IMAGING conflicts

Description of the tool

1. Energizers:
1. Stretching: (shaking of tension) [2 min]
a. Participants stand in circle, soft music in the room
b. Some exercise of stretching (neck, shoulders, back, legs) to shake away torpor, tension, stiffness, shyness, fear….
2. the winking game (usage of facial expression) [8 min]
• 14 chairs in circle in the centre of the room.
• 13 persons are sitting, the other 14 stand behind the chairs (one person has no partner sitting)
• The person with no partner sitting is the winker. He/she has to attract one sitting-person by winking, an not been seen by the person standing behind
• The sitting person has to try to join the winker, while the standing person tries to catch him/her
• The standing person who loses the sitting partner is the new winker and so on.

2. Group division: the perfumes (usage of smell) [5 min]
Participants are given one piece of perfumed paper. They have to find the partners with the same scent (3 groups of 9)

3. Groups exercise: the frozen statues of conflict (usage of body expression)
Before getting into the real exercise, practice human body expression with the following short energiser: complete the image [5 min]
• Have all participants stand (or otherwise position themselves) in a tight circle.
• Explain that this exercise works best without talking.
• Facilitator should model first image. Enter the circle, stand in the middle and strike a pose. Point out that this pose could have many different interpretations. Ask a participant to join you by striking a complementary pose -i.e. anything that the participant thinks adds something to the image. Point out how the meaning of the image has been altered. It is now a scene in a story. Ask participants what possible meanings this image has. Solicit a few responses. Continue game in silence.
• Hold the pose for about five to tell seconds (long enough for everyone to have a good look).
• The facilitator rejoins the circle leaving the other person still in their pose.
• A new participant now steps into the circle and strikes a pose with the person remaining in the circle. Hold the pose for five seconds to tell seconds. First person leaves.
• The exercise proceeds with this serial interaction: first person always remaining and new person joining.

FROZEN STATUES: [50 min]
• Each group receives the group exercise information (enclosed at the end of this chart).
• The groups have to prepare 3 different statues all representing the concepts they have been assigned (1 sculpture for every concept: they represent the different levels of conflict from the personal sphere, passing through the interpersonal one and ending to the political level, i.e. SENSE OF INSECURITY, MISUNDERSTANDING, POWER PREVARICATION ). It is important that EVERY member of the group has an meaningful part in the statue [20 min]
• Back in plenary there will be the representation of every statue, following the concept order (i.e. SENSE OF INSECURITY, MISUNDERSTANDING, POWER PREVARICATION). As such the different in representing and understanding the same concept is highlighted. It is fundamental that participants don’t speak during the whole phase and don’t move while representing (FROZEN STATUES). Each group has 1 minute to prepare and has to STAND frozen for 1 min in order to make it visible all the different [20 min]

4. DEBRIEFING: [20 min]
participants sit in circle and discuss on all the activities, from the lecture to the last one (on concept, methods used and feelings arisen). A particular focus should be given to the difficulties in representing the concept, due to personal and cultural perceptions, the solutions found and the differences in the representations of the same concept by the different group: is it a matter of cultural frameworks, personal experiences etc.?