Transformative Negotiation

This urgently needed next-generation negotiation text promises to shake up the field and centre negotiation skills in the pursuit of social justice.

Transformative Negotiation is filled with cases, activities, and discussion prompts that bring theory into action for a new generation of negotiation students. Instead of the usual examples of big corporate deals or a hostage crisis, this book explores the sorts of real-world examples that Sarah Federman’s own students bring to class, such as negotiating with courts to get their kids back or with the IRS to reduce late fees. It centres an understanding of power and oppression as core to negotiation and argues that negotiation is central to social mobility and social change.

Federman explains how heritage, ethnicity, wealth, gender, age, education, and other factors influence what we ask for and how people respond to our requests, as well as what is at stake when we negotiate. The same strategies used in the boardroom, if deployed in the streets, can lead to dangerous altercations. Based on the wisdom of over 100 individuals who negotiate successfully from the margins, Transformative Negotiation provides tools for those who need them most and guidance for instructors and managers wishing to support them.