How Conflict Occurs and What Causes Conflict: Conflict Analysis Framework for Public Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

This study proposes a conflict analysis framework to investigate how conflict occurs and what causes conflict by considering the characteristics of public infrastructure projects. The conflict occurrence process over construction projects was structured as four stages based on the paradigm model approach of grounded theory. Two types of Korean cases (the first one is linear facilities and the second one is clustered facilities) were analyzed using the proposed framework. The study examined that each infrastructure type has its own pattern during conflict occurrences, with the impact of conflict factors also varying significantly. The results showed that the “procedure of deciding facility’s location and its route” is commonly extracted as a major factor. For linear infrastructure facilities, “the validity of the public engagement process” and “technical alternatives to mitigate conflict” were distilled as major factors. In contrast, “environmental and ecological concerns in the early site selection phase,” because the facility required a large amount of territory, was identified as more important for clustered infrastructure facilities. This framework is expected to be useful for conflict analysis from the early stage of public projects, according to the inherent characteristics of the given infrastructure project.