How social impact assessment can contribute to conflict management

•Conflict is omnipresent and creates both positive and negative social impacts.•Conflict itself represents a possible field of application for SIA.•Conflict escalation is a process that can be modeled in a game-theoretic framework.•There needs to be concerted effort to prevent escalation to avoid harmful outcomes.•Conflict-sensitive SIA can support conflict management and sustainable resolution.

The potential for conflict is omnipresent in all projects, and even in all human interactions, and conflict itself leads to many second-order social impacts. This article examines the contribution of the methodological approach used in social impact assessment (SIA) to conflict management. We view conflict as a process that has its own dynamic, and is to be expected in all situations. By using game theory (prisoner's dilemma), we describe and conceptualize this process and highlight the importance of communication in managing conflict. We demonstrate the potential use of SIA in preventing, managing and resolving conflict. Emphasis is placed on the participatory character of SIA and the role of public media. In contrast to existing literature, our focus is not restricted to the typical fields of study of SIA (e.g. environmental conflicts), but understands conflict itself as a field of application. In this sense, conflict-sensitive SIA can be understood both as an extension to the SIA tool kit and a broadening of the scope of SIA application.