About Our Project
The Problem
Conflicts happen every day, often in an intercultural context. These conflicts may arise because we don’t know how to talk to or collaborate with people from different cultures. Imagine an open discussion in a classroom involving students and lecturers from different cultures; do you think that students from different cultures might clash or misunderstand each other?
Mediation is a process through which a neutral mediator helps to resolve conflicts between individuals or groups on a voluntary basis. We all associate mediation with court proceedings, however, if we look at human interactions throughout history, we can see the impact of mediation as a tool to preserve communities and solve social conflicts. Many different people can play the role of mediators in community mediations, such as elders, neighbours, community leaders and student representatives. When mediation is conducted among peers it is called peer mediation.
Whatever form mediation takes, every mediator needs to build a basis of trust to ensure safe discussions in which all parties feel heard and understood.
You cannot learn how to become a trustworthy mediator (solely) from books. We believe that in order to effectively build trust with disputants, mediators (be it informal, community or peer mediators, or mediators in courts) should understand the informal aspects of trust which impact (for better or worse) trust-building in and between different cultures. This is what what we refer to as the wisdom of the crowd. In order to collect this knowledge, we are turning to you.
Purpose of the study
The Trust MEdiators is a student-driven project through which we research and learn about trust-building in intercultural mediation. Our goals are the following:
- A mediation lab utilising citizen science and peer mediation.
- A mediation world map (incl. different cultural observations from volunteers from around the world) to be included on our website.
- Toolkit for educators.
- Scientific article summarising the study results.
Who are our volunteers?
This study is aimed at non-professionals (laypeople) such as students and their connected networks; including their peers, fellow students (colleagues), lecturers, family members, neighbours, and others.
Would you like to become a volunteer?
You must be at least 18 years old. Please note that children and members of vulnerable groups* cannot participate in this study.
*Individuals who are unable to understand the purpose of this study.
How can you help?
We are looking for cultural observations related to effective trust-building in conflict situations.
This means any anecdotes, stories and insights which you believe express trust your culture. Especially the knowledge or experiences that are inherent to your culture (things that cannot be learnt through textbooks or ‘traditional’ mediation clinics). These cultural observations will come from the ‘informal research’ conducted through discussions with peers, friends, family members and others who may have knowledge on the topics.
You can also share with us information about highly debated public disputes from your culture, through which we can learn about trust-building in conflict resolution.
Finally, you can also include your own experiences in conflict resolution.
What do we expect from you?
How much time you decide to invest in the study is entirely up to you; we expect the minimum involvement should be around one week as you report cultural observations on the culture of your choice.
The project will last until December 2022 and has just entered its second cycle.
If you want to stay up to date regarding the project’s future developments, you can submit your email address at the end of this form as we develop other activities within the project.
Definitions
Our definition of culture
We adopt a broad definition of a cultural region, taken to be a region within which people share similar characteristics; including language, patterns of behaviour, social practices, values, attitudes and religion. A cultural region can range from as small as a street to as big as a continent, or even a geographical, transcontinental region (e.g., the Middle East). The cultural region you choose will determine the ‘culture’ that you represent for the purpose of this study (referred to as ‘your representative culture’).
Our definition of a dispute
Our definition of a dispute is a situation in which two or more people have opposing views or desires, a dispute does not involve violence or criminal acts.
What will happen to the information you provide?
(1) The information provided by you will help us to develop mediation scenarios for peer mediation conducted by THUAS students (or students from other institutions or even laypeople who want to use our lab) within our mediation lab. This will allow students to learn and practice peer mediation through real-life stories to which they can hopefully relate.
(2) This information will also help us to create a mediation world map (a toolkit) on the desired skillset of trustworthy mediators in an intercultural context.
(3) The mediation world map will also form the basis for the toolkit for educators: a toolkit on student-driven mediation lab training. Because the skills developed by the project are transferable, the toolkit will be broadly applicable in any educational programme and courses in which soft skills, trust-building, and professional (intercultural) communication are taught. Methodologically, the toolkit will serve as a model in any multicultural, student-driven learning environment where students actively learn from their own cultural experiences and conduct citizen science research.
(4) The information will also be used for the purpose of a scientific article on the topic of student-driven mediation lab training, as well as other project deliverables (e.g., study newsletter, research briefs, b(v)logs, etc.).
Benefits
There will be no direct benefits for you resulting from this study.
However, this study should benefit you indirectly by the following means.
With your participation, you will:
Contribute to a better understanding of your own approaches to disputes and of the factors that you value most in others who handle a dispute in which you are involved.
Increase your own awareness of conflict resolution as a cultural concept.
Contribute to advancing science and perhaps even a better society.
Gain experience as a researcher and for those who wish, we offer further involvement in the project.
