Culture, Gender and Mediation: Challenges and Lessons Learned

This BPC paper discusses the constant movement of cultural transformation by which societies pass through, and how the adaptation of cultural groups is many times dynamic and even unpredictable, and may cause abrupt changes. Such changes may cause conflicts, and the development of strategies for understanding them from their cultural dynamics is the primary task of mediators. In this sense, it is through interviews with mediators who have made official and unofficial pacifications on the ground that Dr. Borislava Manojlovic offers us valuable insights and an in-depth analysis on the challenges of cultural mediation. The author also identifies key issues, lessons learned and key challenges to think about the role of culture in peace processes. On this subject, Dr. Manojlovic highlights that being an outsider with a different cultural background can be used as an extra-tool by the mediator in order to introduce change and innovation on the conversation, once mediation of conflicts can get stuck for the absence of new perspectives and questions.