Mediating Community-level Public Conflicts:A Survey based on Three Cases

Community-level public conflicts are common in present China. Facilitative mediation as a new means of public conflict resolution has been introduced from abroad to address these conflicts. With a comparative study on three typical cases, this article conducts analysis and comparisons and gets reflection via interviewing with the mediators as well as reviewing relevant literatures. This article first briefly introduces the contexts and storylines of the three cases, and then it examines and compares their characteristics in the dimensions of the mediation process, implementation of main principles and mediators'reviews through the lens of conflict resolution. The article concludes with some reflections and conclusions of the current facilitative mediation practices at community level. Findings include that facilitative mediation is an effective means for tackling community-level public conflicts;the dissemination of principles, strategies and techniques of public conflict resolution are still far from satisfaction;and mediation processes need to be more replicable. In addition, the study reveals that public conflict resolution can partly make up the defects of governance through promoting participation and negotiation, and it also requires the backing from governmental authorities.