Narrative accounts and conflict escalation in legal family mediation
Journal: Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice
Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics
DOI: 10.1558/japl.26895
Abstract:
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.
Author: Paulo Cortes Gago
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