Beyond Accommodation: Recognition of and Relationality with Vulnerable Parties in Family Mediation

Abstract

While the concepts of recognition and relationality are sometimes articulated as competing perspectives, this paper argues both are important to meeting the needs of families and children from minority cultural and faith backgrounds in Australian family dispute resolution. It considers why and how recognition and relationality might be integrated into family dispute resolution processes to optimise the participation by, and self determination of, minority parents in making care arrangements for their children following separation through the process of family dispute resolution. This discussion is important because it locates arguments about how to develop culturally responsive family mediation practice within broader political and philosophical arguments, and highlights questions about the relevance of culture and faith to the resolution of post separation family disputes, and the ongoing challenges of making the family law system accessible and responsive to vulnerable minority families. Published in (2015) 29 Australian Journal of Family Law 203-234.