Outline of a theory of mediation : anamnesis in urban France

• Main Author: DiGaetano, Virginia.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 2008
• Subjects: Mediation.; Conflict management.; France > Ethnic relations.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=116009

This project suggests a method of conflict analysis, anchored in Bourdieu's social theory, that weds approaches within sociological, political, and international relations theory. I focus on the contemporary conflict between the French state, and the substantial population considered "foreign" within France. This tension has regularly exploded into physical confrontation, most notably in the fall of 2005, though violence has been a persistent feature of the urban periphery for more than two decades. Moreover, tensions within France have often been co-opted into a larger "East vs. West" discourse, and this complex relationship is folded into an international conflict to which it may not belong. With this in mind, the project undertakes a thorough analysis of these complexities as they exist in France, proposing finally a means of transforming the conflict from violent to non-violent through a new theory of mediation.