Mediation and Multicultural Reality

Excerpt Mediation and multiculturalism arise from separate histories and serve different ends. Mediation is a collaborative alternative to the legal system for resolving all kinds of conflicts. Multiculturalism is the philosophy and practice of honouring cultural difference through developing systems that institutionalize pluralism (Roberts and Clifton, 1990). While each of these ideas have animated programs and literatures, little attention was given to the connections between them until the early nineties.1 Since that time, conflict resolution systems and processes have been scrutinized for embedded cultural values and implications for who is included and excluded. Training programs in mediation have progressed from making no mention of culture to adding modules on culture. But modules on culture are only the beginning. Truly competent practice and process design requires a complex understanding of culture and the development of intercultural capacities by third parties

Transforming Cultural Conflict in an Age of Complexity

This article will survey several definitions of culture, arguing that the most useful approach is to define culture broadly and to recognize its significance to most or all conflicts. Some of the ways that culture affects conflicts will be outlined, accompanied by examples. These include: culture as a lens that both facilitates and blocks effective communication; culture and world view differences as the subject of conflicts; and conflicts related to identity and recognition as facets of cultural differences. Further discussed are Western models of third party intervention, inviting readers to examine the values and assumptions underlying them. Challenges inherent in developing appropriate processes will be discussed. Concluding the article are recommendations for process design in culturally complex conflicts

Transforming Cultural Conflict in an Age of Complexity

This article will survey several definitions of culture, arguing that the most useful approach is to define culture broadly and to recognize its significance to most or all conflicts. Some of the ways that culture affects conflicts will be outlined, accompanied by examples. These include: culture as a lens that both facilitates and blocks effective communication; culture and world view differences as the subject of conflicts; and conflicts related to identity and recognition as facets of cultural differences. Further discussed are Western models of third party intervention, inviting readers to examine the values and assumptions underlying them. Challenges inherent in developing appropriate processes will be discussed. Concluding the article are recommendations for process design in culturally complex conflicts

Breathing Life into the Ashes: Resilience, Arts and Social Transformation - PWIAS Inaugural Roundtable Final Report

This report summarizes the themes, components, results and projected impacts of the first PWIAS (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies) international roundtable held in October 2012. The roundtable brought together 20 artists, scholars, and conflict transformation practitioners from around the world to: explore and deepen understandings and experiences of individual and collective resilience; develop an infrastructure to strengthen the resilience and the legitimacy of the Social Transformation via Arts (“STA”) field; and advance understandings of assessment and evaluation in STA. In the report, the authors include a discussion of advance goals and planning, roundtable experiences, and ongoing effects of the roundtable based on the original application, feedback, experiences, and reports from participants. They also highlight ongoing related scholarly activities and research initiatives. Throughout the report, the authors refer to PWIAS roundtable objectives and how these relate to their achievements and their impact both among participants and with wider audiences

Embodied Conflict Resolution: Resurrecting Roleplay-Based Curricula Through Dance

Moving on from the authors’ seminal 2009 critique of the overuse of role-plays in negotiation teaching, Death of the Role-Play (chapter 13 in Rethinking Negotiation Teaching), Alexander and LeBaron have taken the rapidly increasing enthusiasm for experiential learning in a new direction: multiple intelligences. Their particular interest is in a use of experiential learning that focuses on kinesthetic intelligence, employing actual physical movement, particularly dance, to unlock creativity in other mental domains, as well as to encourage authentic participation by people whose skills are not primarily verbal or mathematical. Those who may be inclined to be skeptical should note that this work is receiving increased attention among people whose dominant skills are rational/analytical: this chapter serves as a brief introduction to a project whose longer work is to be published soon by the American Bar Association

Conflict Tactics in a Mediation Setting

This essay examines the results of a pilot study undertaken at George Mason University as a joint effort between the Psychology Department and the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. The authors discuss the task of behavioralizing tactics commonly used in conflict situations, defining particular conflict styles often used by participants in conflicts, and the ability of the participants in the study to identify and agree upon the tactics and styles when viewed in a film. The authors also examine the relationship of shame, guilt, and anger in the conflict setting as it relates to the tactics used

Resistance, Resonance and Restoration: How Generative Stories Shape Organisational Futures

Stories are powerful. They reflect our past and shape our futures, but are never complete. Stories connect us to people in organisations – present and past – with whom we feel belonging, and disconnect us from others. Always abstractive, they give incomplete pictures of what was, weaving past accounts into what is and what will be. Because choice-points in storytelling are mostly unconscious, biases and perceptions are always part of narration, tending to reinforce preferred images, identities and trajectories. Storytelling habits, in turn, often accent negative histories and escalate conflict. Because stories are so powerful, it is essential to critically examine how they function in organisations, and to develop ways of supporting generative, inclusive stories

Aesthetics in Negotiation: Part Two: The Uses of Alchemy

In Part One, in this volume, we discussed the four classic elements — earth, water, air and fire — as paths via which beauty can infuse negotiation. Another way these four elements can be explored is through the organizing concept of alchemy. Alchemy, historically concerned with changing states and physical properties, including turning one substance into another, is essentially concerned with transformation. Given that negotiation — when optimal — may also yield transformation, we examine what alchemical concepts may have to offer here

Aesthetics in Negotiation: Part Two: The Uses of Alchemy

In Part One, in this volume, we discussed the four classic elements — earth, water, air and fire — as paths via which beauty can infuse negotiation. Another way these four elements can be explored is through the organizing concept of alchemy. Alchemy, historically concerned with changing states and physical properties, including turning one substance into another, is essentially concerned with transformation. Given that negotiation — when optimal — may also yield transformation, we examine what alchemical concepts may have to offer here