Parallel Mediation: Ordering the Chaos of Multiparty Mediation

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles Hansen

Abstract The proliferation of actors in the business of making peace has led to an increase in the frequency of multiparty mediations, with both positive and negative consequences. The purpose of this article is to simplify the complexity that often accompanies multiparty mediations by applying the structuralist and social-psychological dichotomy of negotiations to a model of parallel mediation. I propose that coupling structuralist and social-psychological mediations together in a parallel mediation can leverage the respective strengths of each to more effectively find a negotiated solution. Given the fiscal and political realities facing peacemakers, finding ways to increase the frugality and simplicity of cooperation between mediators is essential. The limited cooperation needed in parallel mediations does just that. This article analyzes how the parallel mediation model has been applied to two conflicts, the intrastate Tajik civil war and the interstate Ecuador-Peru border dispute. This analysis identifies five characteristics that were observed in these two successful examples of parallel mediation, and serves as a starting point for additional research.

Author(s):  
Andrew van der Vlies

Two recent debut novels, Songeziwe Mahlangu’s Penumbra (2013) and Masande Ntshanga’s The Reactive (2014), reflect the experience of impasse, stasis, and arrested development experienced by many in South Africa. This chapter uses these novels as the starting point for a discussion of writing by young black writers in general, and as representative examples of the treatment of ‘waithood’ in contemporary writing. It considers (spatial and temporal) theorisations of anxiety, discerns recursive investments in past experiences of hope (invoking Jennifer Wenzel’s work to consider the afterlives of anti-colonial prophecy), assesses the usefulness of Giorgio Agamben’s elaboration of the ancient Greek understanding of stasis as civil war, and asks how these works’ elaboration of stasis might be understood in relation to Wendy Brown’s discussion of the eclipsing of the individual subject of political rights by the neoliberal subject whose very life is framed by its potential to be understood as capital.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1156
Author(s):  
Alceu Raposo Junior

Com o advento do racionalismo, tendo como um dos principais precursores René Descartes, surge um novo modelo de pensar o mundo, colocando o pensamento lógico acima de qualquer questão. As ideias de Descartes influenciaram diversos pensadores, entre os quais se destacam o holandês Spinoza e o alemão Leibniz. Leibniz era filósofo, matemático e político. Dada esta inegável contribuição social e filosófica para o mundo moderno é fato que os desdobramentos contemporâneos do método e da racionalidade trouxeram consequências negativas para a sociedade pós-moderna, não pela teoria em si, mas pelo fato de que a sociedade sempre se apega aos modelos prontos, sem questionar ou contextualizar historicamente sua funcionalidade. Desta forma, com efeito, no qual carrega todo sistema sem distinção, na medida em que consistia em uma verdadeira exacerbação do racionalismo, ao mesmo tempo, se deu o seu ponto de partida para o “declínio”. É então a partir do início do século XX que começam a tornarem-se visíveis as consequências destrutivas da exacerbação do pensamento racionalista. As intervenções ambientais indistintamente por este Ser que acredita ser Deus, vão acumulando, na forma de riscos naturais por meio de suas consequências deletérias e ao mesmo tempo ele vai se distanciando do contato intimista e subjetivo (sinais) com a natureza, culminando assim nos desastres ambientais de grandes proporções no mundo Pós-Modernos, que aqui chamamos de catarses ambientais em forma de barragens.  Why is Logical Thinking (reason) Collapsing in our Heads? Environmental Catharses in the form of Dams A B S T R A C TWith the advent of rationalism, with René Descartes as one of its main precursors, emerges a new model of thinking about the world, putting logical thinking above any question. The ideas of René Descartes influenced several thinkers, among them the Dutchman Spinoza and the German Leibniz. Leibniz was a philosopher, mathematician, and politician. Given this undeniable social and philosophical contribution to the Modern world, it is a fact that the contemporary unfoldings of method and rationality have brought negative consequences to Postmodern society, not by the theory itself, but by the fact that society always clings to models without questioning and historically contextualizing their functionality. As all the system carries its own germ of destruction, insofar as it consisted in a true exacerbation of rationalism, at the same time, it became the starting point for the "decline". It is at the beginning of the twentieth century when the destructive consequences of the exacerbation of rationalist thinking start to become visible. The environmental interventions indistinctly made by this Being that believes himself to be God, accumulate in the form of natural risks through its deleterious consequences and at the same time distances itself from intimate and subjective contact (signs) with nature, culminating in the environmental disasters of great proportions in the Post-Modern world, hereby called environmental catharsis in the form of dams.Keywords: rationalism; Rene Descartes; environmental disasters; dams.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9s3 ◽  
pp. 11-27
Author(s):  
Carmen Hassoun Abou Jaoude ◽  
Daniele Rugo

This article focuses on the �hidden public culture� formed by individual memories of violent conflicts, with particular reference to the Lebanese Civil War (1975�90). Taking memory as a terrain through which individuals can contest authoritarian governance and repressive memory scripts, the article argues that personal memories of ordinary citizens can contribute to illuminate the power relations that structure war memorialisations. Through a series of interviews, the article analyses militia practices in a small town in North Metn to challenge the idea that militias were merely defending a territory from external enemies. Militia abuses against the populations they were meant to defend during the Civil War are also used as a starting point to reflect on Lebanon�s present. This case study is then used as a starting point to advocate for the use of personal memories in the research of violent conflicts as a way to broaden our understanding of conflict�s lived experiences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Arias ◽  
Carlos A. Trujillo

Increasing and promoting recycling is crucial to achieving sustainable consumption. However, this is a complex task that involves the interplay of beliefs, knowledge and situational factors in ways not yet understood. This study examines a spill-over model in which perceived consumer effectiveness influences the adoption of an easy task (carrying reusable shopping bags) and that, in turn, influences recycling. Using data from a national survey with a representative sample of 1286 respondents in Colombia, we test a hypothesized path using a mediation model. Our results suggest that the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and recycling is mediated by the use of reusable shopping bags. Thus, once the adoption of simple pro-environmental behavior is triggered by pro-environmental beliefs, spillover effects may ensue to favor the adoption of recycling behavior. This suggests that individuals may adopt pro-environmental behavior in stages or levels. Therefore, focusing on behaviors that require less effort (e.g., reducing/reusing) could be a starting point when it comes to encouraging the adoption of other behaviors that demand a greater level of effort such as recycling. This study suggests that attitudinal variables can be the starting point of spill-over effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neda Tiraieyari ◽  
Roya Karami ◽  
Robert Ricard ◽  
Mohammad Badsar

Limited studies have investigated the relative influence of both external and internal factors in the implementation of community-based urban agriculture (UA) (ICUA). Furthermore, little research exists explaining how different mechanisms might influence urban residents’ decision to participate in UA. Our research tested the direct effect of several predictors on ICUA using structural equational modelling. In addition, we tested the mediation effect between the predictors and the ICUA that may exist as well. Results are based on data from 200 agricultural professionals in the Zanjan province in northwest Iran. We found that “personal characteristics”, “UA positive and negative consequences”, “sociocultural”, and “economic” factors affect ICUA. Among all factors, “personal characteristics” had the strongest direct effect on ICUA. The indirect model incorporating “attitude” provided support for the mediation model. We found “personal characteristics”, “UA positive and negative consequences”, and “sociocultural” influenced ICUA indirectly through “attitude.” Among all factors, “sociocultural” had the strongest indirect effect on ICUA. This information is of use to policy-makers and program planners in identifying points of policy interventions and mechanisms for promoting UA.


Author(s):  
David Hildebrand

Sixty-five years after John Dewey’s last publication, there is an enormous literature interpreting, criticizing, and developing his pragmatism. Some working this vein are called “pragmatists,” while others are variously named “neopragmatists,” “new pragmatists,” and “linguistic pragmatists.” In general, the latter groups (a) focus more upon language, truth, and logic; (b) minimize or eschew talk of “experience”; (c) incline more toward professional, intraphilosophy dialogue rather than practical, extra-philosophy dialogue. Whither Dewey? What are the newer pragmatisms’ impacts on his reception and interpretation? What opportunities or obstacles are presented? Which among Dewey’s original insights still shine with signal importance? This chapter first considers the two most important neopragmatists, Richard Rorty and Robert Brandom, giving the largest space to Brandom. It concludes with Dewey, arguing that his melioristic, experiential starting point remains central and, indeed, indispensable to any pragmatism wishing to connect with everyday ethical, social, and political realities.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Davoren ◽  
Eugene G Breen ◽  
Brendan D Kelly

AbstractDr Adeline (Ada) English (1875-1944) was a pioneering Irish psychiatrist. She qualified in medicine in 1903 and spent four decades working at Ballinasloe District Lunatic Asylum, during which time there were significant therapeutic innovations (eg. occupational therapy, convulsive treatment). Dr English was deeply involved in Irish politics. She participated in the Easter Rising (1916); spent six months in Galway jail for possessing nationalistic literature (1921); was elected as a Teachta Dála (member of Parliament; 1921); and participated in the Civil War (1922). She made significant contributions to Irish political life and development of psychiatric services during an exceptionally challenging period of history. Additional research would help contextualise her contributions further.


Author(s):  
Richard King

This article includes literature (principally fiction, but also poetry, spoken drama, opera, and popular performances), cultural policy and debate, and the history of the Communist Party’s relations with cultural intellectuals for the years 1942–1976. The starting point is Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong’s “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art,” delivered in May 1942, when China was politically divided and at war with Japan, and the period ends with Mao’s death in September 1976, an event closely followed by the arrest of his widow and her closest associates in a coup the following month. Mao’s “Talks” set the tone for the entire period, demanding the subordination of the arts to the Party’s mission as currently defined, and insisting that culture serve the Party’s constituency of “workers, peasants, and soldiers.” The “Talks,” variously interpreted, remained Party policy through the civil war period (1945–1949), and following the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. The new communist state established a Soviet Union–style cultural bureaucracy, and the most fortunate writers, performers, and artists were rewarded with official recognition and state sponsorship; also imported from the Soviet Union was the doctrine of socialist realism, with its requirement for loyalist and heroic works celebrating the nation’s prospective progress along the road to the glorious future of communism. Throughout the Mao era, the authorities sought to sponsor a new socialist Chinese culture, with varying degrees of tolerance for indigenous traditions and Western influence. The Communist Party and its leader believed in the power of the arts to support, and in the wrong hands to undermine, the cause of socialism; Mao intervened periodically in cultural matters, and many of the political campaigns that disrupted the period had cultural components. The effect of mercurial and often vindictive policy changes on writers and artists could be devastating: the Anti-Rightist campaign of the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution of Mao’s last decade (1966–1976) saw the persecution of many of the nation’s leading cultural figures; virtually no writer or artist had an uninterrupted career. Chinese cultural histories customarily view the Yan’an and civil war period as distinct, and they divide the period from 1949 to 1976 into the seventeen years before 1966 and the Cultural Revolution decade that followed. Although this periodization overstates the discontinuity of cultural policy and artistic output, it will be observed for convenience here. A note on Romanization: English-language publications from China prior to 1979 use a modified, and inefficient, version of the now little-used Wade-Giles Romanization; after 1979, Chinese publishers converted to the now conventional pinyin Romanization. For Western scholarship or translations, the transition from Wade-Giles (in its more precise form) to pinyin took place at around the same time.


2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 320-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Staake ◽  
Frédéric Thiesse ◽  
Elgar Fleisch

PurposeTrade in counterfeit goods is perceived as a substantial threat to various industries. No longer is the emergence of imitation products confined to branded luxury goods and final markets. Counterfeit articles are increasingly finding their way into other sectors, including the fast‐moving consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries – with, in part, severe negative consequences for consumers, licit manufacturers, and brand owners alike. This paper seeks to shed light on the economic principles of counterfeit trade and the underlying illicit supply chains.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive literature review was conducted that comprised contributions from different strands of management research.FindingsThough governments as well as management have clearly identified the problem, very little is known – both in practice and theory – about the mechanisms and structure of the illicit market, the tactics of counterfeit producers, consumer behavior with respect to imitation products and the financial impact on individual companies. The diversity of the counterfeit phenomenon underlines the need for further research in this area and the development of company‐specific measures for fighting product piracy.Research limitations/implicationsThe clandestine nature of the counterfeit market limits direct accessibility to the phenomenon. Consequently, the existing body of literature does not necessarily cover all aspects of counterfeit activities. The review helps to highlight existing research gaps but may not be able to identify additional aspects of the phenomenon that, thus far, have not been deemed relevant.Originality/valueThe paper critically reviews the current state of research across different management‐related disciplines. From an academic perspective it may serve as a starting point for a future research agenda that addresses the current knowledge gaps. From a practitioner's perspective it is helpful for understanding the relevant influence factors and for developing appropriate, state‐of‐the‐art counterstrategies.


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