Staying with Conflict - A Strategic Approach to Ongoing Disputes

Winner of the 2009 CPR Award for Outstanding BookIn this groundbreaking book, Bernard Mayer, a pioneer in the field of conflict resolution, offers a new paradigm for dealing with long-term disputes. Mayer explains that when dealing with enduring conflict, mediators and other conflict resolution specialists need to move past the idea of how quickly they can resolve the conflict. Instead, they should focus on how they can help people prepare to engage with an issue over time. Once their attention is directed away from a speedy resolution to a long-term approach, new avenues of intervention become apparent. 

Bernard Mayer, a professor at the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, Creighton University, and a partner in CDR Associates, has been working in the conflict field since the late 1970s as a mediator, facilitator, trainer, researcher, program administrator, and dispute system designer. He has worked on many complex environmental confl icts, organizational and labor - management disputes, interpersonal conflicts, planning and development issues, public decision - making processes, and ethnic disputes. He has an extensive background in family and child welfare mediation as well. Bernie has worked with corporations; labor unions; Native American governments and associations; federal, state, and local agencies; public interest groups; professional associations; schools; child welfare programs; mental health services; and universities.He has consulted on conflict and conflict intervention throughout the United States and Canada and has extensive experience working internationally as well. He has been recognized as a leader in applying mediation in new arenas such as mental health, child welfare, and disputes between public agencies and involuntary clients. He has also been recognized for his work in bridging the gap between theory and practice in confl ict intervention. Bernie received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Denver, his M.S.W. from Columbia University, and his B.A. from Oberlin College. He is the author of The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution: A Practitioner ’ s Guide (Jossey- Bass, 2000) and Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in Confl ict Resolution (Jossey- Bass, 2004), which received the 2004 annual book award from the CPR International Institute for Confl ict Prevention & Resolution, as well as many other writings about conflict. He lives in Kingsville, Ontario, and Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Julie Macfarlane, and family.