They provide opportunities for us to reconnect to and participate in our
immediate
communities.
The Public Work of Rhetoric_nodrm
Miller
invention. Such thinking suggests an unproblematized concern for consen- sus that tends to isolate conflicts from broader contexts that raise complicated issues that may require mediators to confront broader inequities and hierar- chies. For example, Getting to Yes offers four strategies--such as "separate the people from the problem" and "focus on interests, not positions"--to help disputants reconcile differences in order to reach agreement. 18 Even though these suggestions are oriented to mediating differences rather than winning out over others, these collaborative strategies mirror recent attempts to adapt classical rhetoric to a more liberal orientation on learning. They are con- cerned with solving problems, not with changing situations or using the col- laborative process as an opportunity to explore the potentials of collective action among people who may face problems not of their own making. As a result, integrative as well as distributive mediation strategies tend to manage conflicts in ways that do not challenge prevailing assumptions or help groups develop social capital through productive collaborations, and thereby develop coalitions to advance broader changes.
Such mediation practices may help people improve their immediate situations but may not help them understand the conditions that led to the conflicts. In fact, some resolution strategies are specifically intended to help people focus on the immediate problem and ignore broader factors. Concern for solving immediate problems is pushed to the forefront, eliminating chances to learn the broader contributing factors. Because agreement is the main goal, mediators do not focus on developing disputants' abilities to develop a sense of common cause. Some mediation practitioners, however, do attempt to ad- dress underlying inequities by envisioning conflict resolution not as a means to an immediate end but as part of a broader process concerned with enabling communities to discover the inventive capacities of their shared traditions and build up social capital by working through collaborations.
The most popular alternative approach is known as "transformative medi- ation. " It is guided by a vision of collaboration as a means to help people gain more control over their situations and create alternative resolutions. This school of conflict mediation was developed by Robert Bush and Joseph Fol- ger and articulated in their The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict through Empowerment and Recognition and their revised version, The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict. These texts redefine the mediation process and mediator roles and provide case studies and commen- taries concerned with helping mediators to serve as collaborative educators by emphasizing relationship building over settlement. Bush, Rains Distinguished Professor of Alternative Dispute Resolution Law at Hofstra University School of Law, and Folger, professor of Adult and Organizational Development at Temple University, offer a vision of mediation that moves beyond contempo- rary mediators' desires to increase satisfaction with dispute resolution or provide collective opportunities for community members. Transformative
mediators treat conflict not as something that must be solved but as an opportunity to change disputants' interpretive schema. This approach opens up opportunities for mediations to position the particular problem in broader contexts and try to provide a constructive atmosphere where disputants can air shared needs.
Perhaps the most important characteristic of transformative mediation is its redefinition of the purposes at issue in conflicted situations. The goal is not resolution, or agreement, but transformation. According to Bush and Fol- ger, "transformation" does not refer to a general reallocation of resources or restructuring of schema but a "change in the quality of social interaction, in and beyond conflict. "19 Transformative mediators attempt to change the way people understand conflict from negative and destructive to instructive and creative. Once disputants recognize conflict as "an emergent, dynamic phe- nomenon, in which parties can--and do--move and shift," they are more willing to participate in generative invention processes. 20 Disputants learn to appreciate the mediation process as an opportunity to expand inventive strate- gies by collaborating with others. Consistent with this framework, transfor- mative mediation offers a practical framework for improving people's strategies for addressing conflicts. Similar to problem-solving mediators, transformative mediators follow a general outline; however, transformative mediators expand invention strategies by pursuing four different goals: released process control in which disputants learn how to learn from conflict, expanded information gathering that may open up broader avenues of thinking about the issue, improved collaboration through recognizing mutual constraints and shared needs, and personal shifts in viewpoint that may arise as people learn that what may have appeared to be interpersonal conflicts arise from the struc- tures of situations or the assumptions imposed upon them.
By beginning with questions about how the mediation process should pro- ceed, transformative mediators seek to enable the sort of collaborative inven- tion processes that LeFevre has studied. Whereas problem-solving mediators begin by setting out a formal multistage process, transformative mediators delegate control of the process to disputants. As explained by Bush and Fol- ger, mediators "let the parties know that they can design the process as it unfolds. "21 Much as critical pedagogues begin by challenging students to become more actively involved in shaping assignments and expectations, dis- putants are encouraged to envision the situation as they see fit and bring in cultural values and social practices from their backgrounds that might foster a more collaborative environment. For example, because disputants control introductions, they can frame a conflict by acknowledging significant moral beliefs that affect their perspective and the purposes they envision. By creat- ing a participatory environment, transformative mediators attempt to open up the situation to encourage participants to articulate how their stance is consistent with the beliefs of the groups with which they identify. Through
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these broader identifications, participants can tap into commonplaces and topoi that may serve as productive resources for rethinking the issues at hand. Reframing conflicts in these ways can enable people to understand how oth- ers think and why they have acted as they have. At the same time, the speak- ers are presented with opportunities to reflect upon how well their traditional assumptions speak to the situation and their changing needs.
The four transformative criteria--released process control, expanded in- formation-gathering, improved collaboration, and personal shifts--expand disputants' discovery processes: by gaining control of the mediation process, disputants can identify concerns and topics specific to their situation; through expanded information-gathering processes, disputants include personal and community values; empowerment and recognition help disputants both re- gain control and acknowledge others; and increased collaboration parallels the dialectic nature of communication. These criteria provide a "rhetorical" sense of mediating differences that has heuristic power in thinking about work in the community and its relevance for broader trends in rhetoric and composition. Instead of simply attempting to resolve disputes, transforma- tive mediation attempts to create a space where disputants can think through their differences to put them to practical use, and not simply to rise above them (as presumed by traditional civic models). This approach has been highly successful in the U. S. Postal Service's national REDRESS mediation program-- a program that has been described by the New York Times as "one of the most ambitious experiments in dispute resolution in American corporate history"-- by creating opportunities for postal employees to control their disputes and participate in the outcomes. 22 Practiced across the country in many of our communities, transformative mediation offers a proven method being that can lead to an improved connection between rhetoric and social change.
A Place for Rhetoric--Tucson's Our Family Community Mediation Center
Whereas academic scholarship in rhetoric and composition locates places for rhetoric in community writing centers and various genres of public discourse, academics find difficulty speaking the same language as community mem- bers. Linda Flower and Julia Deems explain how rhetorical principles from sources such as Aristotle or Perelman carry an "air of book learning" in com- munity settings that can make the principles seem impractical. 23 Additional distractions can arise from class projects and service-learning programs that have a missionary ethos of helping out those in need. 24 Those in rhetoric and composition who are involved with community outreach have struggled to overcome such presuppositions to develop reciprocal relations with varied community members. The language problems involved can be usefully ad- dressed by principles of transformative conflict mediation, which are grounded in concerted efforts to help communities not just resolve but also learn from
their problems. Beyond improving interpersonal understanding, transforma- tive mediation can enable collective action by providing skills that can be applied to situations other than the immediate conflicts. People who develop transformative skills like empowerment, recognition, and increased data col- lection can help their communities develop practical deliberative capacities. Transformative mediation provides valuable transferable skills, not simply to persuade others but also to listen and work with neighbors and members of one's communities in order to act on their shared problems.
Community centers that practice transformative conflict mediation can help to develop people's capacities for collective action. Following upon the landmark Pound Conference of 1976, "Neighborhood Justice Centers" were established in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Kansas City to put transformative mediation into practice. 25 Following the cities' success, mediation centers and organizations like the National Association for Community Mediation (NACM) became more involved in promoting community interests by strengthening individuals' collaborative skills. NACM's mission is "to preserve individual interests while strengthening relationships and building connections between people and groups, and to create processes that make communities work for all. "26 Over 550 community mediation centers are currently mediating some 50,000 cases a year. 27 This direct connection to communities creates oppor- tunities for mediators to improve social invention strategies. It creates spaces where community members can learn how to better understand differences while focusing on immediate issues. Because transformative community medi- ators facilitate improved interpersonal interactions, disputants learn how to create similar spaces for working with differences.
After observing several animal noise complaint mediations in the spring of 2006, we witnessed firsthand how community members have gained skills helpful to better negotiating in their daily lives because they have developed rhetorical strategies that empower them to create change. Disputants trans- formed their conflicted experiences into constructive opportunities to create change. Whereas each mediation session was distinct--ranging from the close quarters of a mobile home park to the homogeneity of suburban gated com- munities to the isolation of open ranch lands in the foothills--and the var- ied sessions required different skills, several common characteristics enabled participants to be successful. Mediations succeeded when people overcame misunderstandings of invention, utilized positive physical spaces in which to interact, and developed framing strategies that increased their ability to nego- tiate differences.
First, disputants learned to work beyond narrow conceptions of the inven- tive possibilities of conflicts. When explorations of assumptions and needs are confined to the initial stage of the collaborative process, disputants tend to assume that they have thought through the problem and the issue is how to get others to agree with them, as is the case in distributive models of conflict
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mediation. This narrow conception of invention has been perpetuated, as Jim Corder suggests in Uses of Rhetoric, by assumptions that invention precedes deliberation. If the process is divided into five phases (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery), then people tend to assume that one phase pre- cedes the others. People do not anticipate that the process is recursive and not linear. For Corder, such assumptions of "sequentiality" limit people's abil- ity to improve communication by rethinking their intentions. 28 Prior to meet- ing at OF, disputants tended to assume that the purpose of mediation is to support and defend specific arguments. For example, in a lengthy and con- tentious mediation between a young couple and a retired U. S. serviceman about three large dogs, disputants had a difficult time working together be- cause they were obsessed with assigning blame. They constantly referred to evidence such as tape recordings, photographs, and personal research, and they read prewritten narrations of their experiences. Once they realized that the process of arguing back and forth was leading nowhere, they become more interested in rethinking their positions.
Second, disputants learned the values of the using the mediation process to step back from their conflicted relations and interact more constructively. The mediation space enabled them to assume different roles and relations. Because boundaries such as property lines and privacy walls often separate people's public and private lives, people are accustomed to dividing their interpersonal interactions. In a growing metropolis such as Tucson, residents are often separated from their immediate communities. Be it on open ranch lands or in trailer parks, disputants often understand private space in ways that limit their opportunities to interact productively. Using the "living room" model of spatial organization that places disputants on equal footing, trans- formative mediation sessions take place in a comfortable room where partici- pants sit close to each other and chairs are arranged in a semicircle with no structures or tables acting as dividers. Consequently, brainstorming sessions are highly interactive and foster collaboration. When a whiteboard is used, mediators do not dichotomize issues by dividing sides but instead use writing as a collaborative product. For example, during collective brainstorming ses- sions, mediators record disputants' suggestions in the middle of the board, without dividing the sides. In one vertical column, disputants' ideas exist together as they share the process of invention.
Within their communities, individuals can collaborate in spaces where they can mutually discuss issues and create change. In these spaces different ideas gain capital through what LeFevre describes as "resonance," a term she borrows from Harold Laswell. 29 As LeFevre explains, "Resonance comes about when an individual act--a 'vibration'--is intensified and prolonged by sym- pathetic vibrations . . . when people provide a supportive social and intel- lectual environment that nurtures thought and enables ideas to be received, thus completing the inventive act. "30 Resonance, therefore, results from direct
and indirect communication. OF mediators create environments that support resonance by establishing collaboration. Oftentimes this involves reminding individuals of who their audience really is--each other. For example, within several minutes of a mediation session involving retirees who had severed all communication among each other, OF mediators often reminded the dis- putants that they should talk to each other instead of talking to the media- tor. Once people begin addressing each other, they become more capable of working together. Recognition of the other party immediately changes peo- ple's tone as they begin to take control of their own situations.
Finally, disputants learned the importance of framing and reframing con- flicts. In conflict mediations, analyses of frames and efforts to reframe issues can help people construct more productive ways of seeing a problem. Refram- ing, as explained by Kovach, helps mediators explain "the disputed issues of the parties in more neutral manner, in such a way that the parties begin to focus on potential outcomes. "31 OF mediators reframe issues in order to clar- ify points and help people gain alternative perspectives, to filter out negative language and select more neutral terms so that disputants can see a situation differently. Successful reframing helps disputants shift their interpretive schema, and such shifts often form turning points in collaborations. As Beer and Steif discuss, at such a point disputants gain new perspective and begin to see through a different lens: they "shift from presenting their conflict as stories and positions to viewing the situation as a set of specific interests, principles, and mediatable issues. "32 As linguist George Lakoff explains, re- framing is an important step in creating change because reframing changes how people see the world: "It is changing what counts as common sense. "33 Community mediation centers are important sites for creating such change. Community centers like OF help people develop skills that they can use in their public lives. Transformative mediation--as it is practiced at OF--helps participants reenvision rhetoric as a mode of collective deliberation and con- flict mediation. Such sites have much to teach us about how to reframe our own concerns in ways that might be more broadly useful to our students, for the collaborative inquiries at OF provide frameworks for thinking about argu- ment, inquiry, and purpose in ways that can help us break out of the con- straints that have come to be assumed in rhetoric and composition classes.
Transformative Mediation in the Classroom
To contribute to efforts to integrate outreach into instruction, we want to sketch out how scenario-based classroom assignments can help students de- velop strategies to engage in conflict mediation and other community learn- ing processes. Working with scenarios in the classroom is not an alternative to service-learning assignments, but it can be a useful complement to them. By centering the class on a shared deliberative process, teachers and students can gain experience in working with the practical strategies and ethical issues
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that are likely to come up in community-based learning activities. By work- ing with each other in collaborative learning scenarios, students can gain skills such as empowerment and recognition while developing improved invention strategies vital to their academic success and civic literacies. Based on experi- ences from OF mediations, these two scenarios provide students with oppor- tunities to collaborate and practice important rhetorical skills, which can then be developed through service-learning assignments, internships, and other collaborations beyond the classroom.
"Showdown in Superior! "
"Showdown in Superior! " was a set of course-long assignments developed with three collaborating classes at the University of Arizona in the fall of 2005. 34 Several writing instructors created a scenario to have students work together to resolve a community dispute. Codesigned by Erik Juergensmeyer, David Reamer, and Brian Jackson, the unit combined an honors first-year composition class with business and technical writing classes to deliberate upon a regional mining issue in Superior, Arizona, a town that is two hours away from the University of Arizona campus. The curriculum asked students to work together and research, present, and deliberate upon how the mining issue will affect the town's residents. Students wrote such assignments as researched essays, letters to the editor, pamphlets, Web sites, and so on. These writings were circulated among the three classes in preparation for a mock town hall meeting. At the end of the semester, all three classes met together in a large lecture hall, presented their cases through PowerPoint presentations and public speeches, discussed the different issues and affected groups, and eventually voted on whether to support the copper company's mining pro- posal.
All three classes had distinct roles in the project. The technical writing class represented a local copper company looking to extract copper from Superior's vast reserves. As representatives of the mining company, they pre- pared Web sites, brochures, newsletters, and oral presentations that blended technical information with reasoned arguments encouraging the townspeo- ple to approve the mining project. Students who took on these roles were put in the position of defending their positions amid opposition from special interest groups and demonstrating their goodwill. Students in Erik's business writing class took on the role of several special interest groups that opposed the mining company's bid. Role-playing as local and national groups, stu- dents prepared professional documents arguing against permitting the min- ing project in Superior. They discussed their sides with employees of the copper company and attempted to convince town residents that they too were concerned with the town's best interests. Finally, the first-year honors class assumed the role of the townspeople of Superior. As townspeople, they wrote imaginary letters to Superior's newspaper, speeches for the town hall
meeting, and researched reports advocating that the town pursue a specific course of action.
During the semester, the students' deliverables were both engaged and specific. In Erik's business writing class, for example, student groups created fictitious organizations and focused on realistic viewpoints within a commu- nity. One group interested in studying law established the RACB (an acronym derived from students' first names) law firm, "a local law firm that has been serving the citizens and businesses of Superior since October 2005," "a small agency with a big mission and a lot of ground to cover. " After researching the specific geographical and environmental components of the mine proposal, RACB immediately identified their focus on a brochure intended for indiffer- ent townspeople: "We are committed to preserving Oak Flat Campground, Devil's Canyon, Queen Creek Canyon and Apache Leap for the benefit of this and future generations. " RACB espoused a mission of equal importance: "We are working in the best interest of the city of Superior, providing knowledge and education to its citizens. "
Another student group, operating under the acronym SAERG (Southern Arizona Economic Resources Group), focused on citizens of the town of Supe- rior opposed to the mining project. In an informational brochure, students of SAERG implored citizens to be more active in their community beliefs. Under a section entitled "What you can do," they provided several steps:
If you believe that RCC [Resolution Cooper Corporation] has no business in your town, then vote "No" in the town hall meeting next week. Now is the time to take a stand and fight. Here are a few things you can do:
Spread the word! Tell your friends and family about the economic dangers of the RCC project. Urge them to spread the word.
Make your voice known. There are many ways in which you can partner up with local or national interest groups that will side with you against RCC. Rally your fellow citizens, start a petition, do whatever it takes.
For students in SAERG, civic participation involves both negotiating through community interests and developing integrative skills that can help town citizens mobilize their interests. It also involves actively participating in community discourse and conflict.
The semester-long project culminated in a mock town hall meeting where all three groups, who had been exchanging research and documents, met for the first time and discussed their differing positions. Following PowerPoint presentations from the students role-playing as the mining company and special interest groups, members from all three classes joined small group collaborative sessions to discuss the issues in further detail. These groups of approximately twenty-five students (roughly one-third from each class) offered
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physical spaces for people to discuss the different positions and further ex- plain why they took their specific views on the mining proposal. Similar to the mediation rooms at OF, these spaces created opportunities for role-players both to collect data and recognize others' needs. After deliberations, all classes reconvened, and the townspeople took the stage, where they discussed what they had learned from talking one-on-one with the interest group and min- ing company representatives. Attempting to persuade their peers, different townspeople explained their sides and eventually voted for an appropriate course of action--in this case, opposing the mining company's bid.
"Showdown in Superior! " created an opportunity for the transformation of both invention and collaboration strategies. It provided a comfortable environment for students to discuss their different views and listen to their opponents in order to resolve conflicts. With the townspeople serving as medi- ators, the small group deliberative sessions paralleled transformative media- tion sessions where people control the agenda and discuss whatever issues they think are relevant to the case at hand. Modeled after the transformative principle of avoiding caucusing, these sessions created a place where inven- tion is not limited to the beginning of one's arguments and people can work together to actually invent new understandings and resolutions. Students both became empowered through documents and presentations and also recog- nized others by working together and listening to alternative views on their issues--views expressed by real people seated next to them. They learned con- flict resolution strategies that will help them examine and better negotiate their differences.
Breaking through the Border
Building on their experiences in "Showdown in Superior! " Erik Juergens- meyer and David Reamer joined with colleague Leslie Dupont to create another scenario designed to foster transformative mediation and rhetorical invention in a border town. Occurring during fall 2006, "Breaking through the Border" asked professional writing students to research, represent, and collaboratively discuss current issues at the Mexico-Arizona border, with par- ticular consideration of how these issues affect Tucson residents. Students con- fronted challenging issues that were both close to their lives and represented potentially intractable conflicts--scenarios where they could apply transforma- tive mediation strategies to create change. Ultimately, students had to suggest a specific course of action, such as increased border security or humanitarian support, that would influence local and state agencies. Students from Erik's business writing class researched and represented issues from the border de- bate based on their social impact on Tucson citizens. Representing different groups, these students created mission statements, brochures, and informa- tional letters detailing their claims. Students from David's technical writing class researched and represented issues based on their economic impact on
Tucson citizens. Representing different groups, these students created bro- chures and Web pages detailing their claims. Student's from Leslie's business writing class, role-playing as professional writers commissioned to write a proposal to the legislature, read and listened to the other classes' sides and created proposals attempting to represent as many interests as possible.
Throughout the semester, students from all classes met in two "forums" where they discussed their different research and attempted to influence final proposals. At the first forum meeting, David's and Erik's students presented on social and economic impacts in the hopes of convincing Leslie's students that their particular views of the border issue were relevant. Following Power- Point presentations, students joined small group deliberative sessions in order to further discuss their presentations and answer any questions that might have arisen. At the second forum meeting, Leslie's students presented their proposals to David's and Erik's students, who hoped to have their views rep- resented. David's and Erik's students voted on which proposal best represented the border dispute. Building on the previous project's strengths and address- ing its weakness, "Breaking through the Border" focused more on collabora- tion and open invention. Most important, we eschewed the town hall model used in "Showdown" because we believed it created a physical space that encouraged division and competition as the townspeople became consumed with critically analyzing each side's research. We instead designed two forum meetings where students presented and discussed their research with the hopes of influencing others' work. Whereas the one meeting of "Showdown" culminated in a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote, the forums of "Breaking" espoused a generative and informational environment. Students provided research to their peers and used data gathering and collaboration as ways to expand invention. We also realized that assigning sides to the two classes in Showdown (pro- or antimining) was too prescriptive. So, for "Breaking" we let students create their own groups. Whereas we restricted one class to "social" and one to "economic" impact to avoid repetition, we found students more invested in their arguments as they represented their personal beliefs. They were also more creative as they could research different viewpoints and pro- posals to create their side and proposed course of action. Enabling open in- vention of groups expanded "the pie" by letting students create possible solutions that were not confined to our categories.
When questioned about the project's strengths in a follow-up question- naire, students described "a sense of purpose with assignments," an appreci- ation for "working together in a group and doing good research together," and a "fun atmosphere [that] provided for learning and using collaboration while recognizing a specific audience. " Several even suggested the experience was "exciting. " Finally, when asked about what was learned in "Showdown," one student noticed an increased ability to "find relevant points in any side I choose to take and different ways of looking at the given information. "35
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Similar to the comfortable spaces of mediation, the nonhierarchical settings of "Showdown in Superior! " and "Breaking through the Barriers"--places where students sat together during presentations and collaborated face-to- face in small group deliberative sessions--created valuable experiences for learning how to be both rhetors and citizens. By creating similar projects, teachers can connect students to community issues, helping them negotiate through the conflicts that often limit collective action.
Conclusion
In the realm of public dispute resolution, rhetoric both provides useful frame- works for approaching conflicts as well as specific strategies for improving people's abilities to resolve those conflicts. Looking at mediation through the lens of rhetorical invention can improve conflict resolution strategies. Like- wise, similar to many of the most useful dimensions of rhetoric, conflict resolution provides new ways to understand the rhetorical tradition and its applications in the classroom as well as community. Our positions as teach- ers of rhetoric and composition do more than help us profess important communication and persuasive skills.
They provide opportunities for us to reconnect to and participate in our immediate communities. These connec- tions can help us challenge the misconceptions that have limited our ways of discovering solutions to conflicted situations. By focusing on invention and its possibilities for improving conflict resolution practices, we are better equipped to demonstrate how the arts of rhetoric move beyond mere persua- sion and create increased opportunities for social change.
Notes
1. Poole, "When Neighbors Collide. "
2. "Our Family Services," para. 7.
3. "Our Family Services, Programs. "
4. "Our Family Services, Community Mediation," para. 1. 5. Poole, "When Neighbors Collide. "
6. Kelly, "Taxpayer Watch," para. 4.
7. Lloyd-Jones, "Rhetoric and Conflict," 173. 8. Burke, Rhetoric of Motives.
9. LeFevre, Invention, 65.
10. Corder, "Varieties. "
11. Teich, Rogerian Perspectives, 3-4. 12. Lewicki et al. , Negotiation, 74. 13. Kovach, Mediation.
14. Fisher, Ury, and Patton, Getting to Yes.
15. Lewicki et al. , Negotiation.
16. Trimbur, "Consensus. "
17. See Flower, "Partners"; Flower and Deems, "Conflict. " 18. Fisher, Ury, and Patton, Getting to Yes, 17-81.
19. Bush and Folger, Transformative Approach, 18. 20. Ibid. , 55.
21. Ibid. , 109.
22. Meece, "Companies Adopting," para. 3.
23. Flower and Deems, "Conflict," 98.
24. Flower, "Partners. "
25. Kovach, Mediation, 21.
26. NACM, "Overview," para. 1.
27. Ibid.
28. Corder, Uses of Rhetoric, esp. 49-50.
29. LeFevre, Invention; Laswell, "Social Setting. " 30. LeFevre, Invention, 65.
31. Kovach, Mediation, 50.
32. Beer and Steif, Handbook, 113.
33. Lakoff, Don't Think, 15.
34. Jackson, Juergensmeyer, and Reamer, "Showdown. " 35. Ibid. , para. 20-22.
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Miller, 171-84. Matweh, N. J. : Erlbaum, 2003.
invention. Such thinking suggests an unproblematized concern for consen- sus that tends to isolate conflicts from broader contexts that raise complicated issues that may require mediators to confront broader inequities and hierar- chies. For example, Getting to Yes offers four strategies--such as "separate the people from the problem" and "focus on interests, not positions"--to help disputants reconcile differences in order to reach agreement. 18 Even though these suggestions are oriented to mediating differences rather than winning out over others, these collaborative strategies mirror recent attempts to adapt classical rhetoric to a more liberal orientation on learning. They are con- cerned with solving problems, not with changing situations or using the col- laborative process as an opportunity to explore the potentials of collective action among people who may face problems not of their own making. As a result, integrative as well as distributive mediation strategies tend to manage conflicts in ways that do not challenge prevailing assumptions or help groups develop social capital through productive collaborations, and thereby develop coalitions to advance broader changes.
Such mediation practices may help people improve their immediate situations but may not help them understand the conditions that led to the conflicts. In fact, some resolution strategies are specifically intended to help people focus on the immediate problem and ignore broader factors. Concern for solving immediate problems is pushed to the forefront, eliminating chances to learn the broader contributing factors. Because agreement is the main goal, mediators do not focus on developing disputants' abilities to develop a sense of common cause. Some mediation practitioners, however, do attempt to ad- dress underlying inequities by envisioning conflict resolution not as a means to an immediate end but as part of a broader process concerned with enabling communities to discover the inventive capacities of their shared traditions and build up social capital by working through collaborations.
The most popular alternative approach is known as "transformative medi- ation. " It is guided by a vision of collaboration as a means to help people gain more control over their situations and create alternative resolutions. This school of conflict mediation was developed by Robert Bush and Joseph Fol- ger and articulated in their The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict through Empowerment and Recognition and their revised version, The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict. These texts redefine the mediation process and mediator roles and provide case studies and commen- taries concerned with helping mediators to serve as collaborative educators by emphasizing relationship building over settlement. Bush, Rains Distinguished Professor of Alternative Dispute Resolution Law at Hofstra University School of Law, and Folger, professor of Adult and Organizational Development at Temple University, offer a vision of mediation that moves beyond contempo- rary mediators' desires to increase satisfaction with dispute resolution or provide collective opportunities for community members. Transformative
mediators treat conflict not as something that must be solved but as an opportunity to change disputants' interpretive schema. This approach opens up opportunities for mediations to position the particular problem in broader contexts and try to provide a constructive atmosphere where disputants can air shared needs.
Perhaps the most important characteristic of transformative mediation is its redefinition of the purposes at issue in conflicted situations. The goal is not resolution, or agreement, but transformation. According to Bush and Fol- ger, "transformation" does not refer to a general reallocation of resources or restructuring of schema but a "change in the quality of social interaction, in and beyond conflict. "19 Transformative mediators attempt to change the way people understand conflict from negative and destructive to instructive and creative. Once disputants recognize conflict as "an emergent, dynamic phe- nomenon, in which parties can--and do--move and shift," they are more willing to participate in generative invention processes. 20 Disputants learn to appreciate the mediation process as an opportunity to expand inventive strate- gies by collaborating with others. Consistent with this framework, transfor- mative mediation offers a practical framework for improving people's strategies for addressing conflicts. Similar to problem-solving mediators, transformative mediators follow a general outline; however, transformative mediators expand invention strategies by pursuing four different goals: released process control in which disputants learn how to learn from conflict, expanded information gathering that may open up broader avenues of thinking about the issue, improved collaboration through recognizing mutual constraints and shared needs, and personal shifts in viewpoint that may arise as people learn that what may have appeared to be interpersonal conflicts arise from the struc- tures of situations or the assumptions imposed upon them.
By beginning with questions about how the mediation process should pro- ceed, transformative mediators seek to enable the sort of collaborative inven- tion processes that LeFevre has studied. Whereas problem-solving mediators begin by setting out a formal multistage process, transformative mediators delegate control of the process to disputants. As explained by Bush and Fol- ger, mediators "let the parties know that they can design the process as it unfolds. "21 Much as critical pedagogues begin by challenging students to become more actively involved in shaping assignments and expectations, dis- putants are encouraged to envision the situation as they see fit and bring in cultural values and social practices from their backgrounds that might foster a more collaborative environment. For example, because disputants control introductions, they can frame a conflict by acknowledging significant moral beliefs that affect their perspective and the purposes they envision. By creat- ing a participatory environment, transformative mediators attempt to open up the situation to encourage participants to articulate how their stance is consistent with the beliefs of the groups with which they identify. Through
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these broader identifications, participants can tap into commonplaces and topoi that may serve as productive resources for rethinking the issues at hand. Reframing conflicts in these ways can enable people to understand how oth- ers think and why they have acted as they have. At the same time, the speak- ers are presented with opportunities to reflect upon how well their traditional assumptions speak to the situation and their changing needs.
The four transformative criteria--released process control, expanded in- formation-gathering, improved collaboration, and personal shifts--expand disputants' discovery processes: by gaining control of the mediation process, disputants can identify concerns and topics specific to their situation; through expanded information-gathering processes, disputants include personal and community values; empowerment and recognition help disputants both re- gain control and acknowledge others; and increased collaboration parallels the dialectic nature of communication. These criteria provide a "rhetorical" sense of mediating differences that has heuristic power in thinking about work in the community and its relevance for broader trends in rhetoric and composition. Instead of simply attempting to resolve disputes, transforma- tive mediation attempts to create a space where disputants can think through their differences to put them to practical use, and not simply to rise above them (as presumed by traditional civic models). This approach has been highly successful in the U. S. Postal Service's national REDRESS mediation program-- a program that has been described by the New York Times as "one of the most ambitious experiments in dispute resolution in American corporate history"-- by creating opportunities for postal employees to control their disputes and participate in the outcomes. 22 Practiced across the country in many of our communities, transformative mediation offers a proven method being that can lead to an improved connection between rhetoric and social change.
A Place for Rhetoric--Tucson's Our Family Community Mediation Center
Whereas academic scholarship in rhetoric and composition locates places for rhetoric in community writing centers and various genres of public discourse, academics find difficulty speaking the same language as community mem- bers. Linda Flower and Julia Deems explain how rhetorical principles from sources such as Aristotle or Perelman carry an "air of book learning" in com- munity settings that can make the principles seem impractical. 23 Additional distractions can arise from class projects and service-learning programs that have a missionary ethos of helping out those in need. 24 Those in rhetoric and composition who are involved with community outreach have struggled to overcome such presuppositions to develop reciprocal relations with varied community members. The language problems involved can be usefully ad- dressed by principles of transformative conflict mediation, which are grounded in concerted efforts to help communities not just resolve but also learn from
their problems. Beyond improving interpersonal understanding, transforma- tive mediation can enable collective action by providing skills that can be applied to situations other than the immediate conflicts. People who develop transformative skills like empowerment, recognition, and increased data col- lection can help their communities develop practical deliberative capacities. Transformative mediation provides valuable transferable skills, not simply to persuade others but also to listen and work with neighbors and members of one's communities in order to act on their shared problems.
Community centers that practice transformative conflict mediation can help to develop people's capacities for collective action. Following upon the landmark Pound Conference of 1976, "Neighborhood Justice Centers" were established in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Kansas City to put transformative mediation into practice. 25 Following the cities' success, mediation centers and organizations like the National Association for Community Mediation (NACM) became more involved in promoting community interests by strengthening individuals' collaborative skills. NACM's mission is "to preserve individual interests while strengthening relationships and building connections between people and groups, and to create processes that make communities work for all. "26 Over 550 community mediation centers are currently mediating some 50,000 cases a year. 27 This direct connection to communities creates oppor- tunities for mediators to improve social invention strategies. It creates spaces where community members can learn how to better understand differences while focusing on immediate issues. Because transformative community medi- ators facilitate improved interpersonal interactions, disputants learn how to create similar spaces for working with differences.
After observing several animal noise complaint mediations in the spring of 2006, we witnessed firsthand how community members have gained skills helpful to better negotiating in their daily lives because they have developed rhetorical strategies that empower them to create change. Disputants trans- formed their conflicted experiences into constructive opportunities to create change. Whereas each mediation session was distinct--ranging from the close quarters of a mobile home park to the homogeneity of suburban gated com- munities to the isolation of open ranch lands in the foothills--and the var- ied sessions required different skills, several common characteristics enabled participants to be successful. Mediations succeeded when people overcame misunderstandings of invention, utilized positive physical spaces in which to interact, and developed framing strategies that increased their ability to nego- tiate differences.
First, disputants learned to work beyond narrow conceptions of the inven- tive possibilities of conflicts. When explorations of assumptions and needs are confined to the initial stage of the collaborative process, disputants tend to assume that they have thought through the problem and the issue is how to get others to agree with them, as is the case in distributive models of conflict
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mediation. This narrow conception of invention has been perpetuated, as Jim Corder suggests in Uses of Rhetoric, by assumptions that invention precedes deliberation. If the process is divided into five phases (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery), then people tend to assume that one phase pre- cedes the others. People do not anticipate that the process is recursive and not linear. For Corder, such assumptions of "sequentiality" limit people's abil- ity to improve communication by rethinking their intentions. 28 Prior to meet- ing at OF, disputants tended to assume that the purpose of mediation is to support and defend specific arguments. For example, in a lengthy and con- tentious mediation between a young couple and a retired U. S. serviceman about three large dogs, disputants had a difficult time working together be- cause they were obsessed with assigning blame. They constantly referred to evidence such as tape recordings, photographs, and personal research, and they read prewritten narrations of their experiences. Once they realized that the process of arguing back and forth was leading nowhere, they become more interested in rethinking their positions.
Second, disputants learned the values of the using the mediation process to step back from their conflicted relations and interact more constructively. The mediation space enabled them to assume different roles and relations. Because boundaries such as property lines and privacy walls often separate people's public and private lives, people are accustomed to dividing their interpersonal interactions. In a growing metropolis such as Tucson, residents are often separated from their immediate communities. Be it on open ranch lands or in trailer parks, disputants often understand private space in ways that limit their opportunities to interact productively. Using the "living room" model of spatial organization that places disputants on equal footing, trans- formative mediation sessions take place in a comfortable room where partici- pants sit close to each other and chairs are arranged in a semicircle with no structures or tables acting as dividers. Consequently, brainstorming sessions are highly interactive and foster collaboration. When a whiteboard is used, mediators do not dichotomize issues by dividing sides but instead use writing as a collaborative product. For example, during collective brainstorming ses- sions, mediators record disputants' suggestions in the middle of the board, without dividing the sides. In one vertical column, disputants' ideas exist together as they share the process of invention.
Within their communities, individuals can collaborate in spaces where they can mutually discuss issues and create change. In these spaces different ideas gain capital through what LeFevre describes as "resonance," a term she borrows from Harold Laswell. 29 As LeFevre explains, "Resonance comes about when an individual act--a 'vibration'--is intensified and prolonged by sym- pathetic vibrations . . . when people provide a supportive social and intel- lectual environment that nurtures thought and enables ideas to be received, thus completing the inventive act. "30 Resonance, therefore, results from direct
and indirect communication. OF mediators create environments that support resonance by establishing collaboration. Oftentimes this involves reminding individuals of who their audience really is--each other. For example, within several minutes of a mediation session involving retirees who had severed all communication among each other, OF mediators often reminded the dis- putants that they should talk to each other instead of talking to the media- tor. Once people begin addressing each other, they become more capable of working together. Recognition of the other party immediately changes peo- ple's tone as they begin to take control of their own situations.
Finally, disputants learned the importance of framing and reframing con- flicts. In conflict mediations, analyses of frames and efforts to reframe issues can help people construct more productive ways of seeing a problem. Refram- ing, as explained by Kovach, helps mediators explain "the disputed issues of the parties in more neutral manner, in such a way that the parties begin to focus on potential outcomes. "31 OF mediators reframe issues in order to clar- ify points and help people gain alternative perspectives, to filter out negative language and select more neutral terms so that disputants can see a situation differently. Successful reframing helps disputants shift their interpretive schema, and such shifts often form turning points in collaborations. As Beer and Steif discuss, at such a point disputants gain new perspective and begin to see through a different lens: they "shift from presenting their conflict as stories and positions to viewing the situation as a set of specific interests, principles, and mediatable issues. "32 As linguist George Lakoff explains, re- framing is an important step in creating change because reframing changes how people see the world: "It is changing what counts as common sense. "33 Community mediation centers are important sites for creating such change. Community centers like OF help people develop skills that they can use in their public lives. Transformative mediation--as it is practiced at OF--helps participants reenvision rhetoric as a mode of collective deliberation and con- flict mediation. Such sites have much to teach us about how to reframe our own concerns in ways that might be more broadly useful to our students, for the collaborative inquiries at OF provide frameworks for thinking about argu- ment, inquiry, and purpose in ways that can help us break out of the con- straints that have come to be assumed in rhetoric and composition classes.
Transformative Mediation in the Classroom
To contribute to efforts to integrate outreach into instruction, we want to sketch out how scenario-based classroom assignments can help students de- velop strategies to engage in conflict mediation and other community learn- ing processes. Working with scenarios in the classroom is not an alternative to service-learning assignments, but it can be a useful complement to them. By centering the class on a shared deliberative process, teachers and students can gain experience in working with the practical strategies and ethical issues
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that are likely to come up in community-based learning activities. By work- ing with each other in collaborative learning scenarios, students can gain skills such as empowerment and recognition while developing improved invention strategies vital to their academic success and civic literacies. Based on experi- ences from OF mediations, these two scenarios provide students with oppor- tunities to collaborate and practice important rhetorical skills, which can then be developed through service-learning assignments, internships, and other collaborations beyond the classroom.
"Showdown in Superior! "
"Showdown in Superior! " was a set of course-long assignments developed with three collaborating classes at the University of Arizona in the fall of 2005. 34 Several writing instructors created a scenario to have students work together to resolve a community dispute. Codesigned by Erik Juergensmeyer, David Reamer, and Brian Jackson, the unit combined an honors first-year composition class with business and technical writing classes to deliberate upon a regional mining issue in Superior, Arizona, a town that is two hours away from the University of Arizona campus. The curriculum asked students to work together and research, present, and deliberate upon how the mining issue will affect the town's residents. Students wrote such assignments as researched essays, letters to the editor, pamphlets, Web sites, and so on. These writings were circulated among the three classes in preparation for a mock town hall meeting. At the end of the semester, all three classes met together in a large lecture hall, presented their cases through PowerPoint presentations and public speeches, discussed the different issues and affected groups, and eventually voted on whether to support the copper company's mining pro- posal.
All three classes had distinct roles in the project. The technical writing class represented a local copper company looking to extract copper from Superior's vast reserves. As representatives of the mining company, they pre- pared Web sites, brochures, newsletters, and oral presentations that blended technical information with reasoned arguments encouraging the townspeo- ple to approve the mining project. Students who took on these roles were put in the position of defending their positions amid opposition from special interest groups and demonstrating their goodwill. Students in Erik's business writing class took on the role of several special interest groups that opposed the mining company's bid. Role-playing as local and national groups, stu- dents prepared professional documents arguing against permitting the min- ing project in Superior. They discussed their sides with employees of the copper company and attempted to convince town residents that they too were concerned with the town's best interests. Finally, the first-year honors class assumed the role of the townspeople of Superior. As townspeople, they wrote imaginary letters to Superior's newspaper, speeches for the town hall
meeting, and researched reports advocating that the town pursue a specific course of action.
During the semester, the students' deliverables were both engaged and specific. In Erik's business writing class, for example, student groups created fictitious organizations and focused on realistic viewpoints within a commu- nity. One group interested in studying law established the RACB (an acronym derived from students' first names) law firm, "a local law firm that has been serving the citizens and businesses of Superior since October 2005," "a small agency with a big mission and a lot of ground to cover. " After researching the specific geographical and environmental components of the mine proposal, RACB immediately identified their focus on a brochure intended for indiffer- ent townspeople: "We are committed to preserving Oak Flat Campground, Devil's Canyon, Queen Creek Canyon and Apache Leap for the benefit of this and future generations. " RACB espoused a mission of equal importance: "We are working in the best interest of the city of Superior, providing knowledge and education to its citizens. "
Another student group, operating under the acronym SAERG (Southern Arizona Economic Resources Group), focused on citizens of the town of Supe- rior opposed to the mining project. In an informational brochure, students of SAERG implored citizens to be more active in their community beliefs. Under a section entitled "What you can do," they provided several steps:
If you believe that RCC [Resolution Cooper Corporation] has no business in your town, then vote "No" in the town hall meeting next week. Now is the time to take a stand and fight. Here are a few things you can do:
Spread the word! Tell your friends and family about the economic dangers of the RCC project. Urge them to spread the word.
Make your voice known. There are many ways in which you can partner up with local or national interest groups that will side with you against RCC. Rally your fellow citizens, start a petition, do whatever it takes.
For students in SAERG, civic participation involves both negotiating through community interests and developing integrative skills that can help town citizens mobilize their interests. It also involves actively participating in community discourse and conflict.
The semester-long project culminated in a mock town hall meeting where all three groups, who had been exchanging research and documents, met for the first time and discussed their differing positions. Following PowerPoint presentations from the students role-playing as the mining company and special interest groups, members from all three classes joined small group collaborative sessions to discuss the issues in further detail. These groups of approximately twenty-five students (roughly one-third from each class) offered
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physical spaces for people to discuss the different positions and further ex- plain why they took their specific views on the mining proposal. Similar to the mediation rooms at OF, these spaces created opportunities for role-players both to collect data and recognize others' needs. After deliberations, all classes reconvened, and the townspeople took the stage, where they discussed what they had learned from talking one-on-one with the interest group and min- ing company representatives. Attempting to persuade their peers, different townspeople explained their sides and eventually voted for an appropriate course of action--in this case, opposing the mining company's bid.
"Showdown in Superior! " created an opportunity for the transformation of both invention and collaboration strategies. It provided a comfortable environment for students to discuss their different views and listen to their opponents in order to resolve conflicts. With the townspeople serving as medi- ators, the small group deliberative sessions paralleled transformative media- tion sessions where people control the agenda and discuss whatever issues they think are relevant to the case at hand. Modeled after the transformative principle of avoiding caucusing, these sessions created a place where inven- tion is not limited to the beginning of one's arguments and people can work together to actually invent new understandings and resolutions. Students both became empowered through documents and presentations and also recog- nized others by working together and listening to alternative views on their issues--views expressed by real people seated next to them. They learned con- flict resolution strategies that will help them examine and better negotiate their differences.
Breaking through the Border
Building on their experiences in "Showdown in Superior! " Erik Juergens- meyer and David Reamer joined with colleague Leslie Dupont to create another scenario designed to foster transformative mediation and rhetorical invention in a border town. Occurring during fall 2006, "Breaking through the Border" asked professional writing students to research, represent, and collaboratively discuss current issues at the Mexico-Arizona border, with par- ticular consideration of how these issues affect Tucson residents. Students con- fronted challenging issues that were both close to their lives and represented potentially intractable conflicts--scenarios where they could apply transforma- tive mediation strategies to create change. Ultimately, students had to suggest a specific course of action, such as increased border security or humanitarian support, that would influence local and state agencies. Students from Erik's business writing class researched and represented issues from the border de- bate based on their social impact on Tucson citizens. Representing different groups, these students created mission statements, brochures, and informa- tional letters detailing their claims. Students from David's technical writing class researched and represented issues based on their economic impact on
Tucson citizens. Representing different groups, these students created bro- chures and Web pages detailing their claims. Student's from Leslie's business writing class, role-playing as professional writers commissioned to write a proposal to the legislature, read and listened to the other classes' sides and created proposals attempting to represent as many interests as possible.
Throughout the semester, students from all classes met in two "forums" where they discussed their different research and attempted to influence final proposals. At the first forum meeting, David's and Erik's students presented on social and economic impacts in the hopes of convincing Leslie's students that their particular views of the border issue were relevant. Following Power- Point presentations, students joined small group deliberative sessions in order to further discuss their presentations and answer any questions that might have arisen. At the second forum meeting, Leslie's students presented their proposals to David's and Erik's students, who hoped to have their views rep- resented. David's and Erik's students voted on which proposal best represented the border dispute. Building on the previous project's strengths and address- ing its weakness, "Breaking through the Border" focused more on collabora- tion and open invention. Most important, we eschewed the town hall model used in "Showdown" because we believed it created a physical space that encouraged division and competition as the townspeople became consumed with critically analyzing each side's research. We instead designed two forum meetings where students presented and discussed their research with the hopes of influencing others' work. Whereas the one meeting of "Showdown" culminated in a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote, the forums of "Breaking" espoused a generative and informational environment. Students provided research to their peers and used data gathering and collaboration as ways to expand invention. We also realized that assigning sides to the two classes in Showdown (pro- or antimining) was too prescriptive. So, for "Breaking" we let students create their own groups. Whereas we restricted one class to "social" and one to "economic" impact to avoid repetition, we found students more invested in their arguments as they represented their personal beliefs. They were also more creative as they could research different viewpoints and pro- posals to create their side and proposed course of action. Enabling open in- vention of groups expanded "the pie" by letting students create possible solutions that were not confined to our categories.
When questioned about the project's strengths in a follow-up question- naire, students described "a sense of purpose with assignments," an appreci- ation for "working together in a group and doing good research together," and a "fun atmosphere [that] provided for learning and using collaboration while recognizing a specific audience. " Several even suggested the experience was "exciting. " Finally, when asked about what was learned in "Showdown," one student noticed an increased ability to "find relevant points in any side I choose to take and different ways of looking at the given information. "35
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Similar to the comfortable spaces of mediation, the nonhierarchical settings of "Showdown in Superior! " and "Breaking through the Barriers"--places where students sat together during presentations and collaborated face-to- face in small group deliberative sessions--created valuable experiences for learning how to be both rhetors and citizens. By creating similar projects, teachers can connect students to community issues, helping them negotiate through the conflicts that often limit collective action.
Conclusion
In the realm of public dispute resolution, rhetoric both provides useful frame- works for approaching conflicts as well as specific strategies for improving people's abilities to resolve those conflicts. Looking at mediation through the lens of rhetorical invention can improve conflict resolution strategies. Like- wise, similar to many of the most useful dimensions of rhetoric, conflict resolution provides new ways to understand the rhetorical tradition and its applications in the classroom as well as community. Our positions as teach- ers of rhetoric and composition do more than help us profess important communication and persuasive skills.
They provide opportunities for us to reconnect to and participate in our immediate communities. These connec- tions can help us challenge the misconceptions that have limited our ways of discovering solutions to conflicted situations. By focusing on invention and its possibilities for improving conflict resolution practices, we are better equipped to demonstrate how the arts of rhetoric move beyond mere persua- sion and create increased opportunities for social change.
Notes
1. Poole, "When Neighbors Collide. "
2. "Our Family Services," para. 7.
3. "Our Family Services, Programs. "
4. "Our Family Services, Community Mediation," para. 1. 5. Poole, "When Neighbors Collide. "
6. Kelly, "Taxpayer Watch," para. 4.
7. Lloyd-Jones, "Rhetoric and Conflict," 173. 8. Burke, Rhetoric of Motives.
9. LeFevre, Invention, 65.
10. Corder, "Varieties. "
11. Teich, Rogerian Perspectives, 3-4. 12. Lewicki et al. , Negotiation, 74. 13. Kovach, Mediation.
14. Fisher, Ury, and Patton, Getting to Yes.
15. Lewicki et al. , Negotiation.
16. Trimbur, "Consensus. "
17. See Flower, "Partners"; Flower and Deems, "Conflict. " 18. Fisher, Ury, and Patton, Getting to Yes, 17-81.
19. Bush and Folger, Transformative Approach, 18. 20. Ibid. , 55.
21. Ibid. , 109.
22. Meece, "Companies Adopting," para. 3.
23. Flower and Deems, "Conflict," 98.
24. Flower, "Partners. "
25. Kovach, Mediation, 21.
26. NACM, "Overview," para. 1.
27. Ibid.
28. Corder, Uses of Rhetoric, esp. 49-50.
29. LeFevre, Invention; Laswell, "Social Setting. " 30. LeFevre, Invention, 65.
31. Kovach, Mediation, 50.
32. Beer and Steif, Handbook, 113.
33. Lakoff, Don't Think, 15.
34. Jackson, Juergensmeyer, and Reamer, "Showdown. " 35. Ibid. , para. 20-22.
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