Can Mediation Enable the Empowerment of Disadvantaged Groups? A Narrative Analysis of Consensus-Building in Israel.

This article analyzes the course of consensus-building in a polycentric dispute surrounding the declaration of the Tzalmon River region in the Lower Galilee as a national park. The mediation raised complicated issues of social and environmental justice; its participants included representatives of relevant State authorities, Green organizations, and Arab residents of the Galilee. The paper examines whether the mediation process succeeded in advancing empowerment among participants from disadvantaged groups. The analysis assumption is that empowerment in its political sense requires more than attaining an agreement awarding rights to deprived groups. Rather, the test for whether empowerment occurred needs to be measured according to the effectiveness of the participation process, particularly the extent to which it advanced a dialogue that gives expression to subversive narratives undermining hegemonic narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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