Between 24 and 27 October 2022, 92 researchers and practitioners of mediation from different countries will be gathered via Zoom to discuss the potential of mediation as a form of constructive response to social challenges, threats to biodiversity and changes caused by the digital turn.
Round tables start at 15:00 (Lisbon time – UTC +01:00) and workshops at 17:00 (Lisbon time – UTC +01:00).
You can access to the program below and choose which workshops you would like to attend.
On October 27, at 15:00 (Lisbon time – UTC +01:00), we will organize a three-hour training course on the topic of digital mediation, where we will discuss the difficulties that arise, the technical means to be taken into account and the skills needed to develop mediation in a virtual environment.
A certificate of participation – Conference or Training – will be issued by the FMM.
Join us via Zoom between 24 and 27 October.
Working languages: Spanish, French and English
Simultaneous translation into Portuguese, Spanish, French and English (only for main sessions)
Whether on a global or national scale, societies are shaped by deep changes that generate antagonisms: the climate crisis, the health crisis, intra-state armed conflicts, gender and racial gaps, growing social inequalities, migration flows, the breakdown of representative democracy, new forms of mobilization and demands (including the use of social media) and radicalization (political and religious extremism), etc.
Emerging in an altered societal context, is mediation still an appropriate approach to deal with these transformations and conflicts?
Should it be reconfigured or even subsumed by new mechanisms of regulation and resolution of conflicts?
Should we revisit the process, the purposes of mediation or the training of mediators?
In the end, is mediation transformed by this social change or can mediation still be operational in this context of social transformations and new conflicts?
Increasing biodiversity might be the greatest challenge human relationships faces on the Anthropocene Era.
Fresh water resources and sewage treatment management, increasingly acid ocean and vulnerability of carbonate shell plankton’s species, global warming, diseases in pollinators caused by pesticide use, expansion of agricultural land, hidden virus’s potential threat to humans, world population growth, megacities and transportation, energy turn, are current concerns of Academics, International Organizations, National Governments, ONG’s and Citizens. All these social facts are crucial to increase our chances of survival.
However, despite of Rio, Tokyo and Paris summits and its Declarations or Treats in the last decades, there has been a stop and go, and stop again, approach to biodiversity and natural resources management, expanding conflicts between States, Communities, Corporations and Citizens.
What about mediation to help those actors to find new solutions and compromises towards an environmental turn? How can mediation foster confidence between them? Would mediation be an alternative to the imposition of environmental laws, by opening the discussion, welcoming different points of view, and finding new solutions? Can mediation resolve environmental conflicts resulting from individual activities?
The “digital turn” is a process by which life in society fully integrates digital technologies into all its activities. It likely increased during the pandemic, affecting communication, negotiation and conflict resolution practices, among many others.
In the face of this, it is important to reflect on the specific relationship between mediation and the technological environment of its implementation. As a complex relationship, which can be conceived in different ways, we propose a few questions that can help its formulation, both theoretical and practical.
Is mediation designed differently depending on the technological environment in which it takes place? What are the effects of “new technologies” on mediation practices? Are there any elements of rupture, or continuity, between “traditional” mediation and digital tool based mediation? Does the inclusion of mediation in this new environment lead to a transformation of some of its founding principles? This list of questions is not exhaustive, rather useful to stimulate reflection on the relationship between mediation and digital turn, both on conceptual and empirical issues.
Papers presented in the Conference will be published in the digital review Lex Electronica (review of the Reseach Centre for Public Law of University of Montreal).
Texts must be submitted before 31 January 2023 to: publishing@wmf-fmm.org
A three-hour training course is offered on October 27, on the theme of digital mediation. Participants will be introduced to the practices of digital mediation in terms of both the techniques and skills required and the challenges posed by this use of mediation.
In particular, the advantages, limitations and risks of digital mediation on the relational, emotional, ethical, legal and economic levels will be discussed. The training will allow participants to acquire know-how and skills but also to become familiar with the central issues and debates surrounding this new use of mediations.
Please follow the abstract guidelines and send the abstract to abstracts.wmf21@wmf-fmm.org before 19 June 2022.
To facilitate the submission process and the subsequent follow-up process, please consider the following guidelines, information, tips, terms and deadlines mentioned.
Once you prepared your abstract according to the above guidelines,
Abstract acceptance notification – 31 July 2022
Deadline payment – 23 October 2022 (23:59 UTC +01:00)
Deadline for the submission of full articles (peer review) – 31 January 2023
Regular – 41,00€
Student – 29,00€
Training – 35,00€
Conference + Training – 60,00€
GST+HST Canadian taxes included
Regular – 58,00€
Student – 47,00€
Training – 52,00€
Conference + Training – 90,00€
GST+HST Canadian taxes included
Same fees for speakers and attendees.
Any inquiries on Abstracts, Registration and Payments, please contact the Conference Coordinator, Mrs. Marie-Claude Barbeau-Le Duc, at coord.wmf@wmf-fmm.org
