International Conference on Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw (Atlanta suburb), Georgia
April 20 - 21, 2012
Indigenous conflict management and resolution strategies—utilizing local actors and traditional community-based judicial and legal decision-making mechanisms to manage and resolve conflicts within or between communitieshave not been given sufficient attention. Instead, much of the scholarship has been focused on conventional Western approaches. However, a critical assessment of global conflict trends indicates that since World War II there have been more local (intra-state) conflicts than interstate or global conflicts. This phenomenon supports the view that current conflicts are local rather than global. Indeed, even when considered global, every conflict is local inasmuch as local people suffer the ramifications. Examples of such conflicts abound in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, etc. Solutions to conflicts must therefore be local for application, relevance and sustainability, and replicated globally in similar situations.
The argument for indigenous approaches may on the surface appear to be a desperate return to the past-nostalgia for the good old days when things are believed to have worked—but a deeper understanding could be found in the fact that conventional Western approaches to conflict resolution throughout the world are yet to be fully embraced. In addition, indigenous approaches give space to conflicts caused by agents of globalization which include nation states and national/global companies farming, mining, or otherwise occupying indigenous land/spaces. Where the conflict involves indigenous v. non-indigenous groups, then traditional approaches would face off against more global entities that might be using "Western" methods. In this regard, what is the place of power disparity in conflict management? Would the parties resort to indigenous approaches as a choice or in desperation? The need to interrogate indigenous mechanisms of conflict management has, therefore, become more
imperative.
The conference engages authors/presenters on critical issues in the processes/procedures, cultural imperatives and application of indigenous approaches to conflict management in different parts of the world. Participation in this conference is open to all interested members of the academia, religious authorities, traditional rulers, civil society organizations, officials of political parties and other political activists, professional groups, tabor unions, officials of the international organizations, etc. Participants are invited to Atlanta, and to Kennesaw State University, the venue for the conference.
Theme of the Conference
Global Conflicts, Local Solutions: Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies
Sub-Themes
• Conceptual, theoretical and empirical issues on the interface between indigenous conflict management
strategies and adversarial approaches
• Intercultural dynamics in indigenous conflict management styles
• Globalization and indigenous conflict management approaches: Specific country experiences
• Women in indigenous conflict management: Experiences from around the world
• Human rights and indigenous conflict management system
• Indigenous conflict resolution strategies: Historical approaches
• Indigenous conflict management among indigenous groups/nations in "Western" societies
• Types of conflicts (land disputes, domestic/family disputes, religious conflict, communal conflict, etc.) and corresponding indigenous conflict resolution styles
• Traditional institutions, traditional rule and conflict management
• The place of indigenous approaches to conflict management in the agenda of the United Nations and
regional international organizations
• National, ethnic, clan styles of mediation, arbitration, etc.
• Power and influence in indigenous conflict management approaches
• Indigenous conflict management strategies and Western approaches: Interactions, friction, successful
integration models, etc.
• Negotiation styles of non-Westem societies
