Table 1 The four mechanisms of hierarchical conflict attenuation
Conflict attenuating mechanism | Description | Relevance to this study (illustrative examples) |
|---|---|---|
‘Rule-bound niches’ | The permitted presence of another social organisation, provided it observes hierarchically defined boundaries and only operates within its authorised or sanctioned space | Different groups having different and delineated scopes of work/activities within the NERC and DERCs’ pillar system, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) overseeing surveillance or an (I)NGO overseeing the alerts desk, such that no one group conflicted with or overrode another |
‘Neutral zones’ | Agreed spaces in which different social organisations can co-exist without threatening the existence of another | The NERC and DERC meeting spaces where different groups could come together to discuss daily activities and resolve challenges collectively |
‘Co-dependence’ | When different social organisations are interdependent and mutually co-constitutive | Civilian and military Ebola Response Workers (ERWs) that had to work together with the shared objective of containing the Ebola outbreak |
‘Hybridity’ | Where the constitution of a given social organisation imbricates with another | Civilian ERWs becoming more hierarchical and military ERWs becoming less so, making them more like the other |