ABSTRACT

This chapter arose from an earlier enquiry about how restorative justice articulates with the broader concept of peacemaking using legal-ethical frameworks (Mackay, 2007a, 2007b). This chapter presents a novel framework for analysing conflict and disputes resolution and management methods (hereafter for sake of concision, ‘conflict responses’) within a threefold typology of temporal focus, the sociopolitical locus of conflict and the axis of consent-coercion. It is grounded in a model of peacemaking which is based on a legal-ethical argument applying neo-Aristotelian theory and discourse ethics. It also draws upon a critical reinterpretation of Durkheimian sociology and an application of Buber’s conception of interrelatedness. It is argued that clarity about how different methods of conflict and dispute resolution and management fit into this framework allows us to take better decisions about which methods to employ in particular situations after an analysis of the issues in dispute and the motives and intentions of the parties involved. The chapter concludes with an application of the typology through the medium of the model of Law and Literature to a well-known story not hitherto analysed for its illustration of conflict responses, leading to a reflection about motivation and recognition of the other in the resolution of conflict in family mediation.