One year ago, on the 1 September 2012, The Kluwer Mediation Blog was launched with an inaugural posting by the then Minister for Justice in Slovenia, Ales Zalar.
Right from the start, Ales challenged readers by offering fresh thinking about political applications of mediation: “Mediation stands for more democracy, which we all need, because it understands that interests are the ones that drive conflicts in our daily life.”
Since then the Blog’s regular and guest bloggers have continued to offer readers innovative, thought-provoking, reflective and sometimes entertaining material. Take a few minutes and have a look for yourself as you scroll back over the countless entries of the past 12 months.
Past postings have drawn upon narratives of very different world-views and mediation practices to offer a layered, nuanced and very international view of this area of dispute resolution.
Readers have enjoyed our bloggers’ war stories, reflections on failure and success in mediation, updates on regulatory issues such as institutionalisation, legalisation, accreditation, case law and legislation, and postings about multi-disciplinary theories, research, teaching and learning, and the use of technology in mediation.
Moreover the theme of mediation has been considered from the perspective of users, mediators, lawyers, parties, courts and academics.
Together, these diverse contributions have begun to weave a tapestry of our collective social and cultural experience of mediation and they continue to define mediation as a narrative, a practice and a profession.
So thank you to every person who has contributed, and continues to contribute, to the Kluwer Mediation Blog, whether as regular or guest blogger, avid reader, critical commentator or incorrigible lurker. We, the editors, hope that you are enjoying the conversations, comments, ideas and the ‘virtual’ company of one another as much as we are.
In shaping the concept of the Blog, we wanted to capture the richness and diversity of the mediation field and offer readers an intelligent and interactive commentary on the latest developments and thinking from around the world.
As we move into our second year, we continue to pursue this goal and we are always looking for fresh ideas and, of course, insightful and challenging postings.
So let us hear from you.
________________________
To make sure you do not miss out on regular updates from the Kluwer Mediation Blog, please subscribe here.
A very happy birthday to a great blog with a global perspective. How wonderful it is to be able to read the perspectives of practitioners around the world. Here’s to many more!