVID-19 response. We describe the motivating theory, deployment and initial outcomes of our team of Organisational Sociologist ethnographers, Human Factors experts and Infection Prevention and Control clinicians focused on understanding and improving Alberta’s responsiveness to the pandemic. Specifically, that interdisciplinary team is working alongside acute and primary care personnel, as well as public health leaders to deliver ‘situated interventions’ that flow from studying communications, interpretations and implementations across responding organisations. Acting in real time, the team is providing critical insights on policy communication and implementation to targeted members of the health system. Using our rapid and ongoing deployment as a case study of social science techniques applied to a pandemic, we describe how other health systems might leverage social science to improve their preparations and communications.

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