The mediation meta-model: The realities of mediation practice

• Main Author: ALEXANDER, Nadja
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
• Subjects: Mediation; models; Australia; mediator styles; Dispute Resolution and Arbitration
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1884; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/3836/viewcontent/MediationMetaModel_2011_ADRB.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this article, I expand on the literature and present a meta-model for thinking about mediation practice. The Mediation Meta-Model is a structure for identifying different mediation approaches and how they relate to one other. It makes no claim to universal application. Rather, it offers a conceptual road-map for an increasingly complex and sophisticated array of practices which share the name mediation. The theoretical foundations and analysis for the Meta-Model have been included in previous work (2008).It is well known in Australian mediation circles that mediation practice does not always correspond to the dominant facilitative training model—even though, on the face of it, the formal accreditation of mediators might suggest otherwise. In 2003 judicial attention was drawn to non-facilitative mediation practices in the case of Tapoohi v Lewenberg. The case demonstrated that differences in mediator styles matter as an issue of professional practice.