International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict
	Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA

Conflict as the Primary Engine of Social Learning

While conflict can be disturbing, painful, destructive, and even catastrophic, it is also an essential engine of social learning. Social learning occurs when an individual or group objects to the current state of affairs and proposes improvements. Conflicts arise when others disagree about the desirability of these proposed changes. The role of conflict processes is to determine which improvements should be accepted and which should be rejected. Strategies for dealing with conflict which present suppress this process also suppress learning. The process of constructive confrontation can therefore be seen as a mechanism for facilitating social learning, rather than a strategy for suppressing conflict.

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