Forms of Mediation and Law: Cultures of Dispute Resolution

Source: (2007) Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 22:321ff

“This Paper provides a map of mediation models and analyzes the intellectual context from which they emerge. …
According to the theoretical scheme suggested in this Paper, on the professional level, mediation is surrounded by lawyers
on one side and therapists on the other, each aiming to produce a “mediator identity” that is at once pragmatic and
therapeutic. … Instead of balancing between the parties as the pragmatic model suggests, or ignoring their imbalance
while treating them as fully competent and equal as the transformative model suggests, the narrative model offers to
perceive power as in constant play and as given to reframing and resistance within the mediation process: … ” Under the
pragmatic perception of mediation, the initial incentive for developing a new style of negotiation relates to entering a
second order negotiation over the process itself: … It reflects the shift of mediation between the social sciences and the
humanities: the pragmatic model is still embedded within a theoretical scientific-rational paradigm of conflict resolution
as related to biases and management, the transformative model challenges this notion of conflict, and the narrative
model takes the full step toward an interpretive paradigm of addressing conflicts -a paradigm which assumes the narrative
to be the material from which mediation is made.” (Excerpt from Author)