The main purpose of this article is to outline the importance of proxemics at the various stages of the mediation protocol without claiming comprehensiveness. For this purpose, apart from purely theoretical formulations and determinations, the article also contains interim and partial results of exploratory study on the non-verbal communication in the mediation protocol practiced in the Republic of Bulgaria and predominantly in the Center for Agreements and Mediation at Sofia Regional Court and Sofia City Court. The interviews were held from October 2016 to the end of 2017 in Sofia. The interviewees were predominantly mediators, who practice mediation as volunteers at the Center for Agreements and Mediation at the Sofia District Court and the Sofia City Court. The coal of the research is to look how nonverbal aspects of the communication in mediation affects the quality of the protocol.
We will start with few clarifications, concerning the mediation in Bulgaria and what “proxemics” means.
Mediation is used in Bulgaria as an optional, out-of-court alternative dispute resolution method. Mediation in Buglaria is still not mandatory and judge can only recommend the case as suitable for mediation. Parties can decide weather to use it or not. The most active center in Bulgaria is Center for Agreements and Mediation at the Sofia District Court and the Sofia City Court. There are several EU funded prgrams going on to establish such Court annexed mediation centers in more cities with hope of sustainable development of their activities.
The concept of “Proxemics” was cointed in 1963 by the well-known American anthropologist Edward Hall, who explores cultural perceptions of space. According to Hall Proxemics is “a science that explores how people use space and the effect that density of population has on the human behavior, communication and social interaction”
Very often we tend to underestimate the importance of space and the way we use it and perceive it. This is understandable because it is always around us and we are always within it. Velichko Rumenchev emphasizes that “Our everyday life happens within the space, and apparently the most difficult thing to see is the obvious – the space, it is the very least studied in terms of its importance for the communication and the extent to which it determines it” . I fully share this thesis, which is confirmed by both personal experience and partially by the results of recent research.
Between October 2016 and December 2017, fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with mediators who mainly practice mediation at the Center for Agreements and Mediation at Sofia Regional Court and Sofia City Court in the Republic of Bulgaria. In order to avoid influencing the interviewees and avoid researcher bias, the same open ended questions were asked to each interviewee. At the end of the interviews more narrow questions were asked. These questions related to body language and the importance the mediators attach to non-verbal communication. All interviewed mediators elaborated on the subject of proxemics and its significance in the mediation process or protocol, in varying degrees of detail.
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