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35 J. Conflict Resol. 3 (1991)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr35 and id is 1 raw text is: 






Community Mediation in

the People's Republic of China



JAMES   A. WALL,   Jr.
MICHAEL BLUM
University ofMissouri



   This study investigated the mediations of ninety-seven community mediators in the People's
Republic of China. The mediators' reports on two mediations each-one successful and one
unsuccessful- indicated the frequency with which they use twenty-seven mediation techniques.
In addition, their information revealed the strategies- assist, procedural, educate, and external
reliance - they employ in their mediations. It was found that Chinese mediators utilize the same
techniques and strategies in successful versus nonsuccessful mediations; yet, their techniques
and strategies differ in couple (husband-wife) as opposed to noncouple disputes.




it  means  to halve, to be in the middle. Derived  from  the Latin word
mediare,  mediation has come  to signify more than dividing disputed items
into equal parts. Over the years mediators have set up negotiations, separated
parties, advised them, offered proposals, served as sounding  boards, pro-
tected the disputants and . . . the list could continue for pages.
   Mediators  have applied their techniques to a wide variety of disputes. In
this country, we continually and increasingly rely upon mediation to resolve
international (e.g., Touval 1982; Young 1972), industrial (e.g., Kochan and
Jick 1978; Kolb  1983) marital (e.g., Haynes 1981), community  (e.g., Salem
1982), and judicial (Wall and Rude  1987) disputes.
   As  mediation has been elaborated and applied to a variety of disputes, it
 has come to be viewed  from a Western perspective; that is, we consider the
 Western mediation process to be universal. For example, we typically think
 of mediation as a process in which a neutral third party uses logic and emo-
 tional appeasement to help disputants reach a mutually acceptable resolution.
    However,  it seems feasible, if not probable, that mediation in Eastern
cultures differs significantly from that in our society. And given our increased

JOURNAL  OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION. Vol. 35 No. 1, March 1991 3-20
0 1991 Sage Publications. Inc.
                                                                         3


from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

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