Artikel

Functies van het sociaal conflict: een poging tot herformulering en actualisering van enkele proposities van L.A. Coser

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Abstract

Functions of social conflict. An attempt to reformulate and actualize some of L.A. Coser’s propositions.— In this article the author proposes to reformulate and attempts to actualise some propositions from the well-known functional approach to conflicts by Lewis A. Coser (1956). These propositions are derived from the work of the German sociologist Georg Simmel :Der Streit, 1909 (translated by K.M. Wolff in 1955). Simmel was not especially interested in international conflicts and it is not always clear if the ideas and theses of Coser can be applied to an international political situation. For this reason testing these ideas in the light of recent international developments and new directions in polemology seemed necessary. The following propositions have been re-examined : 1. Proposition 9 about the impact of conflict with another group upon group structure. Attention is paid more particularly to the possible increase in centralisation and the tendency towards totalitarianism accompanying this cohesion in the event of a warlike conflict. Two new dimensions can be found here: the „militarisation” of American society after World War II and the political terrorism in Germany and Italy as means for some groups to force the state into totalitarianism or fascism, mobilising the people against the government more easily in this way. 2. Proposition 12 about the role of ideology in conflict. Conflict with another society can be aimed at by a government, just to increase internal cohesion, armament and economic welfare and in order to subdue dissident meanings. In this case, society „searches for enemies” (proposition 11) and finally the role of ideology is to „justify” or to „objectivate” the conflict. The Cold War and the so-called Cold War-ideology are given as typical illustrations of this process of mobilisation. 3. Proposition 14. The idea proposed by Simmel-Coser that a conflict-actor can have an interest in the unity of the enemy, is discussed in the light of the notions „symmetric” and „asymmetric” conflicts, introduced in polemology by A. Rapoport, A. Eide and J. Galtung. 4. Proposition 15 .(„Conflict establishes and maintains the balance of power”). In the light of the arms race and the nuclear-deterrence-strategy, the problem is no longer that conflict is the only way for revelation of comparative strength, as Simmel-Coser pointed out, but the only means to test the will of the opponent to use his (nuclear) arms. The problem of the so-called „limited war” is also examined in this context. Finally the author makes some remarks about the concept „social structure” by Simmel-Coser. Using concepts such as „structural violence” (J. Galtung) or „repressive structures” (O.A. Romero), the role of structure in conflict has become a new dimension and of new interest.

How to Cite:

Van Parys, G., (1980) “Functies van het sociaal conflict: een poging tot herformulering en actualisering van enkele proposities van L.A. Coser”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 25(4), 377–398. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94775