This is a proposal for a two-day symposium and associated book entitled, """"""""Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict, and Conflict Reduction."""""""" The purpose of the symposium is to elucidate the many ways in which identity and intergroup conflict interrelate. This will lead to substantial increases in the understanding of both social identity (by identifying the ways in which individual and group definition operate in real world conflicts between groups) and intergroup harm doing (by specifying the diverse ways in which the identities of groups and individual group members contribute to group-based aggression). In addition, the symposium will analyze ways to reduce intergroup conflict by taking into account the role of social identity. The concepts of self and identity have recently come to the forefront of the social and behavioral sciences (cf. Ashmore and Jussim, 1997), but their application to problems of conflict and conflict reduction has received-limited attention. Further, existing work on identity and conflict is piecemeal and fragmented, spread across a wide range of conflict situations as studied by a diverse set of scientists. We expect that the symposium will identify, organize, and prioritize a set of theoretical questions, investigative approaches, methodological issues, and empirical findings pertaining to the role of self and identity as antecedents, accompaniments, and consequences of intergroup conflict and conflict resolution. In doing so, the symposium and associated book will help set an agenda for future research in this area. Three themes provide the overall structure of the symposium: (1) Identity issues are important to diverse intergroup conflicts -- When (past and present), Where (in all parts of the world), What (those involving widespread killing as well as less violent systems of oppression); (2) Social identity is both a factor that contributes to intergroup conflict and a possible tool that can be used to reduce group-based harm doing; (3) To understand how identity figures in intergroup strife, it is necessary to consider multiple levels of analysis which requires that participants represent diverse academic disciplines. These three guiding themes yield three sessions, each with two speakers and a discussant, aimed at identifying how social identity contributes to intergroup strife. The fourth, and concluding, session will focus on how social identity might be used to reduce conflict between groups. This topic will be addressed by one speaker and a roundtable discussion including all speakers/authors and discussants. An edited volume based on the symposium will be published by Oxford University Press. This book will not be a simple proceedings collection. Each symposium paper will be read by the three organizers/editors and an independent referee. The organizers/editors will synthesize the critiques and send them to each author, who will then revise his/her contribution. In addition, the associated published book will have an introductory chapter that describes the volume's themes and organization, and a concluding chapter that summarizes the book and highlights emergent issues.
