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Article published In:
Journal of Argumentation in Context
Vol. 7:3 (2018) ► pp.285–315

Divide to unite

Making disagreement explicit in dispute mediation

 | Universita della Svizzera italiana
 | Universita della Svizzera italiana
In dispute mediation, mediators, perhaps counterintuitively, make the disagreement between parties explicit and formulate their interventions on the disagreement in such a way that the disagreement is made manageable. In this paper, three functions of identifying and elucidating the parties’ disagreement that demonstrate the importance of making disagreement salient – (1) uncovering real issues, (2) emphasizing conflict ownership, (3) making disagreements manageable – are presented. Corpora of mediation simulation transcripts are used as empirical bases for the analyses of the means by which mediators make disagreement explicit (the how) and for what specific functions they do so (the why). The three aspects of strategic maneuvering (van Eemeren 2010) are used to analyze how mediators construct the interventions on the disagreement in terms of: (a) the topics they select from the topical potential, (b) the adjustment of interventions to suit their intended addressee(s), and (c) what presentational devices are used.
Keywords: disagreement, dispute mediation, issues, strategic maneuvering
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1The space of disagreement in argumentative discussions
    • 2.2Making disagreement explicit as part of a mediator’s strategic maneuvering
  • 3.Methodological framework
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2Data treatment
    • 3.3Analysis of the three aspects of strategic maneuvering
  • 4.Three functions and ways of making disagreement explicit
    • 4.1Uncover the real issue(s)
    • 4.2Emphasize the parties’ ownership of conflict
    • 4.3Make the disagreement manageable
    • 4.4One intervention, all three functions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.17032.bij
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