Negotiation, Facilitation and Mediation:
Principles and Practices
17th November 2010
AGENDA AND READINGS FOR MORNING
8.00-11.30AM
Futures for Negotiation, Facilitation and Mediation
Benjamin, R. D. 2006. "Character Traits of Working Dogs and Conflict Mediators: 'Systematic Intuition' and Tenacity"
Menkel-Meadow, C. 1995. "The Many Ways of Mediation: The Transformation of Traditions, Ideologies, Paradigms and Practices". Negotiation Journal: pp. 217-242.
Alfini, J. J. 1997. "Evaluative vs. Facilitative Mediation: A Discussion". Florida State University Law Review. 24. 919-935
In this class we will listen to a series of interviews with experienced and well-known mediators discussing their perspectives on the future of mediation and recommendations that they would make to people entering the field today. While focusing on mediation, their points carry on over into negotiation and facilitation. The views they express build on the discussion we had at the end of the last class about alternative approaches to mediation. You will meet Robert Benjamin as one of the interviewers for the videos today and in this article he helps you to prepare for our discussions by summarizing what he learned in listening and thinking about them.
Carrie Menkel-Meadow's article in the Supplementary Readings reviews and critiques the ideas in Kolb's When Talk Works (1994) and Bush and Folger's Promise of Mediation (1994), both of which we discussed last time. She also compares these with an examination of San Francisco's community mediation programs, as discussed in Sally Engle Merry and Neal Milner's The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of American Community Justice (1993). Menkel-Meadow's critical review amplifies the discussion last time and may be of interest if you would like to explore further the comments made by Benjamin and in the interviews today.