Solutions Through Struggle
van den Haag, Ernest
Solutions Through Strife The Functions of Social Conflict. Reviewed by Ernest van den Haag By Lewis Coser. Lecturer in social science, NYU and Free Press. 188 pp. $3.50. New School for Social...
...Though stimulated, I was left dissatisfied: The author does not sufficiently define "conflict" or relate its positive functions to negative ones so as to indicate the net results that can be expected...
...Surely a more careful typology is required than that offered by Coser...
...Coser develops his thesis by carefully interpreting, illustrating and occasionally criticizing a number of propositions drawn from the work of the great German sociologist Georg Simmel...
...American sociologists, he points out, generally treat conflict as "dysfunctional"—as a disturbance of the normal functioning of the body social...
...In his one general definition (hidden, incidentally, in the preface), Coser calls conflict a "struggle over values, status, power and resources, in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure or eliminate their rivals.' This is too broad...
...Some strikes, some marital conflicts, some schisms, some wars, some elections are one while some are the other...
...This unnecessary vagueness produces some rather trite propositions...
...It is good to be reminded of that...
...Lamentably, the sparkle of these passages is obscured by a furious display of erudition which, though perhaps necessary to make the work respectable among sociologists, is most distracting...
...Thus, we are told that "struggle may be an important way to avoid conditions of disequilibrium by modifying the basis for power relations...
...But he does not really help the woman who would like to know whether the pain in her abdomen is pregnancy, cancer or merely the body's way of expelling some indigestible food...
...We are left uncertain as to which the author had in mind...
...The real questions are: (1) When do the positive effects of conflict exceed the negative ones...
...It does not, for instance, distinguish conflict from competition...
...True, in discussing various aspects of conflict, the author from time to time hints what type of conflict he is considering...
...Often, what could be correctly said about one type of "conflict" is incorrect when applied to another...
...To illustrate, he is quite right, of course, in stressing that the presence of conflicts, rather than their absence, may serve to stabilize a relationship or to indicate its stability...
...New School for Social Research Mr...
...2) When is conflict more economical or functional than alternative means to solve the problem might be...
...Coser illustrates his points...
...And it does not follow (though the author seems to think it does) that the process (struggle) or the outcome (victory or defeat) were functional or dysfunctional...
...Though this may be sociology, it is not news...
...Yet, the function (or dysfunction) of conflict cannot be separated from the setting, the means used to limit it, and its objects...
...Meanwhile, it is stimulating reading...
...Coser stresses the "functional" aspects of conflict: the part conflict has in the normal life and problem-solving of social institutions, its usefulness in the formation, maintenance and reformation of groups...
...Though the author has not done this, his book will be useful in guiding others, and perhaps himself, in such an undertaking...
...The proper corrective would have been to indicate when it is one and when it is the other...
...I was particularly impressed with Coser's analysis of attitudes toward renegades and heretics...
...But the clues are too meager...
...But it would have been a real contribution to investigate when this is the case and when it is not...
...Coser has written an interesting book...
...There are some brilliant and many enlightening passages in the book...
...I guess he means that the outcome of a struggle may increase the victor's power...
...Contrary to the publisher's blurb, to focus "on the positive values of conflict" is not "an excellent corrective" to the widespread idea that social conflict is "pathological...
Vol. 40 • April 1957 • No. 16
