Book Review: Mediation in Context

Reviewed by Martin Wright , Mediation UK.

As a former probation officer, victim support worker, and director of Mediation UK, Marian Liebmann is well equipped to compile the wide-ranging topics found in Mediation in Context. The chapters outline the development of mediation in different contexts, establishment of a service, the practice of the process in the different fields, and case studies. This latter includes cases where mediation did not have a positive outcome or was not possible. 

Liebmann herself gives a short overview of community-based, commercial and official mediation services in the United Kingdom, from the 1960s.  At least three organizations provide family mediation, with some cooperation. The area of peer mediation is discussed in two chapters, one on primary schools and the other on secondary schools. The area of community mediation is similarly divided into urban, rural and American – the later ranging across several types of mediation.   

The area of criminal justice includes victim/offender mediation and family group conferencing. The sections on mediation generally cover one-to-one or indirect (shuttle diplomacy).  Family group conferencing emphasizes the victim’s needs, while covering the “New Zealand” and “Australian Models” and their application in Britain. 

Dispute resolution has long been used in the work place.  Its advantages over standard grievance and disciplinary processes are explored. ACAS (advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service) uses its distinctive procedures to resolve disputes in employment disputes. Other workplace contexts are often handled by free-lance mediators.   In commercial mediation somewhat different ADR (alternative dispute resolution) procedures are used.   

Other special situations include mediation in a medical context, for older, disabled and mentally frail persons, and in environmental conflicts (with emphasis on consensus building). Finally, the veteran international mediator Adam Curle contributes a chapter in mediation in situations of large-scale violence – timely as the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, has just announced that it plans to develop conflict resolution in troubled countries – though it remains to be seen whether large, powerful countries will confine themselves to the non-coercive, enabling philosophy of mediation upheld by most of the contributors to this book.   

Recommended as an introductory text, or for mediators wanting information from outside their own field.

August  2001