Conflict Mediation Across Cultures: Pathways and Patterns

By David W. Augsburger

Book Overview

David Augsburger believes conflict is inevitable in human life, but that it is essential and can be quite constructive. He proposes a shift to an "international" approach in resolving conflict. He focuses on interpersonal and group conflicts and provides a comparison of conflict patterns within and among various cultures.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664256090
• ISBN13: 9780664256098
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Good Book!

Easy read with a lot of interesting folk stories. It provides a better understanding for how different cultures experience conflict.

Excellent

The item arrived as scheduled and in good condition, very impressive. Thank you and keep it up

Conflict Mediation

Purchase text book for Daughters MBA coarse. I did not read it, however it is requred reading for a MBA coarse. I am going to assume that if the professor requires the book it must be the best choice on the subject matter.

Seminal

Augsberger writes of the many different ways that cultures interact with each other, and how cultures approach conflict. There are many ways to approach conflict: different approaches to gender conflict, different beliefs on the nature of shame and "saving face", different ideas on what is effective resolution- and all are equally valid, with both good and evil in the different cultures, and the different methods.On one level Augsberger is highly readable. He begins each chapter with numerous stories and fables from different cultures on the various conflicts- myths which are highly illuminating, teaching about cultures and about the nature of conflict, as only parables can. Interspersed in each chapter are many other stories and sharings from real life.However, Augsberger may be one of the most intelligent authors I have ever read. He brings in *so* much, from so many different disciplines, that one feels swamped with information, all integrated in web-like structure, much as most of us feel on reading Finnegan's Wake. It's incredibly well-written, with multi-layers to a Biblical degree, but Augsberger's a lot smarter than I am (and I don't say that often), and this book is *thick*. You'll enjoy it, but read it slowly, and gain the depths and the heights of the change he has to offer.I'd highly recommend Augsberger's Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures, which explores many of these same themes. And B.J. Prashantham's Indian Case Studies in Therapeutic Counseling as well. B.J. uses his own experiences as an Indian therapist, relating to those within his culture or other cultures in India, providing a very emic perspective on these questions of the nature of conflict and resolution.