Interdependence is contested when a party prioritizes acting independently, discounting or dismissing how their actions depend on and affect the efforts and results of others. It’s also contested when parties fight over its terms: what it requires, who bears the costs, whose purpose comes first.
Contested interdependence is structural, not just emotional or behavioral. It’s a situation in which interdependence is in dispute. Within that situation, what people think, feel, and do can vary. That can range from taking steps to resolve the dispute (de-escalation), to actively working against others to prevail at their expense. Conditions can also change over time. Contestation can emerge, intensify, recede, or remain latent.
I use conflict for contested interdependence as a whole, the way I use collaboration to name coordinated interdependence. This anchors both in the interdependent nature of work and keeps the distinction clear. What happens within either can be characterized by degrees. The point of the definition is describe interdependence as contested or coordinated, not to classify every form it might take.
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