Setting ground rules helps create and maintain a respectful environment in which the parties can communicate. Working out ground rules with the parties helps mediators “open paths of communication” and “creat[e] and maintain a setting where agreements can be reached” (Engel & Korf, 2005, p. 126). Asking communities to set ground rules in preparation for a community land protection process, for example, “will ensure that all community land protection meetings are participatory, respectful, and well-run” (Namati, 2017, p. 59). | “Socio-drama allows the participants to experience and to act out typical needs, fears, desires, frustrations and expectations. It can therefore contribute a lot of additional insight to land conflicts” (Wehrmann, 2017, p. 66). |
Setting ground rules facilitates trust-building and agreement between the parties. “Ground rules help create predictability and structure for the process at a time when trust between the parties may still be low….In cases where goodwill exists among the parties, joint development of ground rules can also be a good opportunity to reach early agreement about important issues” (CAO, 2019, p. 9). | When parties to an ownership or use of land dispute are involved in the role-playing, a socio-drama helps build respect for the feelings, needs and interests of the other. “Socio-drama can equally be used to analyse a land conflict or – if practised together with the involved stakeholders (letting them act out the opponent’s part, or letting them watch the play acted out by others who are not involved in the real conflict) – to solve the conflict by increasing the awareness of the other party’s feelings and needs and to rectify their perception of the other party’s positions and interests” (Wehrmann, 2017, p. 66). |
According to NRC mediators experienced in resolving land disputes in Liberia, setting ground rules helps to address power imbalances relating to gender or ethnicity. “The establishment of ground rules is an important part of setting the tone for the session and ensuring that the tone of discussion does not become adversarial or aggressive, especially when one party is “weaker” than the other in terms of social position or general power relations. They indicated that ground rules were particularly relevant if one party was a woman or a “stranger” (i.e. someone not from the local ethnic majority group, which often applies to Mandingos) and there was therefore a possibility that the other party would not treat them fairly or respectfully. In such situations they would also emphasise to the parties that all Liberians have the legal right to live and own property anywhere in the country, regardless of gender or ethnicity; indeed, it is not uncommon for the parties themselves to own land elsewhere” (Norton, 2011, p. 21). | Socio-drama makes it possible to personify and foster respect for non-human elements of the conflict in addition to the parties themselves. “One extremely useful feature of the socio-drama is that things such as land or forest or culture can also be acted out and express thoughts and feelings reflecting the way they are being treated” (Wehrmann, 2017, p. 66). |
| Socio-drama can help parties to move beyond their respective positions and identify the underlying causes of a land or use of ownership dispute, such as feelings of disrespect, mistreatment and indignity. For example, a “a turning point [a] the socio-drama on [a] Ethiopian state forest/land use conflict was the scene in which, after the king had left the stage, the forest sadly explained that he no longer had an owner, that now he belonged to everyone (state land resulting in a de facto open access situation). He expressed feeling afraid and insecure. He even asked the long-established population to take care of him – without receiving an answer. While the play continued, the forest suddenly claimed that he felt mistreated and left the scene. The interesting point is that the conflict continued. Beekeepers blamed the Ministry of Finance for not respecting their traditional rights and culture. Pastoralists accused the District Natural Resources Conservation Office of offending their dignity by not respecting their tradition(al rights). Beekeepers and coffee producers called each other old-fashioned, respectively ignorant towards their culture. Thus, the conflict over land and forest use quickly became a conflict between traditional and modern culture that also touched upon aspects of respect and dignity. This conflict has much deeper roots than the current superficial one over forest use would suggest. The problem is that the cultural issues are part of the forest conflict and that this conflict will only be resolved if an answer to the socio-cultural conflict is found as well. Socio-dramas are immensely useful for revealing additional conflict issues” (Wehrmann, 2017, p. 67). |
| Socio-drama can encourage self-reflection and self-evaluation by helping parties to see themselves from the other’s perspective. “With theatre serving as a mirror image, we may scrutinize our own cultural behaviors by watching them in performances. Barbara Myerhoff thus explains that cultural performances are ‘reflective in the sense of showing ourselves to ourselves. They are also capable of being reflexive, arousing consciousness of ourselves as we see ourselves. As heroes in our own dramas, we are made self-aware, conscious of our consciousness’ (Myerhoff, 1992, p. 234). Through performance imitation, we can see ourselves from afar, in the third person, allowing us to evaluate ourselves” (Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 8). “For example, role reversal performances can be used to help disputants see each other’s perspective. Husband and wife could, for instance, be asked to re-enact a dispute with the husband playing the wife and vice versa” Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 13). |
| In addition to supporting more respectful relationships between the parties, socio-drama can contribute to community solidarity and understanding by “counteracting the decisive elements of the conflict” (Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 10). “According to performance theorists and anthropologists, a society’s public performances are mirror images of that society’s values and ideologies. Performances, in all cultures, are stylized re-enactments of the social reality of the culture or group of individuals that they represent. By viewing a performance, an observer can successfully discern many underlying assumptions, manners, and behavioral norms. According to Victor Turner (1982), a leading theater anthropologist, the function of these rituals is to promote and preserve group solidarity. Ritual bonds all members of society together, through common recognition of re-enacted behavior. Indeed, public performances and rituals are filled with symbols and signs that all members of the community understand” (Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 8). “Dramatic performance can also be applied formally and publicly to [increase awareness of alternative perspectives]. There is a long tradition of theatrical performances used to alter the public’s perceptions about a conflict or dispute” (Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 13). |
| “Dramatic performance may provide opportunities to explore approaches to conflict and mechanisms for conflict transformation in closed conflict cultural groups. As noted by Turner and Scehchner, fictive dramatic presentations mirror real life situations, and may be used to display publicly what would otherwise be concealed. Dramatic performance depersonalizes conflict, enabling individuals who would be uncomfortable discussing conflict to explain and observe dispute and its potential or actual resolution(s) more securely from a third-person perspective.” In other words, “dramatic performance provides informants with sufficient emotional distance that taboo topics may be discussed openly” (Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 10). |
| Socio-drama can also facilitate the search for solutions by allowing the parties involved (or outsiders) to act them out. “A socio-drama can also be used to act out different solutions of a land conflict. This can be done by outsiders to the conflict or by the conflict parties. Alternatively, outsiders could first play different scenarios and evaluate them identifying the most suitable one. The conflict parties could then act out this one – either together or separately within their groups (Wehrmann, 2017, p. 67). |
| Socio-drama can help disputants arrive as solutions that are culturally appropriate and more sustainable than solutions imposed by an external facilitator. “Rather than prescribing solutions based on their personal experiences and training, conflict transformation practitioners can use information obtained from dramatic performances to design resolutions that will maintain the existing socio-cultural norms for conflict transformation. By maintaining rather than challenging these norms, the resolution will be more readily accepted and integrated into the community’s social framework. Externally imposed ‘resolutions’ that ignore traditional and local social processes are less likely to have a lasting impact on the disputants” (Nurieli & Tran, 2019, p. 14). |
