Use of Narrative When Confronting Intractable Conflict

• In Event: Ethnic Conflict: Constructing, Deconstructing, and Reconstructing Ethnic Divides

Abstract

Narratives provide a bridge between dialogue and deliberation through expressing culturally grounded arguments that have both deliberative traction and dialogic sensibility. My discussion paper describes the interdependence of dialogue and deliberation and then discusses narratives as arguments. Stories provide a foundation for reasons and are used as evidence to justify positions. Because stories are part of the natural communication patterns of many groups, especially less professionalized groups, they should be integrated into the more rigorous prerequisites for argument during deliberation. Through a focus on intractable conflicts where even issues related to rational material resources are intensified we can find salience through narratives and identities associated with them. My work with various Israeli-Palestinian dialogue groups are used to illustrate the functioning of narratives as arguments during deliberation, as well as, a variety of other communicative functions.

Author

• Don Ellis, U of Hartford