3.1 Data Collection
In total, sixteen mediation cases were used for analysis.They vary in type and geography to better represent the diversity of the Chinese population.Four mediation cases were collected during community or street mediations in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei, a province in Northern China.During the time of data collection, reforms were carried out in an effort to alleviate the judge’s work load.The result was a collapsing of the pre-trial or interval trial mediation with the non-judicial mediation.Under these conditions, mediation from communities and street offices were invited to mediate cases in lieu of a judge.
Two cases were recorded in Beijing, the capital of China.Beijing is where China’s first mediation center was built.The two cases I recorded and analyzed were mediated by a judicial assistant at this center.After the mediation centers, I conducted interviews with the mediator.At this time, I was also provided with access to historical documents pertaining to the history of mediation in Beijing.
In addition to mediation sessions in urban settings, several other mediations from other areas were recorded and analyzed.These mediations occurred in smaller cities and rural areas of the Sichuan province.It is important to note at this point that the geographical terminology in China is different from that used in the United States.Specifically, the term “county”refers to an area of smaller geographic area, and lower population than a city.In addition, it is often quite a distance from a city.By Chinese standards, countries are rural.One step further removed from the city, smaller than a country is a “village.”This term is used to denote a smaller region, with fewer inhabitants and is often quite remote or in a mountainous area.Two cases used in my analysis are from Luzhou city, two cases are from Xuling County, one case from Rong County, and one is from a village subsidiary of Gulin County.
Formal mediations are, in fact, rather uncommon.On average,there are only two or three a month in any community.As discussed earlier, the goal of street mediation is to stem conflict before it becomes necessary for formal intervention to occur.It is far more common for informal mediations to occur, on a daily basis in some places.Indeed, it is not uncommon for several informal street mediations to occur on a given day.Since there were relatively few of the formal mediations of interest to the current study, I was provided access to the records for mediation sessions and transcribed case types and typical language use, as recorded in the mediator’s notes.In addition, there were several instances of less formal mediation; what is categorized as pre-trial and intervention mediation, where a judge’s presence is not required.Four mediation cases were gathered from this pool of reported mediation interactions.
The mediation transcripts were supplemented by interviews with eight of the mediators involved in the cases used.These individuals were all asked the same set of questions.Because the method of interview is used only as complementary to the discourse analysis of the transcripts of mediation sessions, no formal interview protocol was created.These questions are as follows:
1.What is your age and education level?
2.What kind of training have you had to become a mediator?
3.What techniques have you been using in mediation sessions?(https://www.daowen.com)
4.What goals are you trying to reach in a mediation session?
5.How do you define mediation, a successful mediation and a failed mediation?
6.What qualities should a good mediator have?
7.What kind of mediation is easy/difficult and why?
8.Do you like your job as a mediator?
9.Usually, how many mediation sessions do you have per month?
10.How do you evaluate the mediation session which I sat in?
11.Are there any aspects you feel that you could have done better in that mediation session?