“Care Work” in Facilitative Mediation: Interactional Techniques for Emotional Support in the Context of Conflict Resolution

Angela Cora Garcia

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.22.1.03

Authors

Angela Cora Garcia Bentley University, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1052-5364

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.22.1.03

Keywords:

Mediation, Care Work, Emotion, Conflict Resolution, Conversation Analysis, Interaction

Abstract

This paper investigates how facilitative mediators use “care work” techniques when participants display emotional or relational concerns during the session. Conversation analysis is used to analyze a pre-existing dataset of video-recorded small claims and divorce mediation sessions. Techniques the mediators used to do care work include reflection, topic refocusing, complimenting, role modeling, and coaching. The analysis shows how the trajectory of the talk in the mediation session is impacted by care work. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the mediator’s role and the effectiveness of the interaction for the conflict resolution process in mediation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Angela Cora Garcia, Bentley University, USA

Angela Cora Garcia is a professor in the Department of Natural and Applied Sciences at Bentley University. Her main areas of research are conversation analytic studies of mediation sessions, emergency service calls to the police, air traffic communication, and political speeches and interviews. She is the author of a textbook on conversation analysis, An Introduction to Interaction: Understanding Talk in the Workplace and Everyday Life (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2023), and a conversation analytic study of mediation, How Mediation Works: Resolving Conflict through Talk (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

References

Antaki, Charles, ed. 2011. Applied Conversation Analysis: Intervention and Change in Institutional Talk. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Google Scholar

Arminen, Ilkka. 2017. Institutional Interaction: Studies of Talk at Work. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315252209

Asmuß, Birte. 2008. “Performance Appraisal Interviews: Preference Organization in Assessment Sequences.” International Journal of Business Communication 45(4):408-429.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943608319382

Barnes, Rebecca. 2007. “Formulations and the Facilitation of Common Agreement in Meetings Talk.” Text & Talk 27(3):273- 296.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2007.011

Boden, Deidre and Don H. Zimmerman, eds. 1991. Talk and Social Structure: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Google Scholar

Boulle, Laurence J., Michael T. Colatrella Jr., and Anthony P. Picchioni. 2008. Mediation: Skills and Techniques. Newark, NJ: Lexis Nexis.
Google Scholar

Bush, Robert A. Baruch and Joseph P. Folger. 2005. The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Google Scholar

Chang, Wei-Lin M. 2018. “Emotivity and Face: Displaying and Soliciting Emotivity in Chinese Mediation Interactions.” Lingua 213(October):43-62.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.06.006

Charmaz, Kathy. 1991. Good Days, Bad Days: The Self and Chronic Illness in Time. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Google Scholar

Cohen, Orna, Naomi Dattner, and Aharon Luxenburg. 1996. “Planning Parenthood in the Divorce Transition—Through Mediation.” American Journal of Family Therapy 24(2):181-188.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01926189608251030

DeVault, Marjorie L. 1991. Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Domenici, Kathy and Steven W. Littlejohn. 2001. Mediation: Empowerment in Conflict Management. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Google Scholar

Ewert, Charles et al. 2010. Choices in Approaching Conflict: Understanding the Practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications.
Google Scholar

Frenkel, David N. and James H. Stark. 2012. The Practice of Mediation: A Video-Integrated Text, 2nd ed. New York: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Google Scholar

Garcia, Angela C. 1991. “Dispute Resolution Without Disputing: How the Interactional Organization of Mediation Hearings Minimizes Argument.” American Sociological Review 56(6):818-835.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2096258

Garcia, Angela C. 2000. “Negotiating Negotiation: The Collaborative Production of Resolution in Small Claims Mediation Hearings.” Discourse & Society 11(3):315-344.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926500011003003

Garcia, Angela C. 2012. “Advice-Giving and Disputant Empowerment in Divorce Mediation Sessions.” Language & Dialogue 2(3):398-426.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.2.3.05gar

Garcia, Angela C. 2019. How Mediation Works: Resolving Conflict Through Talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139162548

Garcia, Angela C. 2023a. An Introduction to Interaction: Understanding Talk in the Workplace and Everyday Life, 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic Press.
Google Scholar

Garcia, Angela C. 2023b. “Doing ‘Care Work’ in Emergency Service Calls.” Western Journal of Communication 87(4):626-646.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2022.2138526

Garcia, Angela C. 2024. “Crisis Negotiation Techniques in Interactional Context: Managing a Suicide Threat in an Emergency Service Call.” Qualitative Health Communication 3(2):91-107.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/qhc.142862

Garcia, Angela C. and Erik Cleven. 2024. “How Reflection Works in Transformative Dialogue/Mediation: A Preliminary Investigation.” Qualitative Sociology Review 20(2):90-113.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.20.2.05

Garcia, Angela C., Kristi Vise, and Stephen P. Whitaker. 2002. “Disputing Neutrality: A Case Study of a Bias Complaint During Mediation.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 20(2):205-230.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.3890200206

Garfinkel, Harold. 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Gibson, David R. and Matthew P. Fox. 2021. “Facts into Faults: The Grammar of Guilt in Jury Deliberations.” Discourse Studies 23(4):474-496.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14614456211001605

Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar

Goldberg, Steven B. et al. 2017. How Mediation Works: Theory, Research, and Practice. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787142220

Greatbatch, David and Robert Dingwall. 1997. “Argumentative Talk in Divorce Mediation Sessions.” American Sociological Review 62(1):151-170.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2657457

Greco, Sara, Sara Cigada, and Chiara Jermini-Martinez Soria. 2022. “The Naming of Emotions in Dispute Mediators’ Strategic Manoeuvring: A Case Study Using a French Language Corpus.” Text & Talk 44(1):25-46.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2021-0044

Heard, Genevieve M. et al. 2024. “Participation, Agreement and Reduced Acrimony through Family Mediation: Benefits for the Ambivalent Client in a Mandatory Setting.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 41(4):573-590.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21426

Heisterkamp, Brian L. 2006a. “Conversational Displays of Mediator Neutrality in a Court-Based Program.” Journal of Pragmatics 38(2006):2051-2064.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.03.005

Heisterkamp, Brian L. 2006b. “Taking the Footing of a Neutral Mediator.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 3(3):301-315.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.139

Heritage, John and Steven E. Clayman. 2010. Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, and Institutions. Boston: Wiley Blackwell.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444318135

Heritage, John and Douglas W. Maynard, eds. 2006. Communication in Medical Care: Interaction between Primary Care Physicians and Patients. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511607172

Hochschild, Arlie R. 1983. The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Google Scholar

Hutchby, Ian and Robin Wooffitt. 2008. Conversation Analysis, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Jacobs, Scott. 2002. “Maintaining Neutrality in Dispute Mediation: Managing Disagreement While Managing Not to Disagree.” Journal of Pragmatics 34(2002):1403-1426.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00071-1

Jefferson, Gail. 2004. “Glossary of Transcript Symbols with an Introduction.” Pp. 43-59 in Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, edited by Gene H. Lerner. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.125.02jef

Kevoe-Feldman, Heidi. 2018. “The Interactional Work of Suppressing Complaints in Customer Service Encounters.” Journal of Pragmatics 123(2018):102-112.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.10.018

Lee, Helene K. 2023. “Girls Can Kick Ass... Without Being Angry: Practices of Alignment, Postfeminism, and the Production of Niceness in the Face of Sexism in Work and Family Lives.” Sociological Forum 38(2):443-459.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12888

Liddicoat, Anthony J. 2021. An Introduction to Conversation Analysis, 3rd ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic Press.
Google Scholar

Maxwell, Madeline M. and Matthew B. Ingram. 2022. “How Mediators Use Reformulation Practices to De‐Escalate Risky Moments.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 39(3):221-243.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21319

Milan, Chiara. 2023. “Emotions in Action: The Role of Emotions in Refugee Solidarity Activism.” Sociological Forum 38(3):813-829.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12926

Milišauskaitė, Jurgita and Jolanta Sondaitė. 2022. “Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners’ Subjective Experience and Attitude on Compulsory Family Mediation in Australia.” Acta Prosperitatis 13(January):91-112.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.37804/1691-6077-2022-13-90-112

Moore, Christopher W. 2014. The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Google Scholar

Peräkylä, Anssi. 2019. “Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy: Identifying Transformative Sequences.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 52(3):257-280.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2019.1631044

Picard, Cheryl A. 2016. Practising Insight Mediation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Google Scholar

Pomerantz, Anita. 1984. “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred-Dispreferred Turn Shapes.” Pp. 57-101 in Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, edited by J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511665868.008

Robinson, Sekani. 2021. “Black Ballerinas: The Management of Emotional and Aesthetic Labor.” Sociological Forum 36(2):491- 508.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12689

Rypi, Anna. 2017. “‘You Don’t Have to Say Straight Out …’: Directed Impression Management at Victim–Offender Mediation Pre-Meetings.” Sociological Focus 50(3):261-276.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2017.1283182

Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation, Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell.
Google Scholar

Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 50(4):696-735.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/412243

Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208

Sidnell, Jack. 2010. Conversation Analysis: An Introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0062

Siegel, Derek P. 2021. “Wanting a ‘Feminist Abortion Experience’: Emotion Work, Collective Identity, and Pro‐Choice Discourse.” Sociological Forum 36(2):471-490.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12688

Sikveland, Rein O. and Elizabeth Stokoe. 2023. “A Cry for ‘Help’? How Crisis Negotiators Overcome Suicidal People’s Resistance to Offers of Assistance.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 42(5-6):565-588.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X231185734

Sikveland, Rein O., Heidi Kevoe-Feldman, and Elizabeth Stokoe. 2020. “Overcoming Suicidal Persons’ Resistance Using Productive Communicative Challenges During Police Crisis Negotiations.” Applied Linguistics 41(4):533-551.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amy065

Simon, Dan and Tara West. 2022. Self-Determination in Mediation: The Art and Science of Mirrors and Lights. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/9781538153871

Stivers, Tanya and Stefan Timmermans. 2020. “Medical Authority Under Siege: How Clinicians Transform Patient Resistance into Acceptance.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 61(1):60-78.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146520902740

Tanz, Jill S., Martha K. McClintock, and Rae Kyritsi. 2023. “Can Early Caucus Improve a Community Mediation Model? Counteracting Stressors Prior to Joint Session.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 40(3):313-331.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21373

ten Have, Paul. 2007. Doing Conversation Analysis: A Practical Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849208895

Tracy, Sarah J. and Timothy P. Huffman. 2016. “Compassion in the Face of Terror: A Case Study of Recognizing Suffering, Co-Creating Hope, and Developing Trust in a Would-Be School Shooting.” Communication Monographs 84(1):30-53.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2016.1218642

Ury, William. 1993. Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation. New York: Bantam Books.
Google Scholar

Vöge, Monika. 2010. “Local Identity Processes in Business Meetings Displayed Through Laughter in Complaint Sequences.” Journal of Pragmatics 42:1556-1576.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.016

Wang, Nan C. 2020. “Understanding Antibiotic Overprescribing in China: A Conversation Analysis Approach.” Social Science & Medicine 262(2020):113251, 1-15.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113251

Whalen, Jack and Don H. Zimmerman. 1998. “Observations on the Display and Management of Emotion in Naturally Occurring Activities: The Case of ‘Hysteria’ in Calls to 9-1-1.” Social Psychology Quarterly 61(2):141-159.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2787066