Conflict, Sustainability and the Role of the Scholar-Reporter Buchkatalog

Surprisingly little critical attention has been given to the ever more crucial role of scholar-reporters and the theoretical grounding they need when assigned to either produce transparent, 'independent' reports or otherwise critically assess reports, particularly those relating to processes dealing with social conflict and contentious sustainability issues. An integrated framework is developed to compare two markedly different conceptual and theoretical approaches. Those framing world events in terms of political realism are compared with approaches favoured in peace research and conflict resolution studies that tend to interpret events in terms of their impact on health and well-being. The comparative analysis is tested in relation to a case study report produced by the author. It relates to a process addressing conflict between Aboriginal communities and the settler population in an Australian context. The integrated framework is applied to articulate how bias influences the way decision-making or problem-solving interventions and prospects for change are interpreted.