Recent Beyond Intractability Posts
Including Hyper-Polarization Posts
Posts by BI Section
Lists of recent posts are also available separately for each BI Section:
Hyper-Polarization Discussion Posts | Earlier Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- We are Not Divided: Reasons to Be Cheerful Project -- A good news media outlook posting stories about people using collaboration and other conflict resolution strategies to come together to solve problems. -- Dec 12
- Meta’s Proposed Reforms Are Significant -- From Facebook, hopeful news that there are at least some serious and promising ideas for promoting more constructive online interactions. -- Dec 12
- Brute Physical Facts and Social Construction -- A provocative exploration of the different ways in which progressives and traditionalists see the world (and the relationship between the resulting worldviews and objective reality). -- Dec 12
- Urban Rural Action -- UR Action brings together Americans across divides to tackle our nation's most urgent challenges. They focus on building relationships by solving problems together in all 50 states. -- Dec 11
- Global Civil Society in a Geopolitical Age: How Great Power Competition Is Reshaping Civic Activism -- A major inquiry into an alarming threat -- major geopolitical actors who are trying (often in clandestine ways) to get civil society organizations to help them pursue their goals. -- Dec 11
- Obstacles to Implementing the Elements of Successful Democracy -- Fixing democracy is everyone's responsibility: we can't leave it to our leaders or the other side. Everyone can -- and must -- do their part. -- Dec 10
- Applying Regenerative Practice to Systems Beyond Place -- Some Thoughts -- Describing regenerative practitioners who support change-makers by adapting principles of living systems to revive and evolve the places and the systems they are working with -- Dec 09
- How Meltdowns Brought Progressive Groups to a Standstill -- An in-depth look at the many costs associated with an inability to constructively handle intractable conflicts over deep-rooted moral and distributional issues. -- Dec 09
- The Future of American Warfare Is Unfolding in Ukraine -- Thoughtful reflections on the differences between US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine and what this means for the future of war (and prospects for preventing war). -- Dec 09
- Congress is polarized. Fear of being ‘primaried’ is one reason. -- Unite America's Richard Barton writes about his research on incumbents, primary challengers, and how congressional gridlock is often the outcome. -- Dec 08
- The Rise of Political Violence in the United States -- An exhaustive analysis of recent trends in political violence in the United States – violence that, thankfully, is still far below what the US experienced in the 1960s and early 1970s. -- Dec 08
- ‘Seek and Hide’ Grapples With the Complexity of the Right to Privacy -- A thought-provoking report on a new analysis of the long-standing conflict between the freedom of speech and the right to privacy. -- Dec 08
- Complicating the Narratives. What if journalists covered controverial issues differently. -- An article by Amanda Ripley looking at how journalists can write better stories to help people become less polarized and suspicious. -- Dec 07
- Life in the Metaverse -- For those who can't quite wrap their mind around Zuckerberg's vision of the metaverse, an especially clear statement of what it is, its promise, and the danger it could pose to our future. -- Dec 07
- The Most Consequential First Amendment Case This Term -- An enlightening look at the issues the Supreme Court is considering in 303 Creative v. Elenis and the possibility that the government will increasingly be able to tell us what we can and can't say. -- Dec 07
- 6 Reasons Why Liberatory Leaders Need to Take Play Seriously. -- Play is valuable because it helps fuel innovation, promotes wellness, creates new models of strategic thinking, expands leadership opportunities, builds community, and invites wholeness. -- Dec 06
- Review of Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America -- An in-depth review and summary of an important new book exploring the complex, bewildering, and often indefensible mechanics underlying programs designed to correct racial disparities. -- Dec 06
- Harvard, Herschel Walker and ‘Tokenism’ -- A thought-provoking essay on racism, strategies for opposing it, and the multi-faceted issue of "tokenism." -- Dec 06
- Matt Legge: When Polarization is Beneficial -- Issue polarization can help people come closer to understanding "the truth" about controversial events or issues. How information is presented to parties in conflicts makes a big difference to the quality of the conflict that ensues. -- Dec 05
- Digital Peacebuilders Guide -- An online guidebook for peacebuilders interested in using digital tools to advance their work. -- Dec 04
- How Fundamentalism Fails -- From a Christian perspective, a more universal explanation of the limits of fundamentalism and the belief in absolute self-righteousness -- "a closed fist can’t overcome the open hand." -- Dec 04
- After Intersectionalism -- An argument worth considering -- the possibility that the intersectional struggle against oppression will lead to an era of widespread conflict between the various identity groups. -- Dec 04
- Essential Elements of Successful Democracies - Part 2 -- Boulding's First Law is ""If it exists, it must be possible." All of the essential elements of democracy exist--though sometimes in other contexts. We need to implement them in our governance systems. -- Dec 04
- The Dignity Index -- An eight-point scale that scores speech on its power to unite or divide. Start your own journey by taking the Dignity Pledge. -- Dec 04
- The People Cheering for Humanity's End -- Truly terrifying news that, rather than appreciating the wonders of the modern world and applying themselves to the task making it better, people are giving up on the human enterprise altogether. -- Dec 04
