Towards a hypothesis for the Mediator’s Abroad project

Di Bretherton

ACPACS

1/8/2007

Background

• Growing body of research about conflict resolution and peace

• As Director of the ICRC added to this body of research

• Growing awareness of importance of culture• Awareness of neocolonialism• Different streams eg ADR, peace, conflict

sensitive development• Use broader term conflict resolution to include

mediation

Conflict resolution in the academy

• CR is interdisciplinary• Links theory and practice• Is not simply application of theory to practice• Learns from practice and practitioners• Difficult to find a home in a university• Fits rhetoric but not actuality of university

structure• Content that fits everywhere, can end up no

where (Conley Tyler & Bretherton 2007)

Challenge for Mediator’s Abroad

• Chinese character for conflict gives danger and opportunity

• One danger for us as we formulate a joint research project is that it will not fit the funding priorities and structures

• Need to address needs and concerns of each researcher as well as the group

• Need to use our conflict resolution skills to bridge the differences

Approach

• Decided to follow Lederach who mentally takes away aspects of peace practice to find the core

• Reflecting on experience of conflict resolution projects in many countries found that listening is core

• Focus on listening rather than telling addresses the neocolonial pitfall

Listening

• Coburn (2007) has found listening to be an under researched aspect

• Wilkinson (2005) found through an observational study of mediation services that listening was key

• Wilkinson notes that the perception of being listened to, rather than the act of listening was the vital element

• Follow up studies of mediation ( eg Pruit) suggest that it is the perception of procedural fairness rather than the details of an agreement that is recalled by parties

• Observations of coaching sessions suggest that novices confuse re-iteration of positions with deep listening

Suggestion

• My suggestion is to take a core aspect such as listening as our focus

• We could empirically investigate the idea that listening is a universal feature of conflict resolution across cultures

• We could also look at the variation across cultures in how people listen and respond to show they have heard

Nature/nurture

• Our answer to the nature/nurture controversy will not be “either/or”, but rather “both”.

• Listening is simultaneously a universal constant and a local culturally specific variant.

• Listening will be a feature of both indigenous and introduced methods of conflict resolution

Mapping cultural difference

• In mapping cultural differences we will need to adopt some shared theoretical framework such as that outlined by Hall.

• We will need also to keep in mind that culture is not static.

• Our research needs to review the nature of cultural learning and change.

• We need to be aware of our role as agents of change

Listening in another culture

• It is not easy to learn enough of another language to mediate well

• Even silence may require interpretation

• May be better to work in partnership to develop training for local people

Reflection on our model

• Our model of mediation is quite culturally specific and won’t always fit

• One way in which a mediator shows he or she has listened is that he/she lists the important issues on the agenda

• In other cultures we may miss important agenda items because we don’t understand their local significance

• Relies a lot on writing• Procedes in a linear fashion

Traps for the mediator

• In other cultures we might confuse politeness, wanting to please the sponsor or silence with real agreement

• The bulk of our mediation is two party and multiparty approaches may be more appropriate in some cultures

• May also miss expressions of emotion eg laughter may communicate embarrassment

Vanuatu

• ACPACS project is to work in partnership with the Council of Chiefs

• Nation consists of a group of fertile volcanic South Pacific Islands

• Independence in 1980• Many local languages with Bislama as the

“lingua franca”• Schooling in English or French• History of “blackbirding” by Australia• Alienation of land

Issues

• There are two systems of governance and they don’t really communicate with each other

• Chiefs have responsibility for dispute resolution at the local level

• With young people growing up in the information age traditional methods may not work for chiefs

• Important decisions about development need to be made in a national/global context

• Gender is an issue in both systems of governance

Project

• Project involves preparation of research papers and running workshops or storians.

• Storians are on conflict resolution, community development and governance.

• Storians bring together chiefs on a particular island and allow them to work together to form action plans in local areas

• Pictures are from a workshop on conflict resolution on Santo earlier this year

• Taken by Dickenson Tevi, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Chiefs, and I have his consent to show them to you today.