We often associate the word ‘conflict’ with large-scale armed clashes: war, rebels, and fighting. However, conflicts can also be small and less violent, for example quarrels with friends, parents, or teachers. Conflicts may even exist within yourself.

This module addresses these smaller conflicts and helps us in searching for ways to deal with them peacefully.

Conflict is a disagreement where the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests, or concerns.

Peace is the absence of violence and a state of harmony within and between people or groups.

Conflict as a part of life

Conflict can be seen as a natural part of human existence. People have different values, opinions and interests that can clash from time to time. If you deal with those clashes constructively, conflict can be a positive dynamic – a force of change for the better.

Peace is not only the absence of war or armed violence. Even in times of peace people can still be marginalised, exploited and discriminated against. A society in peace can still be unjust, unequal and mean. This is called ‘negative peace’.

‘Positive peace’ is different. It is about social relationships, structures and cultures that enhance the capacity of human beings. When there is positive peace, groups and institutions manage conflicts non-violently and constructively.

We cannot avoid conflicts altogether, we have to deal with the conflicts that arise. People will naturally disagree on certain matters. That is normal. The challenge is to deal with the differences between people and find constructive solutions for them, leading to positive peace.

Conflict analysis

Social conflicts are complex. They involve many actors in processes that are usually complicated. Sometimes conflicts escalate in intensity and violence; other times they quiet down. Then, again, they may fall back into violence, before taking a new step towards peace.

We can analyse what a conflict is about and in this way be able to contribute to peaceful solutions. We can do this by looking at the stages a conflict goes through and the levels at which the conflict is taking place.

We can ask the questions:

• Who is involved?
  
• How are decisions made?
  
• What are the specific issues leading to conflict?

A metaphor for processes of conflict is the life cycle of a fire:

Stage 1: Gathering materials for the fire

Before a fire is started, materials for the fire are collected. Some of these materials are dry, ready to burn. There will not be a fire before someone lights it, but the materials are there.

This stands for a potential conflict. Flammable materials in a social conflict may be injustice, inequality or a fundamental difference in goals. In a smaller context, the same ingredients apply. One of the children may, for instance, have long fostered a feeling of jealousy towards another peer.

Stage 2: Fire is lit

In the next stage someone strikes a match. The fire starts to burn. The driest materials, collected in the first stage, catch fire first.

In a conflict, the start of the fire is the confrontation. This can be a confrontation between political parties, like a large public demonstration. Social unrest may explode. At a lower level, between children, a certain mean remark may be the match which sparks off the fight.

Stage 3: Raging fire

The fire burns as far and fast as it can, burning wildly out of control. Even the materials that were not very dry in the beginning can be captured by the raging fire.

In terms of a conflict: the confrontation reaches a bigger crisis. In the largest context, we speak of war. At a lower level, you could think of a child engaging in fights structurally, involving more and more peers and getting angry about all kinds of other things that had been under the surface before.

Stage 4: Glowing coal

At some point, the fire shrinks. All the fuel is burnt. The flames largely vanish but coals continue to glow. The fire seems to have disappeared, but new fuel would immediately bring back the flames.

In the metaphor, this stands for an unresolved conflict. The signs of conflict may have died out, but the conflict is still alive. In this stage, a conflict can either continue or cool down to a peaceful level. But new ‘fuel’ would re-ignite the old conflict.

Stage 5: Everything cool again

In the end, all fires go out; no more flames and no more burning coals. Everything is cool again. The ashes remain. What is burnt is lost, but the place where the fire was, is now safe.

In this final stage of conflict, it is time to rebuild what has been lost and let new things grow on the scorched earth.

Levels of conflict

Broadly speaking, we can distinguish four levels where conflict occurs:

1. Intrapersonal: thoughts, ideas and emotions which conflict within an individual
2. Interpersonal: a conflict between two or more individuals
3. Intragroup: a conflict within a sports team, family, community or class
4. Intergroup: a conflict between communities, gangs or ethnic groups

Goals of the module 'Conflict and Peace':
Children have gained the insight and skills to deal with conflicts.

Sessions:

1. Types and causes of conflict
2. Conflicts in your own life
3. How to deal with conflict?
4. Promoting a culture of peace

Session 1: Types and causes of conflict
Goal: The children have become aware of different types of conflict and their causes.

Session 2: Conflicts in your own life
Goal: The children have analysed the causes and dynamics of the conflicts in their environment.

Session 3: How to deal with conflict?
Goal: The children have learnt peaceful ways of dealing with conflicts in their lives.

Session 4: Promoting a culture of peace
Goal: The children have gained ideas and insights about how to foster a culture of peace.

Let's promote peace!