Provides a study of the language of mediation, using excerpts from real-life mediation sessions to illustrate how mediation works.

Angela Cora Garcia is a Professor of Sociology at Bentley University, Massachusetts. She conducts conversation analytic research on mediation, emergency phone calls to the police, computer mediated communication, air traffic communication, and political interviews and speeches. She is author of An Introduction to Interaction: Understanding Talk in Formal and Informal Settings (2013).

1. Introduction - approaches to mediation; 2. The interactional organization of mediation; 3. Minimizing and managing argumentative talk in mediation; 4. Disputants' opening statements and persuasive arguments in mediation; 5. Mediator representation of disputants' positions; 6. Soliciting proposals for resolution of the dispute; 7. Producing ideas for resolution of the dispute; 8. Mediator teamwork; 9. Autonomy, empowerment, and neutrality in divorce and small claims mediation.