Conflict Mediation and the Postmodern: Chaos, Catastrophe, and Psychoanalytic Semiotics
Author(s)
Schehr, Robert C.; Milovanovic, Dragan
Abstract
In this essay, we contend that conventional conflict resolution methods – those articulated by Fisher (1991) as conciliation, consultation, arbitration and mediation with muscle, and peacekeeping – will continue to prove to be only partially effective in calming disquiet and new directions must be sought. There are five pri’Marchy reasons for the shortcomings: the privileging of hierarchical representations, the supposition of order, the celebration of the ideal speech situation and consensus dynamics, the continuous encroachment of legal discourse at the expense of alternative discourses, and, finally, the lack of connected strategies between the macro and micro domains.
