Full Report - Knight Program in Community Building

HURLEY | THE PUBLIC PROCESS5Over the last thirty years, alternative dispute resolution has grown into a professionalfield of practice, complete with academic theory, field-tested techniques, andpractice area specializations. Public participation and public policy dispute resolutionis one area of specialization. Current practice and theory in this area have developedfrom a variety of sources.The Civil Rights and Feminist movements of the 1950s – 1960s drew attentionto the dynamics of power and promoted individual self-determination and socialequity. The failures of 1960s urban and transportation programs spawned disillusionmentwith government and the role of experts, leading to demands for, andeventually federal requirements for, more participation of citizens in planning anddevelopment decisions.The 1960s – 1970s environmental regulations issued to implement the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, theEndangered Species Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA; a.k.a. Superfund), among others, led togridlock in the courts. Environmentalists were dissatisfied because environmentalregulations were on hold; the EPA was dissatisfied because it could not implementCongress’ mandates, and industry was dissatisfied because of lasting uncertainty.Everyone was unhappy with the high costs and long delays engendered by fightingpolicy battles in the courts. They looked to the experience of federal programs tomediate labor disputes, and began to develop multi-party mediation techniques.Because the emphasis was on breaking administrative and judicial gridlock, the goalof these experiments was to develop consensus among all of the parties.At the same time, the growing presence of community mediation programs ledto the availability of trained mediators in community settings. Some of these programsexpanded beyond individual disputes to address community disputes, often relatedto local planning decisions.All of these forces led to a thriving field of academic study and professionalpractice. Today, the Association for Conflict Resolution (created by a merger of theSociety for Professionals in Dispute Resolution, Academy of Family Mediators, andConflict Resolution Education Network) has eighteen divisions of practice, withover seven thousand members. Universities around the world have departments ofConflict Resolution, including several with Ph.D. programs.