Applying the Strategies of International Peacebuilding to Family Conflicts: What Those Involved in Family Disputes Can Learn from the Efforts of Peacebuilders Working to Transform War‐Torn Societies

Intractable international conflicts and difficult or intractable family conflicts have much in common. Relationships are damaged or destroyed, escalation causes parties to become polarized and make bad decisions, communication is strained or nonexistent, and competition and coercion take the place of collaboration. Similarities also exist in the realm of solutions, and those caught in (or intervening in) difficult family conflicts can learn much from the strategies and tactics of international peacebuilders. This article describes eight steps that peacebuilders at both the family level and the international level can take to make very damaging conflicts more constructive.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• Limiting escalation is important in both contexts.
• Preventing or correcting misunderstandings is key to resolution in both contexts as well.
• Be sure you are focusing on the real problem(s).
• Get the facts straight (and agreed upon) before making agreements.
• Healing past wrongs is important for long term stability.
• Working both within and beyond the zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) is essential in both contexts.
• Working to improve relationships helps all parties and improves the outcome.

     

Strategic planning through a participatory learning and action framework: a Kenyan study

This paper reflects on the use of a participatory learning and action (PLA) framework in a strategic planning process (SPP) at a primary school in rural Kenya. Successes and challenges are discussed, focusing on the barriers to fully implementing the PLA framework. Additionally, lessons learnt and ways forward for participatory SPPs are outlined. The PLA framework allowed the project stakeholders to engage in a planning process that gave participants a voice in the process. Although PLA methodology faces shortcomings, the application of this model is a step towards making community development more sustainable.     

Company level localization and public affairs officers' educational background in Switzerland

As corporate public affairs officers have only rarely been researched in Switzerland, this study contributes a situation analysis of Swiss public affairs officers, their work processes, and biographical background to further fill this empirical gap. First, the existing public affairs research regarding Switzerland is reviewed, and research questions are derived. The research was conducted by sending out a survey to the members of the Swiss Association for Public Affairs, followed by personal in‐depth interviews with 11 public affairs officers. The findings show that respondents work in organizations that employ 1 to 82,100 people are all Swiss nationals, and their departments are mostly called ‘public affairs’. The responsibility of public affairs is predominantly for senior or top management level, and the majority of public affairs officers report to the director of their department. The respondents are highly educated. Moreover, the paper asks whether public affairs is conducted in a strategic way by taking Fleisher's 10 elements as a conceptual basis. Results show that strategic involvement of their activities is rather low. Recommendations are discussed in order to increase the strategic involvement and advance professionalization of public affairs in Switzerland with specific regard for the political system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discursive Exit

Some women did not participate in the Women's March, rejecting its claims of unity and solidarity because white women mobilize only in their self‐interest. This is a form of exit with three features: (1) rejecting a political claim; (2) providing reasons to the power wielder and the broader public; and (3) demanding accountability both as sanction and as deliberation, which requires a discussion about the claim—in this case, the meaning of the group and the terms on which it understands itself. This combination of exit, voice, and deliberative accountability might accurately be called “discursive exit.” Discursive exit addresses conceptual and normative limitations of standard accounts of exit, voice, and loyalty, in particular, when exit and voice are imperfect—because exit can be seen as disapproval of an entire cause—and morally problematic—because voice “from within” implies that cause trumps disagreement, leaving people morally complicit in an unwelcome exercise of power.     

Financial crisis and capital controls: Latin America

Over two decades Chile has moved from an inward‐looking model of development based on industrialisation through import‐substitution to an outward‐looking model opening the economy to the outside world and based on export‐led development. This shift has brought about a profound change in the country's trade policies, entailing the adoption of neutral tariffs and tax policies, non‐discriminatory policies, and low level of protection. As a consequence, there has been a drastic improvement in the resource allocation process. Diversification of the country's foreign markets is a key component in the success of the new strategy, which has been reflected in the country's rapid economic growth of the last 12 years.