Conflict and the history of conflict mediation

Mediation has represented and represents an alternative for state justice that impartially solves a conflict between two parties. Mediation used to exist from the early times of the civilization, and in the form we see it nowadays appeared in Europe ‘90s through the American way, as through Directive CE / 52/2008 of the European Parliament, all the Member States needed to take steps in including the mediation in civil and commercial cases where issues appear most frequently related to the parties’ affiliation to different and cross-border legal systems. In Romania, the mediation institution operates based on Law no. 196/2006 in regards to mediation and mediator profession, and in the Republic of Moldova based on Law no. 137/2015 in regards to mediation. We consider that analyzing the history of the mediation institution could help strengthen citizens’ trust in this way of resolving voluntary and alternative disputes through a mediator.

Ethics experts and fetal patients: a proposal for modesty

Background Ethics consultation is recognized as an opportunity to share responsibility for difficult decisions in prenatal medicine, where moral intuitions are often unable to lead to a settled decision. It remains unclear, however, if the general standards of ethics consultation are applicable to the very particular setting of pregnancy. Main text We sought to analyze the special nature of disagreements, conflicts and value uncertainties in prenatal medicine as well as the ways in which an ethics consultation service (ECS) could possibly respond to them and illustrated our results with a case example. Ethics facilitation and conflict mediation, currently, have no broadly consented normative framework encompassing prenatal diagnosis and therapy as well as reproductive choice to draw on. Even so, they can still be helpful instruments for ethically challenging decision-making in prenatal medicine provided two additional rules are respected: For the time being, ECSs should (a) refrain from issuing content-heavy recommendations in prenatal medicine and (b) should not initiate conflict mediations that would involve the pregnant woman or couple as a conflict party. Conclusion It seems to be vital that ethics consultants as well as health care professionals acknowledge the current limitations and pitfalls of ethics consultation in prenatal medicine and together engage in the advancement of standards for this particularly complex setting.

An assessment of the roles of tenure and inclusion in conflict mediation at Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico

Purpose This study aims to unify phenomena in academic and grey literature into a theory of marine spatial disappropriation based on geopolitical relationships. It is argued that conflict over marine space arises as a result of top-down sovereign control of marine resources, and that the recognition of marine tenure and greater inclusivity in marine development* decision-making would lessen conflict between users, such as artisanal fishermen and ecotourism businesses. Design/methodology/approach A preliminary literature review was conducted, followed by a research study at Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP) in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Findings The results demonstrate that though CPNP's tenure structure is unique and inclusivity is an element of its management, the degree to which it is practiced is not sufficient to eliminate the chance of eventual disappropriation and ensuing conflict. Practical implications The results of this assessment can be used to strengthen the argument in favour of developing stronger requirements for deliberative democratic decision-making in marine delineation, as well as bolder social performance standards in marine development industries. Originality/value Research on socio-environmental revolutions are not new, but the authors contest that they are not alone a sufficient condition for achieving reduced conflict long-term. Instead, the originality of this research lies in its exploration of the importance of customary and formal tenure over marine resources, and its suggestion that this on the whole reduces conflict between exclusive and competing interests. One popular alternative, as demonstrated in numerous cases around the globe, can often be the marginalization of small-scale ocean users through the forceful appropriation of ocean resources.

Who Makes Your Heart Beat? What Makes You Sweat? Social Conflict in Virtual Reality for Educators

Though educators often deal with stressful social conflicts, many face them ad hoc without much training. We studied if and how virtual agents can help University staff manage student-teacher conflicts. We explored educators' verbal, behavioral, and physiological reactions to a virtual agent that brought up a student-teacher conflict and held exit-interviews. Our qualitative analysis revealed that virtual agents for conflict training were positively received, but not for conflict mediation with cross-cultural differences. Those with non-Western backgrounds felt that an agent could help “save face,” whereas Westerners preferred to resolve conflicts in person. In line with this, participants with a Western background rated the virtual agent to be less competent compared to those with non-Western backgrounds. While physiological measures only allow for limited conclusions, we found that participants who believed that the agent was controlled by a human had higher normalized hear rate variability (for the entire conversation in total) than people who thought that the agent was autonomous. We discuss implications for implementing virtual agents for training purposes, the impact of physiological signals, and the need to consider cultural and individual differences.

Epilogue: The Ventriloquism of Media

Historically, media studies and interaction studies have been estranged from each other. As John Durham Peters noted, this unfortunate situation can be traced back to the quarrel between the Sophists and Socrates, which can be summarized as the perennial opposition between the doctrine of dissemination, today represented by media studies, and the doctrine of dialogue, represented by interaction studies. This chapter calls this opposition into question by proposing to study media from a ventriloquial perspective. Communication is not only a question of co-construction and co-orientation, aspects on which interaction studies often focus, but also of delegation and tele-action, aspects that highlight the mediated dimension of any communicative act. The chapter illustrates the value of this perspective by providing an in-depth analysis of a videorecorded conflict mediation session. More specifically, it shows how a mediator acts as a medium in third-party dispute resolution by giving each party an opportunity to recognize their interests and positions in the other’s expressed interests and positions. The mediator thus acts as a ventriloquist who aims to help parties say things that reflect the compatibility of their respective interests, which seem incompatible at the onset of the mediation.