Advanced Conflict Transformation

Overview

This course deals with interpersonal conflicts, causes, coping strategies, and conflict resolution from a social psychological point of view.

Objectives

The objectives of this course are:

1. Getting insight into potential causes of interpersonal conflicts.

2. Getting insight into conflicts in organizations and assessing the contributing factors.

3. Analyzing conflicts and being able to present possible solutions.

   Content part one

   The first part of the course will deal with potential causes of interpersonal conflicts, attraction, and relationships, with the development of social attachments. Attitude formation and behavior will be studied in order to better understand the influence of group membership as well as processes of social influence: Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience. Furthermore, hostile intergroup behavior such as Prejudice, Stereotypes, Discrimination, and Aggression will be discussed together with the common thread of humanity as Altruism and other forms of Prosocial behavior. Concepts of Morality and Competition, Justice and Cooperation will also be elaborated.

   Content part two

   The second part of the course will pay attention to interpersonal conflicts directly, looking at potential causes, coping strategies, and perspectives on conflict resolution in organizations. Relationships and conflicts at work and organizational power will be discussed in view of politics and gender factors. Culture conflicts in a cross-cultural perspective will also be discussed alongside conceptions of fairness and reconciliation.

The Transcend Peace University, TPU is an all-online university, currently headed by Prof. Dr. Johan Galtung, widely recognized as the core founding-figure of the academic discipline of peace studies. Our inter-disciplinary courses are designed to cover issues pertaining to peace and development studies.

As specialists in this domain, we emphasize solution-oriented approaches. Our faculty members are leading peace scholars and internationally recognized mediators. The purpose of TPU, the educational institute of TRANSCEND, is to impart to our students the knowledge and skills required for professional peace and development work.

TPU equips students with analytical and practical competence in conflict-transformation and -resolution. Our methodology draws from more than fifty years of knowledge provided by distinguished researchers and practitioners from all over the world.

Our 12-week and 6-week (Summer Sessions) online courses are addressed to the government and non-government practitioners - including students - in need of high-level analytical peace & conflict competence. The Galtung-Institute offers additional on-site tutorials in southern Germany - for further information please visit the homepage of the institute: www.galtung-institut.de.

TPU online courses appeal to participants of graduate or post-graduate level, or people with equivalent experience. Participation requires the commitment to read and analyze the materials posted by the academic course instructors, to participate actively in group discussions and assignments, and to respect the reading and responding time frames. Our past experience has proven, that participants must be ready and willing to devote no less than six to eight hours a week in order to benefit satisfactorily from the course.

The fees per course amount to € 800 for participants from OECD-countries and € 400 for participants from non-OECD countries for the 12-week courses in spring and fall, and € 400 for participants from OECD-countries and € 200 for participants from non-OECD countries for the 6-week summer courses.

Please understand that our courses are designed to accommodate a limited minimum as well as a specified maximum number of participants. Whenever the minimum threshold is not met, we reserve the right to cancel the course and whenever the maximum threshold is exceeded, further applications will be encouraged to enroll in a different course or apply for the next semester. These are measures of quality control that serve to improve our teaching and your online learning experience.

To deepen your studies please visit the Galtung-Institute which is the on-site carrier of the Transcend Peace University program, offering on-site tutorials on Conflict Transformation during the TPU-terms in Grenzach-Wyhlen in southern Germany.