Mutual Accommodation

Ethnic Conflict and Cooperation

Robin Williams, Madelyn Rhenisch

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 1978
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816664917
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Mutual Accomodation was first published in 1977.The author, who was Henry Scarborough Professor of Social Science at Cornell University, assesses the current state of ethnic and racial relations in the United States and, contrary to prevailing pessimism on the part of many other social analysts, finds that intergroup conflict has often resulted in significantly successful outcomes.In his study Professor Williams continually asks how social change occurs and what strategies and tactics are best suited to produce desired outcomes. He shows that purposive change in intergroup relations is feasible, that fairly specific knowledge about the development of strategy and tactics for certain types of consequences is available, and that there are particular conditions under which mutually satisfactory accommodation can be achieved between ethnic groups. The basic processes of conflict and settlement are illustrated in depth in the case of schools and education, with special reference to racial desegregation. Another major example is supplied by an analysis of segregation and integration in housing. The author concludes with a realistic appraisal of the prospects for an integrated but pluralistic America.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 It Can Be Done: Recovery from a National Failure of Nerve
• Chapter 2 The Problem: Assessing Ethnic and Racial Relations
• Chapter 3 Conflict Resolution and Mutual Accommodation: The Case of the Schools
• Chapter 4 The Fluid Mosaic: Ethnicity and Residence in American Communities
• Chapter 5 Processes of Change and Stability: Basic Modes of Influence
• Chapter 6 Persuasion and Inducement
• Chapter 7 The Uses of Constraint: Power, Authority, and Threat Systems in Intergroup Relations
• Chapter 8 Strategy and Tactics in Collective Action
• Chapter 9 Composite Strategies in Social Policies and Programs
• Chapter 10 Effects of Persuasion, Inducement, and Participation
• Chapter 11 Consequences of the Use of Constraint
• Chapter 12 An End to Conflict? Terminations, Settlements, and Resolutions
• Chapter 13 Realism and Utopia: The Prospects for Social Maturity
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index