{"id":18913,"date":"2025-09-26T09:16:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=18913"},"modified":"2025-09-26T09:16:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:16:36","slug":"tools-for-working-with-conflict-and-polarization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/tools-for-working-with-conflict-and-polarization\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools for working with conflict and polarization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If nothing else, the deep divisions and culture wars<\/strong> in the US, and here in Canada too, are providing us with an opportunity to engage in deep practices of listening across difference. It’s harder now that it has ever been Dan Oestrich, who knows a thing or two about this, explains why<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process artistry also has its place<\/strong>. Arts and well-hosted conversation are at work in Alberta where a group of researchers have initiated the Common Ground<\/a> project to address stereotypes in the province. It is providing some useful lessons<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depolarizing conversations<\/strong> is an initiative<\/a> of my friends and colleagues at the Alaska Humanities Forum<\/a>. It arose in 2021 during COVID when social media had divided families and small towns and disagreements had devolved into violence, assaults and the tearing of the social fabric. They have published some really helpful tools and resources<\/a> on hosting these kinds of conversations. Get them while you can (and support them in continuing their work<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irreconcilable difference is inevitable in a complex society<\/strong> but not every issue is an irreconcilable difference. Some are just conflicting perspectives. As long as we conflate conflict with war, we will maintain a tendency to want to avoid conflict instead of courting and supporting difference. Conflict transformation<\/a> has long been the approach used to create a resilient container for what I call conflict preservation. We need this more than ever. And so do the orcas and the salmon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the tools I use<\/strong> for working with polarities where there is a strong both\/and situation is polarity mapping. I\u2019ve written about it before<\/a> but I love the way Kai Cheng Thom weaves it<\/a> into her Loving Justice<\/a> framework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more tools and training<\/strong> I can recommend Lewis Deep Democracy<\/a> as one deeper approach to this work. It’s based in Arnold and Amy Mindel’s processwork<\/a>. In Canada, I can recommend Camille Dumond and her colleagues at the Waterline Co-op<\/a>. You’ll see my testimonial on their website. It’s accessible and practical training, even for experienced practitioners, and it will take your own practice deeper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If nothing else, the deep divisions and culture wars in the US, and here in Canada too, are providing us with an opportunity to engage in deep practices of listening across difference. It’s harder now that it has ever been Dan Oestrich, who knows a thing or two about this, explains why. Process artistry also has its place. Arts and well-hosted conversation are at work in Alberta where a group of researchers have initiated the Common Ground project to address stereotypes in the province. It is providing some useful lessons. Depolarizing conversations is an initiative of my friends and colleagues …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A short list of links to practical tools, insights and practices for working with, hosting, and transforming conflict and polarization. Have a read and leave more in the comments.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[29,22,48,101,19,96,6,56,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-of-hosting","category-collaboration","category-community","category-containers","category-conversation","category-democracy","category-facilitation","category-featured","category-power"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_4630-scaled.jpeg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-4V3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18913"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18927,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18913\/revisions\/18927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}