Peeling the Layers

Professor Kellett’s ‘how to do’ textbook using narrative theory to excavate the layers of meaning in inter personal conflicts and as a way of moving towards dialogic negotiation to manage the conflict – is an innovative contribution to the expanding body of analytical resources in the disciplines of behaviour and management sciences. Increasingly, however, these micro studies of inter- personal conflicts and dispute resolution are being positioned as relevant to conflict resolution of macro-political processes i.e. group conflicts, civil wars and inter state conflicts. Also, within the conflict resolution literature, such transversal linking from the micro to the macro-political in theorizing conflict and negotiation, is not unusual (Conflict, Conflict Resolution &Peace Building ed Jayadeva Uyangoda 2005).