1 Exploring the Concept
A flourishing concept of mediation has become a fashionable phenomenon, which is cited in several fields. However, we quite often use the term mediation without properly considering its stakes and foundations. Mediation is not a vague notion; it benefits from a rigorous definition, but it suffers from a sometimes lax use. Generally, mediation can be defined first of all as a way of building and managing social life through an intermediary third party, who is neutral, independent and has no other power than the authority granted to them by the mediated individuals, who will have freely chosen or recognized them (Guillaume-Hofnung 1995).1
The main goal of mediation is the re-establishment or the establishment of communication. We can say, in the words of Michèle Guillaume-Hofnung, that mediation is basically tripartite in its structure and result (Guillaume-Hofnung 1995).
There are multiple symbolic forms and mediations that allow humans to establish relations with other individuals. Any intermediary is a mediator, even if often it is not recognized as such: our body and language are mediators of the world, a habit or speech are mediators, etc. According to the type of mediation, the components will have different shapes, from the singular to the collective and from objects to the virtual dimension, including the human sphere. Contemporary mediation relies on an external third party, otherwise we refer to conciliation. “Mediation is conceived both as the ...