Conflict, Power, and Organization in a Changing Community

Abstract

This paper analyzes a case study of conflict among groups of differing power in a community, drawing upon two distinct traditions of conflict theory: integrative and adversarial. The paper examines the evolution of organization within and among groups over a two-year period and the impacts of that evolution on conflict among them. Essentially, a new organization, composed of representatives of the groups in conflict, was created, and mechanisms for regulating information exchange and for handling differences were evolved that reduced the conflict among them. The evolution of the Committee on Residential Lending (CORL) as an institution is examined from the vantage points of level of organization and balancing unequal power relations, and implications for joint use of integrative and adversarial conflict traditions are considered. Three propositions for guiding the joint use of the two traditions are articulated and illustrated.