EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION.
ARTICLES.
Using Disputants’ Metaphors in Mediation (Thomas H. Smith)
Metaphor has often been heralded as a critical linguistic component that reveals worldviews and influences the frames of reference operative in conflict. In the recent past, mediation scholars have suggested that mediators would benefit from becoming more aware of their own metaphors and how they may affect mediation process. In this article, the author gives specific insights about howmediators can learn to listen for operating metaphors that disputants use, and how mediators may reframe or refer to operating metaphors to advance conflict management.
Reconciliation Through Integration? An Examination of South Africa’s Reconciliation Process in Racially Integrating High Schools (Krisztina Z.Tihanyi, Stephanos F. du Toit)
South Africa is now a decade past the overturning of Apartheid and institution of democratic governance. During the initial social change, the overriding principle of progress was emphasis on reconciliation. This article takes a careful look at the enactment of reconciliation, through racial and cultural integration, in high schools in the Capetown region. Using ethnography, they reveal four approaches to integration and remark on each approach as a reflection of reconciliation or lack thereof.
A Reflection on Unintended Consequences of Workplace Mediation (Jean Poitras, Fernand Belair, and Sean Byrne)
Organizational conflict experts often advocate use of internal mediation programs as a mainstay in a well-designed organizational dispute system design. Much of the workplace conflict literature treats mediation as a completely benign alternative for action.These authors raise the possibility that the presence of mediation as an option, or exercise of the mediation option, may actually increase punitive or inflated sanctions in workplace conflict.
Strengthening Women’s Contributions to Sustainable Peace: The Benefits of Flexibility (Mary Jo Larson, Xiaoping Tian)
Sustainable peace is complex and elusive even in the best of circumstances. This article presents a summary of women’s grassroots leadership programs in a variety of countries, demonstrating how opportunities for sustainable peace can be maximized. The Women’s Leadership Program, funded by the Gates Foundation, can be used flexibly to build leadership potential among men and women in conflict-ridden societies.
Getting the Best of Both Worlds: Making Partnerships Between Court and Community ADR Programs Exemplary (Jaimie C.Kent)
Courts and community mediation programs have often been described as seeking differing goals and projecting their own identities. However, the reality of the field is that community mediation centers (CMCs) often depend on synergistic partnership with the courts to survive. What are the characteristics of exemplary CMC and court partnerships? This article analyzes qualitative interviews with CMC professionals.
RESEARCH MATTERS.
A Quantitative Analysis of the Effectiveness of Community Mediation in Decreasing Repeat Police Calls for Service (Lorig Charkoudian).
Advocates suggest that community mediation can enhance community bonds and decrease the tendency for disputants to return to destructive conflict behavior. One way to examine the validity of such claims is to look at the incidence rate for police intervention following mediation. This study reports that requests for police intervention following mediation significantly decreased.
SPECIAL REPORT.
The Knowledge Gaps Study: Unfinished Work, Open Questions (Robert A. Baruch Bush, Lisa Blomgren Bingham)
The Hewlett Foundation’s theory centers have been a strength of the field for the past three decades. Many argue these centers have produced a significant portion of the conflict theory and research that shapes our field. Yet, as Hewlett funding draws to a close, there are important questions about the lasting impact of this work and the unfinished work that should command our attention as practitioners and scholars. This special report summarizes insights gained from interviews with scholar-practitioners involved with the Hewlett centers and drawn from a conference of those scholars in June 2004.
READER RESPONSE.
A Response to Gaynier’s “Transformative Mediation: In Search of a Theory of Practice” (Joseph Folger,Robert A. Baruch Bush).
