Conflict and Dispute Resolution Program Theses and Dissertations
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/12486
2024-03-29T09:07:56ZBetween Law and Public Policy: A Scalable Corporate Social Responsibility Model
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/29236
Between Law and Public Policy: A Scalable Corporate Social Responsibility Model
Salehin, Shiri
This thesis looks at corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the intersection between law and public policy while using an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) framework. With more than 99.9% of businesses in the United States being small businesses and not large corporations, there is a major market for implementing strategic changes that can have far-reaching impacts. If small businesses really can build positive momentum, how could encouraging small businesses to invest in CSR also yield a substantial positive impact? This thesis will analyze the public policy and legal landscape of CSR before providing a practical framework that small businesses can apply when seeking to implement CSR principles.
2024-01-10T00:00:00ZJefferson County, Oregon: A Historical Case Study of Conflict, Community, and a Peculiar Confluence of Watersheds
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/28096
Jefferson County, Oregon: A Historical Case Study of Conflict, Community, and a Peculiar Confluence of Watersheds
Anderson, Ian
Jefferson County, between 2011 and 2016, is an excellent case study of emergent water resource and environmental conflict. Three major waterways – the Middle Deschutes, Crooked, and Metolius Rivers – are examined through a Four Worlds Framework, reinforced by transdisciplinary sources and theories. Tributary creeks and adjacent interests are identified, and waterway developments are subjected to thorough analysis. The role of the Pelton Round Butte Dam Project – specifically the SWW Tower – in water conflict in Jefferson County is demonstrated as clearly focal. Similar conflicts across the watershed are addressed and shown to be linked to this central conflict. An Events Database, coded from open-source reporting, and a detailed Mind Map demonstrate the utility of the adopted transdisciplinary synthesis of methodologies; in this case, providing quantitative data for analysis, visual cues for wider communication, and raw data for simulation- or game-creation by conflict resolution practitioners. Through a synthesis of environmental conflict resolution theories, pertinent environmental science research, and energy systems analysis, a recommendation has been posited for resolving the conflict. Wetland and riparian corridor development could provide communities in Jefferson the ability to re-negotiate land and water management strategies, insulate local citizens and their interests from the effects of climate change, provide a means of resilient resource availability, and a platform to self-mediate moving forward. It is an ambitious proposition yet should be considered with all seriousness. While the environmental conflict may be emergent during the period in question, there is no doubt that it will amplify if unremedied.
2023-03-24T00:00:00ZInternational Mobility: Perceptions on Identity and Conflict
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/27750
International Mobility: Perceptions on Identity and Conflict
Alboszta, Agnieszka
This thesis presents a comparative mixed methods study that addressed the broad question: Do internationally mobile individuals, often considered global citizens, identify differently with the dominant culture and possess unique conflict styles and perspectives on global conflict? The study set side by side five college-aged individuals who had grown up in one place in the United States and five college-aged US-born third culture individuals (TCIs), who had spent at least one year growing up abroad. Quantitative measures consisted of the Inclusion of Other in Self scale (Aron, 1992) coupled with the PolVan Cultural Identity Model (Van Reken, 1996), Rahim’s ROCI-II measure (1983), and the Automated Integrative Complexity tool (Conway, 2014; Houck et al., 2014). Semi-structured interviews constituted the qualitative measure. Findings showed that TCIs do not differ markedly in their identification with the surrounding culture from domestically brought up persons, and though interview responses revealed distinctive “distance creating elements,” these all pointed to an underlying sense of not understanding and/or not being understood by members of the dominant culture, a sentiment shared by individuals in both groups. Additionally, it was shown that TCIs and domestic individuals differed little on their preferred conflict style, with the exception of an elevated tendency of TCIs toward obliging, and an inclination to adjust conflict behavior when dealing with foreigners. Setting identity results from the Inclusion of Other in Self (Aron, 1992) measure next to preferred conflict style results (Rahim, 1983) yielded a very loose, similar pattern across groups. Further, there were similar perspectives on the US conflict style and actions it has taken/is taking in two particular world conflicts. A noteworthy distinction was uncovered in the higher average integral complexity scores of TCIs, supporting earlier research findings that integrative complexity is elevated in persons who have experienced unfamiliar environments and cultures. Overall, this study suggests that identification with the dominant culture, conflict styles, and perspectives on conflict are not delineating factors in the TCI population, and anyone from either population interested in solving problems peaceably could benefit from conflict resolution theory and practice.
2022-10-26T00:00:00ZPARTISANSHIP AS SOCIAL IDENTITY: USING METHODS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION TO REDUCE AFFECTIVE POLARIZATION BETWEEN OPPOSING PARTISANS
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/27620
PARTISANSHIP AS SOCIAL IDENTITY: USING METHODS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION TO REDUCE AFFECTIVE POLARIZATION BETWEEN OPPOSING PARTISANS
Couch, Tiffany
Levels of affective polarization in the U.S. have risen significantly in recent decades. Affective polarization, a form of political polarization by which partisans show high levels of antipathy towards opposing partisans because of their membership in that party, can be viewed as a form of social identity, whereby membership in a party is guided by feelings of belonging rather than agreement with ideological stances. Following the established research on Social Identity Theory (SIT), this study hypothesizes that affective polarization can be lowered using dialogic-type processes to recenter the individual identity over the social one in political discussions. Using the online platform Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), the hypothesis was tested using a sample of 60 American partisans who engaged in a short process to simulate these conditions. The results of the study were inconclusive, though methods for expanding and revising the methodology for future studies on the topic are discussed.
2022-10-04T00:00:00Z