JAMES H. LOUIE’S THESIS AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF MEDIATION BOARD IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KOTHMALE DIVISIONAL SECRETARIAT IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, the mediation boards have been established to settle the conflicts. Specially, they have been working on small scale conflicts in local level. Therefore, this study examined the contribution of mediation board in conflict management. James. H. Louie’s thesis on conflict management is applied in this study as a grounded theory. This is based on post-positivist research paradigm. Therefore, primary data were based on twenty case studies and hundred ten structured questionnaires. As findings of the study, it reveals that the steps taken by mediation boards to minimize biases based on gender, race, and religion were not sufficient. But in positive sense, mediation board’s contribution in settling conflict is comparatively high when comparing with quite costly and lengthy litigation process. It requires further development interms of achieving positive peace in local disputes.