Mediation for social concord I

Our society lives in a constant disturbe. Politically but above all socially, in the community, the conflicts that are typical of any coexistence turn sour and result in confrontations when there is no ability to manage them, if possible, or to solve them in a way that everyone those involved remain calm.

The purpose of this series of posts will be to present some ideas about how mediation can serve in the task of concord and social pacification. Not as a single measure, but as part of a public policy, contributing in two ways: first, helping to reduce confrontations; second, forming in the citizens a practice of dialogue and coexistence.

For this purpose, in this first publication I will briefly explain what mediation is. This consists of a negotiation between the parties to a conflict in which the dialogue is facilitated by a neutral third person, which helps them to specify their needs, define the common and conflicting points, as well as generate proposals for settlement and, in their case, to draft the final agreement. That third person does not make proposals for settlement.

The one who facilitates the mediation is called mediator. It is a very appropriate term because it has a double signification, on the one hand it remembers that it is between the parties, that is, that it does not integrate any of them; and on the other it makes clear that it is a means, an instrument, to achieve something.

To affirm that the objective of a mediation is to achieve agreement is to say a lot, but it may be general. True, parties that have a problem and decide or must resolve it with the help of a third party want, or at least that is supposed to, reach an agreement. But while this may be the ultimate goal of mediation in certain contexts or visions, it seems to me that in reality the objective must be to develop among the contestants skills for constructive dialogue.

This is in accordance with what I will explain in the following entries, the development of skills for the type of dialogue that I speak of implies a pacifying effect in society, since it supposes the construction of a society that does not see the conflict as something negative, nor the confrontation as the only way to solve it.