Narratives in the wild: from conversation analytic research on community mediation to UK policy impact

Abstract

Conflict and dispute often manifest as competing stories. The ‘facts’ of the matter are constructed through narrative, but once established, the ‘construction yard’ of unfolding stories falls away (1). As Roberts points out, ‘(f)acts are inert without narratives and worldviews to render them legible’ (2). One setting in which narratives compete is mediation, where two or more parties in dispute tell their stories, facilitated by a mediator, with the aim of resolving things without going to court. However, for mediation to be effective, disputing parties must first agree to mediate, and engagement can be a challenge. In this article, I describe a project in which I identified what works to engage potential clients of mediation in the initial conversations they have on the telephone with mediators. Not only do callers’ stories about their dispute matter greatly in these first conversations, but mediators’ own narrative descriptions of the process itself are crucial to whether callers become clients. Based on identifying and describing effective mediation narratives, I report how the work was used to change the way the UK Ministry of Justice explained mediation across a national communication campaign.