ABSTRACT
A Marxist view portrays conflict as pathological, highlighting structural inequalities as the fundamental origin of conflict, for example, in the clash of groups over scarce resources in a stratified society. Conflict can be of many kinds, dimensions and levels; it can take many forms and derive from a range of sources – intra-personal, interpersonal, intra-group, inter-group, local and international. Broadly speaking conflict in the domain of family break-up can be of three kinds – interpersonal, conflicts of interest and structural. Structural conflict can include the social-economic conflicts of interest that can exist between men and women. Attitudes to conflict, and the emotional and behavioural cues signalling conflict, differ according to culture and ethnicity. The primary focus of the mediator is on disputes. Family disputes generate intense emotional reactions, although disputes of any kind, particularly between individuals, have a high emotional content as well. In most cases, parents make their own arrangements over the children, contact arrangements in particular.
