Whats Happening 09.06.11

Transparent mediation: taking clients backstage

Brad Heckman- ...We use a facilitative approach to mediation at the New York Peace Institute -- with some transformative techniques thrown in. (I've written here about how we gleefully mix up styles). So, a typical mediation session may look like a free-flowing conversation, but it is undergirded by a multi-staged process and a toolbox of skills. In order to keep up the conversational flow, we tend to not reveal to the parties the techniques we are using.

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Strathclyde University

To Offer Masters in Mediation

Culture and Public Policy

Werner Institute Blog/Professor Jackie N. Font-Guzman- Culture may be defined as the knowledge, values, and customs that people acquire by living in a given society. Public policy in turn is whatever the government chooses to do or not to do (Dye 2005: 1). Therefore, culture and public policy are closely interwoven. “People always feel [the effects of] their origins. The circumstances that accompanied their birth and served to develop them influence the entire course of the rest of their lives” (Tocqueville 2000: 28). Since many of the public policy issues are socially constructed, it follows that public policy is going to be shaped by the cultural values and worldviews of the voters.

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Reflection & Engaging At The Speed of Twitter!

Last week, Jason Dykstra and I co-hosted the first ever twitter chat for the ADR community. I saw this as an opportunity to bring together the ADR community of professionals, academics, students, practitioners, and ‘newbies.’

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