ABSTRACT

Conflict has a bad connotation in the world of policy-making. While collaboration is widely celebrated, conflict is seen as problematic. This negative view of conflict obscures the positive function that conflicts can serve. Conflicts can change things for the better due to the engagement and creativity that they evoke. This chapter uses the conflict over the multi-billion-euro “Oosterweelconnection” highway in Antwerp (Belgium) to investigate how public administrators deal with conflict. It argues that, because public administrators are often focused on bringing their projects to a successful finish, further debate on the merits of their projects is cut short. But their refusal to engage in further discussions may not only make existing conflicts more destructive, but may also inhibit them from taking advantage of conflicts’ constructive aspects. The chapter argues that public administrators should be taught the practical skills to be better conflict-arbiters, and the ethics to go with these skills, so that they do not shy away from conflict, but rather learn to deal with conflict constructively. Conflict may ultimately serve, not threaten, their core task: implementing good policies.