February 10: Getting to the Table

Carpenter and Kennedy Ch. 5 "Designing a Strategy..."

This chapter addressed "designing a strategy and setting up the conflict management program". In the chapter, Carpenter and Kennedy talk about ways of designing the best strategy for managing a conflict and then go into detail about how to set up a program to actually start the management process. Designing the strategy involves analyzing the conflict, creating a goal for management, deciding on the best type of meeting structure, determining parties and participants, and considering issues that surround the process. Setting up the program can be extremely time consuming and requires a lot of preparation. There are many details that must be considered, such as the role of the media, funding, and paperwork. The authors argue that the first meeting is vital for the entire process because it is when parties may decide whether or not they are willing to invest any more time in the program.
I found this chapter interesting, though in some areas almost too detail-laden. It was hard for me to understand the main concepts when the authors were talking about exactly what needs to be done with paperwork and press releases. Although I thought all of the information was important, I thought it might be easier if the authors separated the details out from the basic groundwork. At the same time, this approach did make me think about how much is involved in conflict management and really how complicated the process can be. I thought it was interesting to compare this chapter to the one by Moore because, as pointed out by Reimann, terminology and concepts in the field of conflict resolution are so easy to mix up. Although Moore and Carpenter and Kennedy use many of the same concepts, Moore is addressing mediation as the main subject and Carpenter and Kennedy address mediation as almost a rarity.

Moore. Defining Issues and Setting an Agenda (2003). The Mediation Process. Ch 9. pg 232-251

In this chapter, Moore talks about how to define the issues that are involved in a conflict and how to set up an agenda for mediating a conflict. He contrasts between consensual and dissensual conflicts which are interest and value-related respectively. The author talks about how to reframe issues in order to try to find the best solution for both parties. This involves taking out negative or biased language and also trying to find ways in which different parties' viewpoints may coincide. Moore gives eight different types of agendas one can follow in the mediation process: (1) ad hoc, (2) simple agenda, (3) alternation of issues, (4) ranking by importance, (5) principled agenda, (6) “easier items first,” (7) building-block or contingent agenda, and (8) trade—offs or packaging. He finishes by talking about the importance of mediators trying to understand and apply the cultural norms of the parties involved in conflict if they want to be successful in developing the best framing of issues and planning of agenda for the specific situation.
I think this article provides a lot of useful information for beginning the mediation process. Setting up an agenda seems like a daunting task because there are so many variables to take into consideration. I like the eight different types of agendas Moore presents because they seem like good basic frameworks for situational agenda development. I also thought that the examples provided by Moore about immersing oneself in the culture of the parties involved in the conflict very helpful. The example about psychologists wanting to talk about their feelings made me realize that different cultures can be found in subsets across the general population and that this fact is extremely important to keep in mind.