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The article offers a wide-ranging, critical reflection on intercultural mediation theory and practice. Rather than following the standard format of literature review and discussion, the author uses his experiences as a mediator and researcher to frame the culture question and analyze intercultural practice models. We begin with the White American author's realization that culture is important, following a mediation session in which the other participants were Black. Reading Kochman's Black and White Styles in Conflict reinforced that realization, and, combined with other works, suggested a relatively straightforward relationship between culture and mediation managed through cultural competency. However, original field research on third-party peacemaking in West Africa complicated the issue by indicating that worldviews and associated conflict styles are highly diverse, varying both within and across social groups. The second half of the paper examines the nature of cultural perspectives or worldviews and considers proposed methods for intercultural mediation. By analyzing prominent responses to the issue of sociocultural variation, the paper explores the challenge of creating a broadly applicable mediation methodology that addresses the complexity of worldviews. Adapted from the source document.

The article offers a wide‐ranging, critical reflection on intercultural mediation theory and practice. Rather than following the standard format of literature review and discussion, the author uses his experiences as a mediator and researcher to frame the culture question and analyze intercultural practice models. We begin with the White American author's realization that culture is important, following a mediation session in which the other participants were Black. Reading Kochman's Black and White Styles in Conflict reinforced that realization, and, combined with other works, suggested a relatively straightforward relationship between culture and mediation managed through cultural competency. However, original field research on third‐party peacemaking in West Africa complicated the issue by indicating that worldviews and associated conflict styles are highly diverse, varying both within and across social groups. The second half of the paper examines the nature of cultural perspectives or worldviews and considers proposed methods for intercultural mediation. By analyzing prominent responses to the issue of sociocultural variation, the paper explores the challenge of creating a broadly applicable mediation methodology that addresses the complexity of worldviews.

Mediation is a widely used form of third-party conflict management for which research has primarily focused on the role of mediators. But how are the relations between disputing parties constituted in communication involving written texts, such as official letters or medical reports, during mediation sessions? To gain deeper insight into the communicative dynamics through which third-party disputes are created, sustained, and resolved, this article proposes a new theoretical perspective on mediation that illuminates how human beings and written texts can act as vectors for each other, i.e., how they can make important differences in mediation sessions because they carry or convey what someone or something else is saying, doing, thinking, or feeling and, thus, contribute to composing the nature of disputants' relations. The value of this vectorial perspective on mediation is subsequently demonstrated through an inductive analysis of video-recorded sessions that took place at an administrative tribunal in Canada. By showing how texts (or their absence) can act as (1) conjunctive vectors that contribute to highlighting disputants' compatibilities and help them find common ground, or (2) disjunctive vectors that contribute to highlighting their incompatibilities and obstruct their dispute resolution, this article advances the academic and professional literature on the role of communication in conflict mediation work, and reveals significant implications for the study and practice of conflict management in organizations as well as scholarship on relational ontologies.

Mediation is a widely used form of third-party conflict management for which research has primarily focused on the role of mediators. But how are the relations between disputing parties constituted in communication involving written texts, such as official letters or medical reports, during mediation sessions? To gain deeper insight into the communicative dynamics through which third-party disputes are created, sustained, and resolved, this article proposes a new theoretical perspective on mediation that illuminates how human beings and written texts can act as vectors for each other, i.e., how they can make important differences in mediation sessions because they carry or convey what someone or something else is saying, doing, thinking, or feeling and, thus, contribute to composing the nature of disputants' relations. The value of this vectorial perspective on mediation is subsequently demonstrated through an inductive analysis of video-recorded sessions that took place at an administrative tribunal in Canada. By showing how texts (or their absence) can act as (1) conjunctive vectors that contribute to highlighting disputants' compatibilities and help them find common ground, or (2) disjunctive vectors that contribute to highlighting their incompatibilities and obstruct their dispute resolution, this article advances the academic and professional literature on the role of communication in conflict mediation work, and reveals significant implications for the study and practice of conflict management in organizations as well as scholarship on relational ontologies.

Seeks to integrate new scientific approaches into contemporary conflict intervention strategies. Critiques the dominant conflict resolution models and proposes the development of regional conflict management centers. Stresses the need to accept the postmodern precept that conflict and instability are normative aspects of social systems and that it is necessary to cultivate ways of building complex understandings at the phenomenal, group, and national levels. (Original abstract - amended)

China currently faces increasingly serious social conflicts. In the past, China's approach to resolving social conflicts was 'social management'. Now, however, it is turning to the development of 'social governance'. This change reflects the inability of government acting alone to recognise and to address comprehensively the type of social problems that require co-ordination of social forces. Our research identifies three dimensions of governance and provides a comparative framework allowing us to illuminate how social governance as conceived in China differs from that in Western countries. Under China's current conditions, the strengthening and development of social governance is a holistic process. Neither market-centrism nor state-centrism is pursued, and pure social-centrism is not the favoured direction of development; the path chosen is rather a state-led social pluralism. The implications we see for the Government are that it should first transform its own functions to achieve a substantially higher quality of public service. This would put it in a position to empower (civil) society to mobilise multiple and varied social forces to participate so that social conflict can be optimally addressed. [Copyright John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.]

The digital age has brought about new online mediation practices. At first, these kinds of practices were introduced to business mediation and out-of-court dispute resolution, while such phenomena as Twitter diplomacy emerged in the domain of diplomacy. During the pandemic, online communication has also become the mainstream in the spheres of negotiations and mediation. Despite a number of problems that the online format does not allow to overcome (for example, lack of personal contact), interaction with the use of digital technologies creates new opportunities. The article examines global practices of mediation and describes approaches practiced by non-governmental organizations and professional mediators in the digital era. The authors also discuss the problems of shifting interactions online that these actors have faced during the pandemic.

China currently faces increasingly serious social conflicts. In the past, China's approach to resolving social conflicts was 'social management'. Now, however, it is turning to the development of 'social governance'. This change reflects the inability of government acting alone to recognise and to address comprehensively the type of social problems that require co‐ordination of social forces. Our research identifies three dimensions of governance and provides a comparative framework allowing us to illuminate how social governance as conceived in China differs from that in Western countries. Under China's current conditions, the strengthening and development of social governance is a holistic process. Neither market‐centrism nor state‐centrism is pursued, and pure social‐centrism is not the favoured direction of development; the path chosen is rather a state‐led social pluralism. The implications we see for the Government are that it should first transform its own functions to achieve a substantially higher quality of public service. This would put it in a position to empower (civil) society to mobilise multiple and varied social forces to participate so that social conflict can be optimally addressed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.