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Wondolleck, J. M. & Yaffee, S. L.
Across the United States, diverse groups are turning away from confrontation and toward collaboration in an attempt to tackle some of our nation's most intractable environmental problems. Government agencies, community groups, businesses, and private individuals have begun working together to solve common problems, resolve conflicts, and develop forward-thinking strategies for moving in a more sustainable direction. Making Collaboration Work examines those promising efforts.
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Williamson, P. K.
Research, carried out mainly in the period between the 1960s and 1980s, reported significant differences in the thinking styles of science and arts students. At this time university and school teaching was highly specialized and concern was expressed in the ongoing ‘two cultures’ debate (Snow, 1959).
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Susskind, L. E., McKearnen, S. & Thomas-Lamar, J.
This handbook on group decision-making for those wanting to operate in a consensus fashion stresses the advantages of informal, common sense approaches to working together. It describes how any group can put these approaches into practice, and relates numerous examples of situations in which such approaches have been applied.
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Susskind, L. & Cruikshank, J. L.
Drawing on his experience in the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, a leading mediator and his co-author provide the first jargon-free guide to consensual strategies for resolving public disputes--indispensable to citizen activists and to business and government leaders.
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Scholz, J. T. & Stiftel, B.
Water policy seems in perpetual crisis. Increasingly, conflicts extend beyond the statutory authority, competence, geographical jurisdictions, and political constituencies of highly specialized governing authorities. While other books address specific policy approaches or the application of adaptive management strategies to specific problems, this is the first book to focus more broadly on adaptive governance, or the evolution of new institutions that attempt to resolve conflicts among competing authorities.
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O’Leary, R. & Bingham, L. B.
Collaboration continues to grow in importance, and public managers are increasingly using collaborative networks as a tool to accomplish public outcomes. Previous IBM Center reports on collaboration include “Leveraging Networks: A Guide for Public Managers Working Across Organizations” by Robert Agranoff, which describes the critical success factors for using networks to achieve important results. Another report, “A Manager’s Guide to Choosing and Using Collaborative Networks” by H. Brinton Milward and Keith G.
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Lawrence-Lightfoot, S.
Professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is a sociologist and Professor of Education at Harvard University. She is the author of many works on education and related matters and is a recipient of various academic awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Prize. This latest contribution brings together various themes found in her other works. It is written for an educated audience of nonspecialists and would therefore be helpful in undergraduate ethics courses, especially as she always connects abstract principles to concrete people, stories, and actions.
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Gray, B.
Veteran mediator Barbara Gray presents an innovative approach to successfully mediating multi-party disputes. A superb resource for managers, public officials and others working to solve complex problems such as labor disputes, disposal of toxic wastes, racial integration, and the use of biotechnology.
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Fisher, R., Ury, W. L & Patton, B.
Everyone who ever has to deal with other people would benefit from reading this. (In other words, everyone.) It explains how to separate people issues from the problem, focus on interests rather than positions, and work together to create options that satisfy all parties. Though my work as a business analyst doesn't typically require this sort of opposed negotiation, I found a lot in here that will be useful in discussions with stakeholders over their needs and priorities. I'll also want to read it again the next time I'm considering the purchase of a home or car.
Recommended Reading
Emerson, K., Nabatchi, T. & Balogh, S.
Collaborative governance draws from diverse realms of practice and research in public administration. This article synthesizes and extends a suite of conceptual frameworks, research findings, and practice-based knowledge into an integrative framework for collaborative governance. The framework specifies a set of nested dimensions that encompass a larger system context, a collaborative governance regime, and its internal collaborative dynamics and actions that can generate impacts and adaptations across the systems.
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Carpenter, S. L. & Kennedy, W.J.D.
Disputing parties are often not aware of the predictable patterns of behavior in conflict situations, and they cannot usually identify options available for resolving differences. The resulting conflict often escalates and requires third-party professional mediators. Part One provides an overview of public controversies not limited to labor and management disputes where stakeholders are easily identified. Conflict management strategies are discussed. Part Two presents the steps necessary for managing disputes including the final steps of reaching and carrying out agreements.