Community Facilitation in the Norwegian ‘Mediation Service’: What's Happening?
| DOI | 10.1177/026975800000700402 |
| Author | Liv Mørland |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
International Review of Victimology,
2000, Vol. 7, pp. 243-250
0269-7580/00 $10
© A B Academic Publishers —Printed in Great Britain
COMMUNITY FACILITATION IN THE NORWEGIAN
`MEDIATION SERVICE': WHAT'S HAPPENING?
LIV MORLAND
Director of the Institute of Dialogue and Conflict Management, Kristiansand, Norway
INTRODUCTION
The parties — the previous lovers — were sitting in the middle of the room in the
centre of everyone's attention. They often spoke and were eagerly listened to.
Close to them were relatives and friends who participated as well, but they didn't
take over. The rest of the observers became involved by putting forth pointed
questions and giving information — as well as humorous remarks. The judges,
three local functionaries, were extremely passive. They were obviously not well
versed in rural cases. Everyone else in the room were experts. They were experts
on norms clearing up the actual course of events through their participation in the
court process.
The story is taken from Prof. Nils Christie's well known article "Conflicts as
property" (Christie, 1977). His message about the couple in Tanzania has been
an inspirational source of developing the Mediation Service in Norway, even
now. In this paper I will present research on what's happening between some
parties in facilitations in Norway (I am using 'facilitation' instead of 'mediation' ,
because of the facilitators non-interventionist role)
1
. I will try to convey some
impressions from these facilitations, but first I will draw some pictures from the
Norwegian scheme.
THE PURPOSES OF FACILITATION
The reasons behind the establishment of facilitation as an independent and
alternative reaction are of a pragmatic as well as of an ideological nature. In the
seventies, the authorities in Norway discussed whether the age of criminal
responsibility should be raised to 15 (which was established later on). At the
same time the authorities were seeking more fruitful responses to ordinary
punitive measures. The model of facilitation appeared, and the scheme was
defined as a tool able to remove normal problems from the formal framework,
preventative measures and strengthening the family and society
2
. The ideologi-
cal foundation stemmed from a lack of effective solutions in interpersonal
conflicts within the regular judicial system.
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