1 апреля 2008 года в Брайтоне (графство Саксесс, Англия) на 74 году жизни в результате тяжелой продолжительной болезни скончался профессор Найджел Ховард.

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Abstract

Agent-based modelling has recently developed as an important approach to understanding the collective behaviour of individuals interacting, especially in organised and disorganised groups such as organisations, markets or crowds. It has been used as the basis of simulations to explore the dynamics of such systems, and so to predict the implications of deliberate interventions or chance events.
However, agent-based models, which represent in an explicit manner the responses of individual decision-makers to the actions of others, can only be as good as the models of human behaviour upon which they are founded. This paper argues that the theory of dramatic resolution provided by drama theory provides suitable underpinning for this aspect of agent-based modelling and indicates how, through simulation, characteristic patterns of confrontation management could be exposed and assessed.
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Abstract

Two distinct approaches to formally studying conflict are described and compared by applying them to three different phases of an international controversy that arose when a private company was not allowed to export water from Canada. In each phase, the graph model for conflict resolution is employed for obtaining equilibria and strategic insights while confrontation analysis, a procedure for applying drama theory, is used to expose dilemmas faced by the decision makers. The results of the conflict analyses obtained for the three phases indicate that the two techniques complement one another and thereby provide a broader understanding about what occurred and how the dispute evolved over time. A potential resolution to the conflict occurs at a strategically stable outcome when decision makers do not face any dilemmas and their emotions are dissipated.

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Abstract

Game theory assumes that it must be possible for a conflict represented by a game to be satisfactorily resolved without re-defining the game itself. Drama theory asserts that full conflict resolution generally requires players to engage in a rationalemotional process of re-defining both the game and their "positions" in it until there exists a fully satisfactory resolution on which they all agree. In re-defining the game and their positions in it, players must eliminate six “dilemmas”, each of which therefore tends to cause emotions and rationalisations tending toward its elimination.

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«Our lives are built around compromise. Throughout each day we “negotiate” with others in an attempt to obtain mutually acceptable outcomes. In the majority of cases we may not even be conscious of arriving at a compromise we are culturally (or even biologically) conditioned to strike these bargains. However, at other times we are painfully aware of the need to negotiate often until we are blue in the face! (more...)

CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS DRAMA THEORY? 2
1.1 The case of Oedipus—and the rest of us 2
1.1.1 Does drama apply to life? 2
1.2 Drama theory, game theory and choice within a fixed frame (‘instrumental rationality’) 3
1.2.1 Rational choice theory as the starting point for drama theory. 4
1.3 Drama theory and ethics 7
1.3.1 Differing moralities 8
1.3.2 Humour and irony 8
1.3.3 What kind of ethics? 9
1.4 Other uses of the drama metaphor; free will and consciousness 10
1.4.1 The author and the audience 12
1.5 Drama theory in relation to other subjects 13
1.5.1 Rationalism v. irrationalism 15

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Одной из наиболее заметных тенденций в общей картине теоретических подходов к изучению конфликта в последнее десятилетие является увеличивающееся число исследователей, критически атакующих концепцию «разрешения конфликта» и склоняющихся к пониманию конфликта как феномена, непрерывно изменяющегося, превращающегося (трансформирующегося) во что-то еще, переходящего из одного состояния в другое. Принципиальным образом такая постановка вопроса была осуществлена еще Г. Зиммелем и Л. Козером. Однако попытки развернутой концептуализации такого понимания особенно интенсивно стали осуществляться лишь в последнее время.

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Здесь в формате полнотекстовых статей можно найти интересный материал о конфликтах в сфере образования и воспитания. About the Campus Conflict Resolution Resources Project The primary objective of the Campus Conflict Resolution Resources project (Campus-adr.org) is to significantly increase administrator, faculty, staff and student awareness of, access to, and use of conflict resolution information specifically tailored to the higher education context. The project came into being thanks to seed funds from the Conflict Resolution Information Source project followed by a major 3-year grant from the federal Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). Wayne State University's former College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs administered the $364,000 3-year FIPSE grant, which began October 1, 2000. Bill Warters continues to serve as the Program's Director. Core staff for the 2002-2003 academic year included Trevor Richards (Program Manager), Samantha Spitzer (Associate Editor, Conflict Management in Higher Education Report), Marie Colombo (Lead Evaluator), and Paul A. Saba (Graduate Assistant).

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