Communication and Conflict

Welcome to the Communication and Conflict project home page. Our ability to communicate successfully affects all aspects of our lives. Difficulties, indeed failures, or breakdowns in communication can play a major role in hostility, conflict and war. Communication problems can also lead to personal frustration and desired outcomes not being realised. The nature of our communications can also raise larger contextual issues about human learning, the exchange of knowledge and the nature of humanity. How can we communicate where those involved have quite different languages, specialisations and views of the world? How can we avoid conflict when we strongly disagree based on the great differences in how we perceive things? How can we appreciate and consider highly divergent views from our own? This inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary project seeks to explore these and other topics and create dialogue about communication and conflict.

The project will critically engage with and seek to explore a number of core themes:

1. Nonviolent, or compassionate, communication (NVC)
2. Communication and Conflict
3 . Communication breakdowns and breakthroughs
4 . Dehumanising Communication
5. Dialogue • Friendship • Philosophy • Dialogical Relationships
6. Communication and decision making

Related themes will also be identified for development and exploration. Out of our deliberations it is anticipated that a series of related projects will develop with an open door for other associated projects and themes which demand consideration today.