The conflict management literature identifies two types of conflicts, namely, resource conflicts and value conflicts. Resource conflicts concern disagreements about the allocation of scarce resources such as time and money. Value conflicts occur when parties disagree on a given topic due to diverging values (e.g. justice, religion). Previous research has primarily identified techniques to intervene in resource conflicts (e.g. Harvard method). However, differences in core values, which are often embedded in people’s socio-cultural identities, are also common sources of conflict. Recent data collected through in-depth interviews with professional mediators confirms a lack of information about value conflicts and the unavailability of techniques specifically geared at resolving value conflicts.
In this project, we investigate the mechanisms involved in the reconciliation of value conflicts with the aim of identifying effective interventions that can be adopted by professional mediators.