WHAT DO PLAINTIFFS WANT? REEXAMINING THE CONCEPT OF DISPUTE*

Abstract

The alternative dispute resolution movement has been heavily influenced by a particular vision of conflict, known as the dispute processing paradigm, which describes disputing behavior primarily in terms of instrumental, optimizing deci sion strategies. An ethnographic study of attitudes and behaviors of disputing in three small American neighborhoods suggests that some categories of conflict are managed within a framework of cultural beliefs about appropriate or virtuous ways of behaving: how to fight or whether to fight, how to respond to insults and griev ances, how to live with one's neighbors. Attention to the various forms of social action and its cultural construction helps to explain some of the recurring questions in the implementation of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, such as the persistent low rate of voluntary usage.