Alternative dispute resolution is one important way of doing this, and book contributors explore the theory and practice of the technique. They demonstrate how to clarify, understand, and develop the various options available under alternative dispute resolution and how to evaluate probable outcomes. Among the tools available to facilitate dispute resolution are microcomputer-based, rule-based expert systems and decision-aiding software for specific fields of dispute. The editors delineate several ways in which participants in a dispute win or lose. The most desirable are super-optimum solutions in which all sides come out ahead of their best expectations. The editors point out that win-win solutions are not as desirable as would seem at first glance, since parties only come out ahead relative to their worst expectations. Candidate topics for alternative dispute resolution include disputes involving family members, neighborhoods, merchants-consumers, management-labor, legislation, and foreign countries. It is shown that the subject of dispute resolution is becoming more important, due in part to more formal ways in which people in urban and industrial societies resolved disputes and in response to a growth in the quantity and seriousness of disputes. References and tables