Conflict

Abstract

The category of conflict has been, in the West, the object of theoretical formulation and at the same time the centralcore of social research since the 19th century. Thus, in the lengthy cycle opened by the material transformationsdragged by the industrial revolution, the question about conflict constituted part of the management of the effectsof the association among that process and the social change derived from it. The transformations of social relationsfrom those made in the production system, operated by nascent capitalism and, from the values that guide humanbehavior, promoted conflicts between social groups whose interest is recognized as opposed in relation to theidea of society, work, authority, order. The text that follows presents a conceptual guide to address the questionof conflict, taking up the contributions of the main theoretical perspectives that have dealt with it and emphasizingits constitutive nature of the political.