Theories of Social Conflict: From Overview to Conceptual Development

After a low-threshold introduction, this book offers an orientation on various theories of social conflict and their potential for understanding conflicts in order to be able to deal with them constructively. Classic theories of social conflict are presented briefly first. Based on this, two selected theoretical perspectives on social conflict, the conflict theory approaches of Ralf Dahrendorf and Niklas Luhmann, are further developed. Dahrendorf's conflict theory is combined with a differentiated variant of his life chances approach. Luhmann's conflict theory is expanded to include a theoretical discussion of escalation dynamics and de-escalation archetypes. Using a case study on landscape conflicts in the context of the energy transition, the authors illustrate the potential of the theories discussed to explain the emergence, stabilization and escalation of such conflicts. The book will end with a focus on current discussions about the significance of feelings in social conflicts and how to deal with them.