The New Practices of Mediation: Convening Conflict Parties in a Nonconventional Age

The COVID-19 period has dramatically changed the practice of mediation, as it has all professional endeavors. Unable to conduct processes except at a distance, via technology, mediation practitioners and organizations set aside any reluctance they had previously harbored toward online mediation. Surrounding contexts and stakeholders, such as court systems, legal practitioners, and social services, also went through this rapid technologization as did training and university programs. During this period, technology impacted mediation and mediation training on multiple levels: process, communication, mediator skills, party behavior, and more.

This panel will integrate mediation theory and practice, by bringing together panel members hailing from Israel, Germany, England, Denmark, and the US. The presenters are all highly experienced mediators in practice as well accomplished researchers in the field. The panel will present various aspects of mediation that have been impacted by the COVID-19 period, such as trust, emotions, communication, and procedural justice perceptions, and suggest ways to engage with them. Based on the presentations, the panel will invite participants to engage in discussion of theoretical and practical impacts on mediation of the technological migration and the COVID era more generally. Particularly, we hope to generate community discussion around two core questions: 1) What have we learnt from pandemic mediation? 2) What do we need to learn more about, and what are the most urgent research needs emerging from this era?