Chapter Two Neutrality and Power — Mediation in th...
In the United States, mediation is an alternative way of dispute management and resolution compared with litigation or adjudication.“Community mediation in the United States is the product of thirty years of inspiration, innovation, and improvisation”(Hedeen, 2004, p.101).American mediation techniques have been a topic of great interest to researchers.There are many ways to research mediation.When this research interest is based on language and socio-linguistic features, the strategies and techniques used by the mediator to achieve neutrality and power become key features for investigation.“The language use of dispute mediators presents a particularly striking example of this principle of message design”(Jacobs, 2002,p.1404).Jacobs states that this principle of message design is:“Complexity in communicative structure reflects complexity in communicative function”(p.1404).(https://www.daowen.com)
Mediation has become a widely used technique in the United States.Government agencies, businesses, community centers,courts, and private practitioners have adopted mediation in both public and private life to resolve dispute (Folger & Jones, 1994;Kolb, 1994).The National Association for Community Mediation(2003) reports that mediation is used in 100,000 conflicts each year (Hedeen, 2004).McGills classified programs into three groups:“justice-system-based, community-based, and composite”(1986,p.20), and later into two: “government-sponsored programs and community-based programs”(1997, p.8).Shonholtz (2000)described two models of mediation: the neighborhood justice center and the community mediation center.