Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 26th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview VI. Public Policy Analysis Development Author(s) Anna Kolomycew Rzeszow University Rzeszow Poland Title How to manage Social Conflict to avoid Political Costs - The Case Study of Conflicts regarding Schools Liquidation in Polish Municipalities File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Anna Kolomycew Abstract How to manage social conflict to avoid political costs? The case study of conflicts regarding schools liquidation in Polish municipalities The purpose of the article is to identify conflict management mechanisms used by local authorities (mostly mayors).The author focuses on the special case of social conflict, which is the conflict in the context of changes in the network of municipal schools, and especially in the most radical form, that is, the liquidation of the school. Educational policy and the need to make changes in the municipal school network have been a significant problem of local governance for several years. The main reason for the particular interest in education policy are demographic trends and the rising costs of implementing educational tasks. They force local authorities to make decisions that are not always accepted by the local community and even cause conflict and threaten to lose the political support for local authorities. In the course of the analysis, the author verifies the ways of overcoming the conflict regarding the liquidation of municipal schools by local authorities. It focuses in particular on actions taken by the authorities towards teachers employed in schools planned for liquidation. Teachers due to the protection of their own interests are the driving force of the local conflict. The theoretical framework of the article is based on the theory of social conflict by L.A. Coser. In the presentation and the paper, the author presents the results of empirical research conducted in selected municipalities in Poland. Qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews was conducted in 2017 as part of the project entitled “Political interest and rationality in the implementation of public policy. Political and social consequences of school network optimization” no. 2015/19/D/HS5/03153 financed by the National Science Center Poland.
