WORKING TOGETHER
A HANDBOOK FOR CO-OPERATION
Ed Margaret Melicharova
0 902680 44 7
PRICE £7.00

DESCRIPTION: Working Together breaks new ground in providing a highly readable and accessible introduction to co-operative skills. It argues that, although co-operation isn't new, it has never been fully explored as a positive approach to forestalling, handling and resolving disputes and tensions. Co-operation is not passivity or submissiveness; it's a workable approach to identifying problems, enabling everyone concerned to reach realistic and satisfactory conclusions without aggression or violence.

It offers a sympathetic assessment of the difficulties people encounter in problem-solving; it's realistic, not Utopian, in the way these are addressed.

It is divided into sections covering private life, primary and secondary school, adolescence and society at large. Each is divided into highly varied bite-size segments including practical exercises; suggestions for thought, discussion and action; and accounts of experiments recently tried at home, in schools, and by communities.

Working Together provides a check-list of practical skills and techniques which are within everyone's potential competence and will be of particular interest to parents, teachers, and to anyone who works with young people and is interested in promoting a war-free world. It is hoped that readers can engage with its contents in creative and imaginative ways.

REVIEW: Sue Myers, The Friend: 'I found it an easy book to dip into for information on co-operative techniques....it makes it clear that communication skills are essential for easy co-operation. This handbook is highly readable and enlivened with cartoons and photographs. I would recommend it as a useful resource book for practical ideas on co-operation and conflict resolution.'

NAFSO (National Association of Field Studies Officers) Book Review: '... co-operation is something which can improve relationships, and the book provides the 'strategies' in a well-researched and resourced publication, and at its simplest the material helps to foresee - and defuse - confrontation in simple situations....The ideas in this book can be implemented without the need for expensive equipment, a great deal of time, or disruption to the National Curriculum. By putting into operation such an approach, there is every chance that - in many instances - confrontation will fade away to be replaced by co-operation, which is of benefit to everyone.'