Vision
The Transformative model and its implications for conflict intervention were first described in The Promise of Mediation by Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger, published in 1994 and articulated once again in the revised edition of The Promise of Mediation in 2005.
Overview
The Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation owes its beginnings to a group of leading scholars and practitioners who sought to influence individual and societal views of conflict. Conflict primarily involves being different and thinking differently, testing individuality and self-determination, or risking the relationships and human connections we naturally value and need. It is about how we impact one another as we state our needs and differences. It is this relational view of conflict that has come to be known commonly as the transformative approach to conflict.
Since founding the Institute in 1999, leaders in the field have worked to study and promote the understanding of conflict processes and intervention from the transformative framework. Through various projects and initiatives, the Institute has become the nation's premier center of expertise on the transformative framework. Its work provides critically needed research, educational resources and training based on relational premises.
The Institute is a not-for-profit corporation that works to produce educational resources, materials and services for the conflict resolution field and the public generally. It seeks to influence collective responses to diversity and differences in a way that can transform conflict from a negative, destructive, and sometimes violent event to a positive and constructive experience.