Stripping Away "Overlay" Problems That Make Conflicts Appear More Intractable Than They Really Are

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

As we have explained earlier, we find it useful to divide up the factors contributing to intractability into two categories: "core" factors and "overlay" factors. Core conflict issues are the things that the conflict is fundamentally about — interests, needs (including identity and security), rights, values, stakes, etc. "Overlay" factors are what we sometimes call "complicating factors." They are things that get lain over the core which obscure it (sometimes almost completely) and make resolution even more difficult. These overlay factors need to be addressed at least simultaneously with efforts to address the core issues, but quite often before the core issues are addressed, because the core issues cannot even be seen or understood until the overlay problems are diminished.

This section will look at constructive ways to address:

Incompatible and destructive framing (particularly us-versus-them, good-versus-evil, and "into-the-sea" framing)
Communication problems (including, among others, misinformation, misunderstanding, blocked communication channels, and the impact of social media and other technology on communication and human relationships)
Factual disagreements and disinformation (including legitimate knowledge and scientific differences, as well as intentional distribution of false information)
Procedural Problems (including unfair laws or rules or unfair implementation of those laws and rules)
Collaboration Problems (an outgrowth both of destructive framing and polarization, people miss opportunities to collaborate because they assume win-win opportunities are not available and the only way they can "win" is by defeating the other side. This, very often, isn't true. In this section we will talk about how to initiate and complete successful collaboration processes).
Escalation and Polarization (looking at ways these two interlinked processes can be unwound; people and groups can build up more understanding and trust (or at least acceptance) to replace fear and hate, and tit-for-tat spirals can be interrupted to create de-escalating and trust-building confidence spirals instead.