History says that human civilization has always been accompanied by hostility. Some types of social conflicts affected a particular nation, city, country or even continent. Disagreements between people were less widespread, but each species was a popular problem. So, already ancient people sought to live in a world where such concepts as social conflict, their types and causes, would be unknown. The people did everything to realize their dreams of a society without conflicts.
As a result of painstaking and laborious work, a state began to form, which was supposed to extinguish various types of social conflicts. To this end, a large number of regulatory laws have been issued. Years passed, and scientists continued to come up with models of an ideal society without conflicts. Of course, all these discoveries were only a theory, because all attempts were doomed to failure, and sometimes became the causes of even greater aggression.
Social conflict as part of the teaching
Disagreements between people, as part of social relations, were highlighted by Adam Smith. In his opinion, it was social conflict that was the reason why the population began to divide into social classes. But there was a positive side. Indeed, thanks to the conflicts that arose, the population could discover a lot of new things and find ways to help get out of the situation.
German sociologists were convinced that conflicts were characteristic of all peoples and nationalities. Indeed, in every society there are individuals who want to elevate themselves and their interests over their social environment. Therefore, there is a separation of the level of human interest in a particular issue, and class inequality also arises.
But American sociologists in their works mentioned that without conflicts, public life will be monotonous, devoid of interpersonal interaction. At the same time, only the participants in society can incite enmity, control it and extinguish it in the same way.
Conflict and the modern world
Today, not a single day of human life is practically complete without a clash of interests. Such skirmishes can affect absolutely any area of life. As a result, various types and forms of social conflict arise.
So, social conflict is the last stage of the clash of different views on one situation. Social conflict, the types of which we will consider later, can become a large-scale problem. So, because of the non-separation of interests or opinions of others, family and even popular contradictions appear. As a result, the type of conflict may change, depending on the scale of the action.
If you try to decipher the concept and types of social conflicts, you can clearly see that the meaning of this term is much broader than it seems initially. There are many interpretations of one term, because each nationality understands it in its own way. But the basis is the same meaning, namely the clash of interests, opinions and even goals of people. For a better perception, we can assume that any kind of social conflict — This is another form of human relations in society.
Functions of Social Conflict
As you can see, the concept of social conflict and its components were defined long before modern time. It was then that the conflict was endowed with certain functions, thanks to which its significance for social society is clearly visible.
So there are several important functions:
- Signal.
- Informational.
- Differentiating.
- Dynamic.
The value of the first is immediately indicated by its name. Therefore, it is clear that due to the nature of the conflict, it is possible to determine what state the society is in and what it wants. Sociologists are sure that if people start a conflict, then there are certain reasons and unresolved problems. Therefore, it is regarded as a kind of signal that it is urgent to act and do something.
Informational - has a meaning similar to the previous function. Information about the conflict is of great importance on the way to determining the causes. Processing such data, the government studies the essence of all events occurring in society.
Thanks third functions, society acquires a certain structure. So, in the event of a conflict affecting public interests, even those who previously would prefer not to intervene take part in it. There is a division of the population into certain social groups.
The fourth function was discovered while worshiping the teachings of Marxism. It is believed that it plays the role of an engine in all social processes.
Reasons for Conflict
The reasons are quite obvious and understandable, even if we consider only the definition of social conflicts. Everything lurks precisely in different views on actions. Indeed, often some try to impose their ideas at any cost, even if they harm others. This happens when there are several options for applying one subject.
Types of social conflicts vary, depending on many factors, such as scale, theme, character, and more. So, even family disagreements have the character of a social conflict. After all, when a husband and wife share TV, trying to watch different channels, a dispute arises on the basis of a conflict of interest. To solve this problem, two televisions are needed, then there could be no conflict.
According to sociologists, conflicts in society cannot be avoided, because proving one’s point of view is a person’s natural desire, which means that nothing can change that. They also concluded that social conflict, the forms of which are not dangerous, can even be useful to society. After all, this is how people learn not to perceive others as enemies, become closer and begin to respect each other's interests.
Conflict components
Any conflict includes two mandatory components:
- the reason for the disagreement is called an object;
- people whose interests clashed in a dispute are subjects.
There are no restrictions on the number of parties to the dispute;
The reason for the conflict in the literature may appear as an incident.
By the way, the conflict that has arisen does not always have an open form. It also happens that the clash of different ideas has caused offenses that are part of what is happening. So there are various types of socio-psychological conflicts, which have a hidden form and can be called "frozen" conflicts.
Types of Social Conflicts
Knowing What is conflict, what are its causes and components, we can distinguish the main types of social conflicts. They are determined by:
1. Duration and nature of development:
- temporary;
- long;
- accidentally arising;
- specially organized.
2. Capture scale:
- global - relating to the whole world;
- local - affecting a separate part of the world;
- regional - between neighboring countries;
- group - between certain groups;
- personal - a family conflict, a dispute with neighbors or friends.
3. The objectives of the conflict and methods of resolution:
- fierce street brawl, obscene scandal;
- fight by the rules, cultural conversation.
4. The number of participants:
- personality (occur in mentally ill people);
- interpersonal (a clash of interests of different people, for example, brother and sister);
- intergroup (a contradiction in the interests of different social associations) ;.
five.Direction. May occur between:
- people of the same level;
- people of different social levels, positions;
- those and others.
There are many different classifications and divisions that are considered conditional. So, the first 3 types of social conflicts can be considered key.
Addressing social conflict issues
The reconciliation of hostile parties is the main task of the state legislature. It is clear that it is impossible to avoid all conflicts, but it is necessary to try to avoid at least the most serious ones: global, local and regional. Given the types of conflicts, social relations between the warring parties can be established in several ways.
Ways to resolve conflicts:
1. An attempt to get away from the scandal - one of the participants can fence off the conflict by putting it in a “frozen” state.
2. Conversation - it is necessary to discuss the problem and jointly find a solution to it.
3. Involve a third party.
4. Postpone the dispute for a while. Most often this is done when the facts end. The adversary gives way to interests temporarily in order to collect more evidence of his innocence. Most likely, the conflict will resume.
5. The resolution of conflicts through the court, in accordance with the legislative framework.
To reconcile the parties to the conflict, it is necessary to find out the cause, purpose and interest of the parties. Also important is the mutual desire of the parties to come to a peaceful resolution of the situation. Then you can look for ways in which you can overcome the conflict.
Conflict Stages
Like any other process, the conflict has certain stages of development. The first step is the time immediately before the conflict. It is at this moment that subjects clash. Disputes arise because of different opinions about one subject or situation, but at this stage it is possible to prevent the fomentation of an immediate conflict.
If one of the parties does not yield to the opponent, then the second stage will follow, which has the character of a debate. Here, each side furiously tries to prove its case. Due to the great tension, the situation is heating up and after a certain time passes into the stage of direct conflict.
Examples of social conflicts in world history
The main three types of social conflicts can be demonstrated by the examples of long-standing events that left their mark on the life of the population and then influenced modern life.
Thus, the First and Second World Wars are considered one of the most striking and well-known examples of global social conflict. Almost all existing countries took part in this conflict, in history these events remained the most widespread military-political clashes of interests. Because the war was fought on three continents and four oceans. Only in this conflict was the worst nuclear weapon used.
This is the strongest, and most importantly, well-known example of global social conflict. After all, in it, nations that were previously considered fraternal fought against each other. More such terrible examples in world history are not fixed.
Much more information is available directly on inter-regional and group conflicts. So, during the transition of power to the kings, the living conditions of the population changed. Every year, the discontent of society grew more and more, protests and political tension appeared. People were not satisfied with many moments, without clarification of which it was impossible to stifle a popular uprising. The more in tsarist Russia the authorities tried to crush the interests of the population, the more conflict situations intensified on the part of dissatisfied residents of the country.
Over time, more and more people became convinced of the infringement of their interests, as the social conflict gained momentum and changed the opinion of others. The more people became disillusioned with the authorities, the closer the mass conflict came.It was with such actions that most of the civil wars began against the political interests of the country's leadership.
Already during the reign of kings there were prerequisites for the onset of social conflicts based on dissatisfaction with political work. It is these situations that confirm the existence of problems that were caused by the dissatisfaction of existing living standards. And it was social conflict that was the reason to move on, to develop and improve policies, laws and government abilities.
To summarize
Social conflicts are an integral part of modern society. The disagreements that arose even under the tsarist government are a necessary part of our present life, because, perhaps, it is thanks to those events that we have the opportunity, it may not be enough, but it’s better to live. Only thanks to our ancestors did society move from slavery to democracy.
Today, it is better to take as a basis personal and group types of social conflicts, examples of which are very common in our lives. We encounter contradictions in family life, looking at simple everyday issues from a different point of view, we uphold our opinion, and all these events seem to be simple, ordinary things. That is why social conflict is so multifaceted. Therefore, everything that concerns him needs to be studied more and more.
Of course, everyone insists that conflict is bad, that you cannot compete and live by your own rules. But, on the other hand, disagreements are not so bad, especially if they are resolved at the initial stages. Indeed, it is precisely because of the emergence of conflicts that society is developing, moving forward and striving to change the existing order. Even if the result leads to material and moral losses.
