Community relations, conflict resolution and prevention.

A major threat in present political climate is identity group conflict as shown in such disparate cases as former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Northern Ireland and the rise in racism and xenophobia in Europe. Conflict Resolution theory has addressed itself to intervention in existing conflict situations either by third parties or the conflicting parties themselves but conflict prevention has been a relatively neglected area. This thesis takes a case study of relations between the Muslim and white majority communities in Bradford where underlying tensions occasionally erupt into conflicts which have national ramifications and sometimes international dimensions. Within this situation there is scope for conflict resolution work but also conflict prevention work. Reference is made to Northern Ireland where identity group conflict has been long-standing and where community relations approaches have been tried and tested over a period of fifteen to twenty years. The community relations work already being undertaken in Bradford is explored along with where and how this needs to be strengthened. An action research project was undertaken to bring together young members of the Muslims and white majority communities in an attempt to assess the usefulness of workshop-based approaches in improving inter-group relations and transmitting skills of conflict handling to the participants