Siberian Federal University

Issue

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2020 13 (9)

Authors

Konovalov, Anton Iu.

Contact information

Konovalov, Anton Iu.: State Budget Institution of Moscow City Center of Psychological and Educational Assistance Moscow, Russian Federation; ; ORCID: 0000-0002-7077-0962

Keywords

restorative mediation; restorative justice; restorative approach; conciliation services; online mediation; online restorative practices

Abstract

In 2019–2020, the COVID threat has changed ordinary life in many countries, including Russia. The fear of epidemic has affected people’s condition and caused anxiety. Many people have found themselves isolated, unable to leave their homes and go to work, which further increased tensions. Those minors, who were shifted to distance learning format and forced to stay at home, also felt vulnerable. The specialists of the “helpline” note growing number of calls, including those related to family and child-parental conflicts. The author organized a series of expert webinars, where the features of restorative practices and online mediation were discussed. The participants were practicing mediators, restorative justice specialists, children’s helpline psychologists, members of the All-Russian Association for Restorative Mediation, and other specialists from Russia, Latvia and Ukraine. The results of these discussions have formed this research. The most important result is that when it is impossible to use the means of face-to-face communication, then the mediator (facilitator) needs to develop and master other methods and techniques for successful communication management, as well as trust and sincerity between the participants. Let us imagine it in a way: an author of a fiction book and a director of a film based on the same book will use different means to convey its meaning and states of the participants, but in the book through descriptions, and in the film through music and other cinematographic techniques, there will be a single content and the essence of the work. The ideas and recommendations for online mediation described here can be useful not only for the isolation period, but also when working with those people who are difficult to access directly. For example, for those who live in closed institutions: hospitals, specialized educational institutions, temporary detention centers, penal institutions with remote location without an opportunity to come to a meeting, homeschooled students and their parents, if the parties do not want to communicate in direct contact with the members of network communities, etc. Moreover, Russia has already such experience and it needs to be expanded further

Pages

1510–1516

DOI

10.17516/1997-1370-0659

Paper at repository of SibFU

https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/136687

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).