Dear Readers,
Welcome to 2014. In Hong Kong and the rest of the Chinese world this time of year represents a special type of temporality between the Western and Chinese New Year’s celebrations. This week, when people are wishing me a Happy New Year, I cannot be sure whether they referring to 1 January which has just passed or 31 January which is around the corner, heralding the Year of the Horse. This ambiguous space offers up an ideal time for reflection, not to mention a second chance at New Years Resolutions.
During the first three weeks of 2014, my colleagues at the Kluwer Mediation Blog have posted erudite reflections on the growing sophistication of corridor mediation techniques and the potential risks inherent in courts taking too keen an interest in what happens in the mediation room, at least in Canada. Some of our regular bloggers have revealed their true colours by creatively drawing analogies between mediation practices, polices and principles on one hand, and Shakespearean theatre and lyrics from Guns n Roses and the Grateful Dead, on the other.
Today I received some exciting news. The Kluwer Mediation blog has been shortlisted for the best legal blog on Kartellblog. So, if you like what we do, please show your appreciation by voting. It’s very easy to vote, you just:
1. Scroll down that page until you see Kluwer Mediation Blog (under foreign language section)
2. Tick the box there
3. Then click on the box a few inches below saying “Abstimmen”.
So, what will the Kluwer Mediation Blog bring in the Year of the Horse? Well, you will have to stay posted for the details. But here’s a hint. One of the exciting aspects of a being part of the emerging mediation profession is the opportunity to generate new knowledge. This can come in the form of new ideas and experiences but it’s also about making new links between bits of information that we already know. Connecting the dots.
Making links between different types of knowledge is essential if we are to move towards a comprehensive way of understanding how and why mediation works — in other words, an epistemology of mediation. That’s my New Year’s Resolution for the Kluwer Mediation Blog.
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