ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book reveals the remarkable diversity of mediation thinking and practices in various aspects of our social and public life. It highlights, whether in the changing context of families, complex organizations, local communities, or the global human community, the mediation dilemmas that have been confronted successfully, and continues to challenge mediators in the future. The breakthrough period for closing the gaps between theory and practice in the field of conflict resolution generally, and mediation in particular, occurred in the early 1980s. As far-reaching as the success of the Harvard Negotiation Project work was, it was only one part of the boom decade of the 1980s for mediation and conflict resolution. The decade of the 1980s also witnessed the full emergence of environmental conflict management and thus environmental mediation as a booming area of work.
