Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-kl2l2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-06T01:39:22.392Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Power of Community Mediation: Government and Formation of Self-Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

George Pavlich
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent “alternatives” to law assume diverse forms and include various community mediation programs. Proponents see these programs as a triumph of empowered individuals and communities over the state. By contrast, early critics—in their various ways—view such programs as an expansion and intensification of state control. Against both, and working with “new informalist” insights, this article focuses on the political logic of community mediation practices. Drawing on Foucault, it explores mediation as a governmentalization (cf. expansion) of state dispute resolution which marshals both techniques of discipline and self in an attempt to produce peaceful individual selves. A case study is used to analyze community mediation as a confessional institution that deploys sociocultural pressures in search of nondisputing self-identities. The article concludes that the search for fixed notions of individual, self, or even community empowerment may entrench, rather than resist, current forms of regulation in dispute resolution arenas.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , 1996 , pp. 707 - 733
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

The author wishes to thank the editor and two anonynous reviewers of Law & Society Review for their helpful comments on a previous version.

References

Abel, Richard L. (1982a) “Introduction,” in Abel 1982c.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abel, Richard L. (1982b) “The Contradictions of Informal Justice,” in Abel 1982c.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L., ed. (1982c) The Politics of Informal Justice, Vol. 1: The American Experience. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Adler, Peter, Lovaas, Karen, & Milner, Neal (1988) “The Ideologies of Mediation: The Movement's Own Story,” 10 Law & Policy 317.Google Scholar
Alfini, James J. (1986) “Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Courts: An Introduction,” 69 Judicature 252.Google Scholar
Arthurs, H. W. (1980) “Alternatives to the Formal Justice System: Reminiscing about the Future,” in Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, Cost of Justice. Toronto: Carswell Co.Google Scholar
Auerbach, Jerold S. (1983) Justice without Law. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Baskin, Deborah R. (1988) “Community Mediation and the Public/Private Problem,” 15 Social Justice 98.Google Scholar
Baskin, Deborah R. (1989) “What Is All the Fighting about? Privatism and Neighbor Disputes,” 16 Social Justice 165.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt (1992) Intimations of Postmodernity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt (1994) “Morality without Ethics,” 11 Theory, Culture & Society 1.Google Scholar
Beck, Ulrich, Giddens, Anthony, & Lash, Scott (1994) Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Beer, Jennifer E. (1986) Peacemaking in Your Neighborhood: Reflections on an Experiment in Community Mediation. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Blair, Robert A. (1988) “Impetus for the Movement towards Non-court Mechanisms for Dispute Resolution.” Presented at Canadian Bar Association's (Ontario) Conference on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Toronto, 3 Oct.Google Scholar
Burchell, Graham (1991) “Peculiar Interests: Civil Society and Governing ‘the System of Natural Liberty,‘” in Burchell et al. 1991.Google Scholar
Burchell, Graham, Gordon, Colin, & Miller, Peter, eds. (1991) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burchell, Graham, Gordon, Colin, & Miller, Peter, eds. (1993) “Liberal Government and Techniques of the Self,” 22 Economy & Society 267.Google Scholar
Burdine, Marje (1990) Mediation Skills Manual: “How to Mediate a Dispute.” Vancouver: The Centre for Conflict Resolution Training, Justice Institute of B.C.Google Scholar
Bush, Robert A. Baruch, & Folger, Joseph P. (1994) The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict through Empowerment and Recognition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Cain, Maureen (1988) “Beyond Informal Justice,” in Matthews 1988b.Google Scholar
Cameron, Jan, & Dupius, Ann (1989) School Mediation in New Zealand: An Assessment of Potential. Report for the Sociology Department, Univ. of Canterbury.Google Scholar
Casey, Catherine (1995) Work, Self and Society: After Industrialism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cohen, Stanley (1985) Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment, and Classification. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Stanley (1988) “The Deeper Structures of Law: Or Beware the Rulers Bearing Justice,” in S. Cohen, Against Criminology. Oxford: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Cook, Royer F., Roehl, Janice A., & Sheppard, David I. (1980) Neighborhood Justice Centers Field Test: Final Evaluation Report. Washington: U.S. Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Danzig, Richard (1973) “Towards the Creation of a Complementary, Decentralized System of Criminal Justice,” 26 Stanford Law Rev. 1.Google Scholar
Dean, Mitchell (1994) Critical and Effective Histories: Foucault's Methods and Historical Sociology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Donzelot, Jacques (1991) “The Mobilization of Society,” in Burchell et al. 1991.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Peter (1988) “The Rise and Rise of Informalism,” in Matthews 1988b.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Peter (1992a) “The Impossibility of Popular Justice,” 1 Social & Legal Studies 199.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Peter (1992b) The Mythology of Modern Law. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Peter (forthcoming) “Relational Power and the Limits of Law,” in Tuori, K., Bankowski, Z., & Uusitalo, J., eds., Law and Power: Critical and Sociol-legal Essays. Liverpool: Deborah Charles Publications.Google Scholar
Folberg, Jay, & Taylor, Alison (1984) Mediation: A Comprehensive Guide to Resolving Conflicts without Litigation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1978) The History of Sexuality, vol 1: An Introduction. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1979) “Governmentality,” 6 Ideology & Consciousness 5.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings (1972–1977). Brighton: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1981a) “Sexuality and Solitude,” London Rev. of Books, pp. 3, 5–6 (21 May-2 June).Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1981b) “Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of ‘Political Reason,‘” in McMurrin, S., ed., 2 The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1982) “The Subject and Power,” in Dreyfus, H. L. & Rabinow, P., eds., Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1984) “What Is Enlightenment?” in Rabinow, P., ed., The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1985) The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1988a) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1988b) “The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom,” in Bernauer, J. & Rasmussen, D., eds., The Final Foucault. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Stephen B., Green, Eric D., & Sander, Frank E. A. (1985) Dispute Resolution. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.Google Scholar
Gordon, Colin (1991) “Governmental Rationality: An Introduction,” in Burchell et al. 1991.Google Scholar
Harrington, Christine B. (1982) “Delegalizing Reform Movements: A Historical Analysis,” in Abel 1982b.Google Scholar
Harrington, Christine B. (1985) Shadow Justice: The Ideology and Institutionalization of Alternatives to Court. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Harrington, Christine B. (1988) “Regulatory Reform: Creating Gaps and Making Markets,” 10 Law & Policy 293.Google Scholar
Heelas, Paul, & Morris, Paul, eds. (1992) The Values of the Enterprise Culture: The Moral Debate. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hepworth, Mike, & Turner, Bryan S. (1982) Confession: Studies in Deviance and Religion. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hofrichter, Richard (1982) “Neighborhood Justice and the Social Control Problems of American Capitalism: A Perspective,” in Abel 1982c.Google Scholar
Hofrichter, Richard (1985) “Rethinking Alternatives to the Courts” (review of Auerbach, Justice without Law), 9 Legal Studies Forum 89.Google Scholar
Hofrichter, Richard (1987) Neighborhood Justice in Capitalist Society: The Expansion of the Informal State. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Kolb, Deborah & Associates (1993) When Talk Works: Profiles of Mediators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Kressel, Kenneth, & Pruitt, Dean G., eds. (1989) Mediation Research: The Process and Effectiveness of Third-Party Intervention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Lederach, John Paul, & Kraybill, Ron (1993) “The Paradox of Popular Justice: A Practioner's View,” in Merry & Milner 1993.Google Scholar
Matthews, Roger (1988a) “Introduction,” in Matthews 1988b.Google Scholar
Matthews, Roger, ed. (1988b) Informal Justice. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle, & Milner, Neal, eds. (1993) The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of Community Mediation in the United States. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Peter, & Rose, Nikolas (1988) “The Tavistock Programme: The Government of Subjectivity and Social Life,” 22 Sociology 171.Google Scholar
Miller, Peter, & Rose, Nikolas (1990) “Governing Economic Life,” 19 (1) Economy & Society 1.Google Scholar
Nader, Laura (1988) “The ADR Explosion—The Implications of Rhetoric in Legal Reform,” 8 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 269.Google Scholar
Pasquino, Pasquale (1978) “Theatrum Politicum. The Genealogy of Capital—Police and the State of Prosperity,” 4 Ideology & Consciousness 41.Google Scholar
Pavlich, George C. (1995) “Contemplating a Postmodern Sociology: Genealogy, Limits and Critique,” 43 Sociological Rev. 548.Google Scholar
Pavlich, George C. (1996) Justice Fragmented: Mediating Community Disputes under Postmodern Conditions. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pruitt, Dean G., & Carnevale, Peter J. (1993) Negotiation in Social Conflict. Buckingham: Open Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Raeff, Marc (1983) The Well-ordered Police State: Social and Institutional Change through Law in the Germanies and Russia, 1600–1800. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Rajchman, John (1991) Truth and Eros: Foucault, Lacan and the Question of Ethics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rose, Nikolas (1990) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rose, Nikolas (1992) “Governing the Enterprising Self,” in Heelas & Morris 1992.Google Scholar
Rose, Nikolas, & Miller, Peter (1992) “Political Power beyond the State: Problematics of Government,” 43 British J. of Sociology 173.Google Scholar
Salem, Richard A. (1985) “The Alternative Dispute Resolution Movement: An Overview,” 40 (3) Arbitration J. 3.Google Scholar
Sander, Frank E. A. (1976) “Varieties of Dispute Processing,” 70 (79) Federal Rules Decisions 111.Google Scholar
Sander, Frank E. A. (1980) “Community Justice,” 31 (2) Harvard Law School Bull. 18.Google Scholar
Santos, Santos Boaventura de (1982) “Law and Community: The Changing Nature of State Power in Late Capitalism,” in Abel 1982c.Google Scholar
Selva, Lance H., & Böhm, Robert M. (1987) “A Critical Examination of the Informalism Experiment in the Administration of Justice,” 29 Crime & Social Justice 43.Google Scholar
Shonholtz, Raymond (1978) “Community Board Program” (Mimeograph, San Francisco).Google Scholar
Shonholtz, Raymond (1984) “Neighbourhood Justice Systems: Work, Structure and Guiding Principles,” 5 Mediation Q. 3.Google Scholar
Shonholtz, Raymond (1987) “The Citizens' Role in Justice: Building a Primary Justice and Prevention System at the Neighborhood Level,”494 Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science 42.Google Scholar
Shonholtz, Raymond (1988–89) “Community as Peacemaker: Making Neighborhood Justice Work,” 15 Current Municipal Problems 291.Google Scholar
Shonholtz, Raymond (1993) “Justice from Another Perspective: The Ideology and Developmental History of the Community Boards Program,” in Merry & Milner 1993.Google Scholar
Silbey, Susan S., & Merry, Sally Engle (1986) “Mediator Settlement Strategies,” 8 Law & Policy 7.Google Scholar
Smart, Barry (1992) Modern Conditions, Postmodern Controversies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smart, Barry (1993) Postmodernity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smart, Barry (1995) “The Subject of Responsibility,” 21 (4) Philosophy & Social Criticism 93.Google Scholar
Tambling, Jeremy (1990) Confession: Sexuality, Sin, the Subject. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tomasic, Roman, & Feeley, Malcolm, eds. (1982) Neighborhood Justice: Assessment of an Emerging Idea. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Umbreit, Mark (1994) Victim Meets Offender: The Impact of Restorative Justice and Mediation. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.Google Scholar
Wahrhaftig, Paul (1982) “An Overview of Community-oriented Citizen Dispute Resolution Programs in the United States,” in Abel 1982c.Google Scholar
Wahrhaftig, Paul (1984) “Nonprofessional Conflict Resolution,” 29 Villanova Law Rev. 1463.Google Scholar
Wright, Martin, & Galaway, Burt, eds. (1989) Mediation and Criminal Justice: Victims, Offenders, and Community. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Zehr, Howard (1986) “Retributive Justice, Restorative Justice,” 16 (1) Peace Section Newsletter 9.Google Scholar
Zehr, Howard (1990) Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press.Google Scholar