Narrative accounts and conflict escalation in legal family mediation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.26895Keywords:
conversation analysis, conflict escalation, legal family mediation, narrative accountAbstract
This paper investigates conflict talk in the professional setting of legal family mediation in Brazil. It shows how parties discuss family issues and use narrative accounts as an argumentative device for escalating conflict and for doing moral work. The data comprises a mediation case and focuses on the first mediation session, where conflict is more evident. The work is qualitative and based on transcripts of talk-ininteraction, transcribed and analysed using the principles of turn design, sequential organisation and action orientation from conversation analysis. The research underscores previous findings in the specialist literature indicating that parties in conflict in mediation either tend to portray negative images of the opposing party and positive ones of themselves, or assume the role of victims. It also shows that accusations and prosodic cues are important devices for conflict escalation. This paper contributes to a better understanding of conflict episodes and can furnish tools for mediators to reflect on their professional practice.
References
Antaki, C. (1994) Explaining and Arguing: The Social Organization of Accounts. London: Sage.
Atkinson, J. M. and Drew, P. (1979) Order in Court: The Organization of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London: Macmillan Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04057-5
Austin, J. L. (1961) A plea for excuses. In J. D. Urmson and G. Warnock (eds) Philosophical Papers, 175–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Azevedo, A. G. de (2009) Manual de mediação judicial. Brasília: Ministério da Justiça.
Bergmann, J. R. (1998) Morality in discourse. Research on Language and Social Interaction 31 (3–4): 279–294.
Boggs, S. T. (1978) The development of verbal disputing in part-Hawaiian children. Language in society 7 (3): 325–344. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005753
Brenneis, D. (1996) Telling troubles: Narrative, conflict and experience. In C. L. Briggs (ed.) Disorderly Discourse, 41–52. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bush, R. A. B. and Folger, J. P. (1994) The Promise of Mediation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Buttny, R. (1993) Social Accountability in Communication. London: Sage.
Cedersund, E. (1999) Using narratives in social work interaction. In A. Jukinen, K. Juhila and T. Pösö (eds) Constructing Social Work Practices, 69–86. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Cezar-Ferreira, V. A. M. (2007) Família, Separação e Mediação: uma visão psicojurídica. São Paulo: Malheiros.
Cobb, S. A. (1994) Narrative perspective on mediation: Toward the materialization of the ‘storytelling’ metaphor. In J. P. Folger and T. S. Jones (eds) New Directions in Mediation: Communication Research and Perspectives, 48–66. London: Sage.
De Fina, A. (2009) Narratives in interview – the case of accounts: For an interactional approach to narrative genres. Narrative inquiry 19 (2): 233–258. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19.2.03def
De Fina, A. and Georgapoulou, A. (2008) Introduction: Narrative analysis in the shift from texts to practices. Text and Talk 28 (3): 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.013
Eisenberg, A. R. and Garvey, C. (1981) Children’s use of verbal strategies in resolving conflicts. Discourse Processes 4: 149–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01638538109544512
Feinberg, J. (1970) Action and responsibility. In J. Feinberg Doing and Deserving: Essays in the theory of Responsibility, 119–151. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Garcia, A. (1991) Dispute resolution without disputing: How the interactional organization of hearings minimizes argument. American Sociological Review 56 (6): 818–835. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096258
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goffman. E. (1974) Frame Analysis. New York: Harper and Row.
Goodwin, C. and Goodwin, M. H. (1990) Interstitial argument. In A. Grimshaw (ed.) Conflict Talk: Sociolinguistics Investigation of Arguments in Conversation, 85–117. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, M. H. (1990) He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among black children. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Goodwin, M. H. and Goodwin, C. (1987) Children’s arguing. In S. U. Philips, S. Steele and C. Tanz (eds) Language, Gender and Sex in Comparative Perspective, 200–248. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511621918.011
Greatbatch, D. and Dingwall, R. (1994) The interactive construction of interventions by divorce mediators. In J. P. Folger and T. S. Jones (eds) New Directions in Mediation: Communication Research and Perspectives, 84–109. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Grimshaw, A. (1990) Introduction. In A. Grimshaw (ed.) Conflict talk: Sociolinguistic Investigations of Arguments in Conversations, 1–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hall, C. (1997) Social Work as Narrative: Storytelling and Persuasion in Professional Texts. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Hall, C., Slembrouck, S. and Sarangi, S. (2006) Language Practices in Social Work. London: Routledge.
Hepburn, A. and Bolden, G. (2013) The conversation analytic approach to transcription. In J. Sidnell and T. Stivers (eds) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, 57–76. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Heritage, J. (1984) Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hill, C. (2011) Family mediator neutrality and impartiality in practice: The relevance of the ‘reflecter’ discourse role. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 7 (2): 185–203.
Jayyusi, L. (1991) Values and moral judgment: Communicative praxis as a moral order. In G. Button (ed.) Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences, 227–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jefferson, G. (1978) Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 219–248. New York: Academic Press.
Kakavá, C. (2001) Discourse and conflict. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and F. E. Hamilton (eds) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 650–670. Oxford: Blackwell.
Komter, M. (1998) Dilemmas in the Courtroom: A Study of Trials of Violent Crime in the Netherlands, 31–59. New York: Psychology Press.
Labov, W. and Waletzsky, J. (1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (ed.) Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Lein, L. and Brenneis, D. (1978) Children’s disputes in three speech communities. Language in Society 7 (3): 299–323. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005741
Leung, S. (2001) Language socialization: Themes and advances in research. Teachers College Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics 1 (1): 1–19.
Linde, C. (2001) Narrative in institutions. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and H. Hamilton (eds) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 518–536. London: Blackwell.
Maynard, D. W. (1985) How children start arguments. Language in Society 14 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500010915
O’Barr, W. and Conley, J. M. (1985) litigant satisfaction versus legal adequacy in small claims court narratives. Law and Society Review 19 (4): 661–702. https://doi.org/10.2307/3053424
Sacks, H. (1972) On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds) Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication, 325–345. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.
Sacks, H. (1974) An analysis of the course of a joke’s telling in conversation. In R. Bauman and J. Sherzer (eds) Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, 337–353. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, H. (1978) Some technical considerations of a dirty joke. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 249–269. New York: Academic Press.
Sarangi, S. (1998) Inter-professional case construction in social work: The evidential status of information and reportability. Text 18 (1): 241–270.
Sarangi, S. (2004) Towards a communicative mentality in medical and healthcare practice. Communication and Medicine 1 (1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1515/come.2004.002
Sarangi, S. (2008) Narrative practice, competence and understanding. Text & Talk 28 (3): 271–274. https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.012
Sarangi, S. (2010) Practising discourse analysis in healthcare settings. In I. Bourgeault, R. DeVries and R. Dingwall (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research, 397–416. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446268247.n21
Schegloff, E. (2007) Sequence Organization: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Schiffrin, D. (1984) Jewish argument as sociability. Language in Society 13 (3): 311–335. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500010526
Schonbach, P. (1990) Account Episodes: The Management Or Escalation of Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scott, M. B. and Lyman, S. M. (1968) Accounts. American Sociological Review 33 (1): 46–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092239
Simmel, G. (1955 [1923]) Conflict: The Web of Group Affiliations, trans. K. Wolff. New York: Free Press.
Stewart, K. and Maxwell, M. M. (2010) Storied Conflict Talk: Narrative Construction in Mediation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.12
Vuchinich, S. (1990) The sequential organization of closing in verbal family conflict. In A. Grimshaw (ed.) Conflict Talk: Sociolinguistic Investigations of Arguments in Conversations, 118–138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Atkinson, J. M. and Drew, P. (1979) Order in Court: The Organization of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London: Macmillan Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04057-5
Austin, J. L. (1961) A plea for excuses. In J. D. Urmson and G. Warnock (eds) Philosophical Papers, 175–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Azevedo, A. G. de (2009) Manual de mediação judicial. Brasília: Ministério da Justiça.
Bergmann, J. R. (1998) Morality in discourse. Research on Language and Social Interaction 31 (3–4): 279–294.
Boggs, S. T. (1978) The development of verbal disputing in part-Hawaiian children. Language in society 7 (3): 325–344. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005753
Brenneis, D. (1996) Telling troubles: Narrative, conflict and experience. In C. L. Briggs (ed.) Disorderly Discourse, 41–52. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bush, R. A. B. and Folger, J. P. (1994) The Promise of Mediation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Buttny, R. (1993) Social Accountability in Communication. London: Sage.
Cedersund, E. (1999) Using narratives in social work interaction. In A. Jukinen, K. Juhila and T. Pösö (eds) Constructing Social Work Practices, 69–86. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Cezar-Ferreira, V. A. M. (2007) Família, Separação e Mediação: uma visão psicojurídica. São Paulo: Malheiros.
Cobb, S. A. (1994) Narrative perspective on mediation: Toward the materialization of the ‘storytelling’ metaphor. In J. P. Folger and T. S. Jones (eds) New Directions in Mediation: Communication Research and Perspectives, 48–66. London: Sage.
De Fina, A. (2009) Narratives in interview – the case of accounts: For an interactional approach to narrative genres. Narrative inquiry 19 (2): 233–258. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19.2.03def
De Fina, A. and Georgapoulou, A. (2008) Introduction: Narrative analysis in the shift from texts to practices. Text and Talk 28 (3): 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.013
Eisenberg, A. R. and Garvey, C. (1981) Children’s use of verbal strategies in resolving conflicts. Discourse Processes 4: 149–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01638538109544512
Feinberg, J. (1970) Action and responsibility. In J. Feinberg Doing and Deserving: Essays in the theory of Responsibility, 119–151. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Garcia, A. (1991) Dispute resolution without disputing: How the interactional organization of hearings minimizes argument. American Sociological Review 56 (6): 818–835. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096258
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goffman. E. (1974) Frame Analysis. New York: Harper and Row.
Goodwin, C. and Goodwin, M. H. (1990) Interstitial argument. In A. Grimshaw (ed.) Conflict Talk: Sociolinguistics Investigation of Arguments in Conversation, 85–117. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, M. H. (1990) He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among black children. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Goodwin, M. H. and Goodwin, C. (1987) Children’s arguing. In S. U. Philips, S. Steele and C. Tanz (eds) Language, Gender and Sex in Comparative Perspective, 200–248. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511621918.011
Greatbatch, D. and Dingwall, R. (1994) The interactive construction of interventions by divorce mediators. In J. P. Folger and T. S. Jones (eds) New Directions in Mediation: Communication Research and Perspectives, 84–109. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Grimshaw, A. (1990) Introduction. In A. Grimshaw (ed.) Conflict talk: Sociolinguistic Investigations of Arguments in Conversations, 1–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hall, C. (1997) Social Work as Narrative: Storytelling and Persuasion in Professional Texts. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Hall, C., Slembrouck, S. and Sarangi, S. (2006) Language Practices in Social Work. London: Routledge.
Hepburn, A. and Bolden, G. (2013) The conversation analytic approach to transcription. In J. Sidnell and T. Stivers (eds) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, 57–76. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Heritage, J. (1984) Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hill, C. (2011) Family mediator neutrality and impartiality in practice: The relevance of the ‘reflecter’ discourse role. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 7 (2): 185–203.
Jayyusi, L. (1991) Values and moral judgment: Communicative praxis as a moral order. In G. Button (ed.) Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences, 227–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jefferson, G. (1978) Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 219–248. New York: Academic Press.
Kakavá, C. (2001) Discourse and conflict. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and F. E. Hamilton (eds) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 650–670. Oxford: Blackwell.
Komter, M. (1998) Dilemmas in the Courtroom: A Study of Trials of Violent Crime in the Netherlands, 31–59. New York: Psychology Press.
Labov, W. and Waletzsky, J. (1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (ed.) Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Lein, L. and Brenneis, D. (1978) Children’s disputes in three speech communities. Language in Society 7 (3): 299–323. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005741
Leung, S. (2001) Language socialization: Themes and advances in research. Teachers College Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics 1 (1): 1–19.
Linde, C. (2001) Narrative in institutions. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and H. Hamilton (eds) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 518–536. London: Blackwell.
Maynard, D. W. (1985) How children start arguments. Language in Society 14 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500010915
O’Barr, W. and Conley, J. M. (1985) litigant satisfaction versus legal adequacy in small claims court narratives. Law and Society Review 19 (4): 661–702. https://doi.org/10.2307/3053424
Sacks, H. (1972) On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds) Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication, 325–345. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.
Sacks, H. (1974) An analysis of the course of a joke’s telling in conversation. In R. Bauman and J. Sherzer (eds) Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, 337–353. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, H. (1978) Some technical considerations of a dirty joke. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 249–269. New York: Academic Press.
Sarangi, S. (1998) Inter-professional case construction in social work: The evidential status of information and reportability. Text 18 (1): 241–270.
Sarangi, S. (2004) Towards a communicative mentality in medical and healthcare practice. Communication and Medicine 1 (1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1515/come.2004.002
Sarangi, S. (2008) Narrative practice, competence and understanding. Text & Talk 28 (3): 271–274. https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.012
Sarangi, S. (2010) Practising discourse analysis in healthcare settings. In I. Bourgeault, R. DeVries and R. Dingwall (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research, 397–416. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446268247.n21
Schegloff, E. (2007) Sequence Organization: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Schiffrin, D. (1984) Jewish argument as sociability. Language in Society 13 (3): 311–335. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500010526
Schonbach, P. (1990) Account Episodes: The Management Or Escalation of Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scott, M. B. and Lyman, S. M. (1968) Accounts. American Sociological Review 33 (1): 46–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092239
Simmel, G. (1955 [1923]) Conflict: The Web of Group Affiliations, trans. K. Wolff. New York: Free Press.
Stewart, K. and Maxwell, M. M. (2010) Storied Conflict Talk: Narrative Construction in Mediation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.12
Vuchinich, S. (1990) The sequential organization of closing in verbal family conflict. In A. Grimshaw (ed.) Conflict Talk: Sociolinguistic Investigations of Arguments in Conversations, 118–138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Published
2017-12-12
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Gago, P. C. (2017). Narrative accounts and conflict escalation in legal family mediation. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 10(3), 361-387. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.26895
