Bridging Cultural Conflicts: A New Approach for a Changing World - Hardcover

LeBaron, Michelle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078796431X ISBN 13: 9780787964313

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2003

Synopsis

"This much needed book . . .is a creative, helpful, and hopeful contribution at a time when we are especially challenged to bridge cultures in the pursuit of mutual understanding and peace."
―Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Laureate

In our global society, challenging conflicts abound in personal, business, government, and international settings. Many of these conflicts are complicated by layers of miscommunication, cultural misunderstandings, and completely different ways of looking at the world. These conflicts cannot be solved by goodwill or sincere intentions alone. In our multicultural world, we need new tools to address gaps in communication and understanding and the conflicts that flow from them.

Bridging Cultural Conflicts answers this need in groundbreaking ways that cut through complexity, replacing confusion with clarity. It introduces mindful awareness, cultural fluency, and conflict fluency as tools for decoding and moving through intercultural conflicts, and for deepening and integrating change. The book shows how fluency with culture and conflict can be learned through attention and practice, just as we would internalize a new language. As fluency is acquired, a process called dynamic engagement is presented to help prevent intercultural conflict, limit its escalation, and transform it into a learning experience.

Michelle LeBaron's approach in Bridging Cultural Conflicts is human, practical, and adaptable to a wide range of interpersonal, community, organizational, and political conflicts. Drawing from her work as an attorney, mediator, scholar, and internationally acclaimed consultant, Michelle combines the dynamism of Western approaches to conflict resolution with the insight and balance of Eastern approaches. In the process, she offers a wide array of creative strategies and usable tools. As we urgently seek better ways to work and live together and to address the issues that divide us, this timely book inspires flexibility, creativity, and hope.

About this title

About the Author

Michelle LeBaron is professor of conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. LeBaron teaches about conflict, culture, and creativity and writes poetry by the sea. She consults with groups and organizations around the world on issues related to diversity, identity, meaning-making, and spirituality. She is the author of Bridging Troubled Waters (Jossey-Bass, 2002).

From the Back Cover

"This sparkling, brilliant, easy to read book, replete with fascinating stories, is about the problems we face in trying to understand and heal cross-cultural conflicts, at all levels of society. It shows you how to bridge successfully the gap between culture and conflict and is a must read for any student of human nature."
―U.S. Ambassador John W. McDonald, chairman and CEO, Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy

"Twenty-first century society is global. Without becoming skillful at building bridges across cultures, our global society will not succeed. Bridging Cultural Conflicts is must reading for all of us who care about creating a positive future."
―Nancy J. Adler, professor of International Management, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

"Bridging Cultural Conflicts is a must read for the cross-cultural sojourner. No matter if it be Japan, Zimbabwe, Peru, Holland, the Peace Corps, the Marine Corps, or your church's overseas work camp, there will come a time when you are suddenly "the stranger." Profound things happen at that juncture. It is a teachable moment. You can quit and go home, curl up in a ball, or go hang with your own people. Or you can make the leap into new realms of experience. LeBaron's primer shows you the way. Her path is cultural fluency, comfort with differences, and the search for common humanity. Follow it."
―Peter S. Adler, director, Center for Science and Public Policy, Keystone Center, Keystone, Colorado

"Bridging Cultural Conflicts is a wonderful blend of personal experience and insight, new lenses for understanding differences, and practical approaches for working with individuals and groups when diversity may be a barrier to collaboration."
―Christopher Moore, partner, CDR Associates and author, The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict

In our global society, challenging conflicts abound in personal, business, government, and international settings. Many of these conflicts are complicated by layers of miscommunication, cultural misunderstandings, and completely different ways of looking at the world. These conflicts cannot be solved by goodwill or sincere intentions alone. In our multicultural world, we need new tools to address gaps in communication and understanding and the conflicts that flow from them.

Bridging Cultural Conflicts answers this need in groundbreaking ways that cut through complexity, replacing confusion with clarity. It introduces mindful awareness, cultural fluency, and conflict fluency as tools for decoding and moving through intercultural conflicts, and for deepening and integrating change. The book shows how fluency with culture and conflict can be learned through attention and practice, just as we would internalize a new language. As fluency is acquired, a process called dynamic engagement is presented to help prevent intercultural conflict, limit its escalation, and transform it into a learning experience.

Michelle LeBaron's approach in Bridging Cultural Conflicts is human, practical, and adaptable to a wide range of interpersonal, community, organizational, and political conflicts. Drawing from her work as an attorney, mediator, scholar, and internationally acclaimed consultant, Michelle combines the dynamism of Western approaches to conflict resolution with the insight and balance of Eastern approaches. In the process, she offers a wide array of creative strategies and usable tools. As we urgently seek better ways to work and live together and to address the issues that divide us, this timely book inspires flexibility, creativity, and hope.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 078796431X
• ISBN 13: 9780787964313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352