Governmentality analysis offers a nuanced critique of informal western conflict
resolution by arguing that recently emerged ‘alternatives’ to
adversarial court processes both govern subjects and help to constitute rather than
challenge formal regulation. However, this analysis neglects possibilities for
transforming governance from within conflict resolution that are suggested by
Foucault’s contention that there are no relations of power without
resistances. To explore this lacuna, I theorize and explore the affective and
interpersonal nature of governance in mediation through auto-ethnographic reflection
upon mediation practice, and Levinas’s insights about the relatedness of
selves. The article argues that two qualitatively different mediator capacities -
technical ability and susceptibility - operate in concert to effect liberal
governance. Occasionally though, difficulties and failures in mediation practice
bring these capacities into tension and reveal the limits of governance. By
considering these limits in mediation with Aboriginal Australian people, I argue
that the susceptibility of mediator selves contains prospects for mitigating and
transforming the very operations of power occurring through conflict resolution.
This suggests options for expanded critical thinking about power relations operating
through informal processes, and for cultivating a susceptible sensibility to
mitigate liberal governance and more ethically respond to difference through
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