Abstract
This chapter suggests that conference theorists and advocates have been looking in the wrong place when trying to find a way of explaining the transformation that occurs in a conference. Instead of a theory based on personal internal emotional states, the chapter argues for a social semiotic perspective that accounts for the interactive power of the macro-genre—an approach that deals with the way conferences draw on shared cultural resources to realign the YP with the positive values of particular communities. Anthropological work on ceremony and Systemic Functional Linguistic work on iconization are brought together in an interpretation of conferencing as a powerful form of ceremonial redress.
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Notes
- 1.
Source: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/sherlock/series-one/the-great-game/; downloaded 19/2/2013.
- 2.
This role may in fact be played by a de facto parent, for example an older sister, stepmother or grandmother.
- 3.
We are treating the expression as oral ‘scripture’, distilling in collective memory the ‘decisive moment’ parable, just as the Young Offender’s Act distils in writing the conferencing rituals we are exploring here.
- 4.
Many restorative justice advocates invoke as precedents for these innovations in Western legal systems the example of dispute resolution customs in Melanesian, Indigenous Australian or other ‘traditional’ cultures. While, as Cuneen has pointed out, these comparisons can be very misleading (Cuneen C. (2002) Restorative justice and the politics of decolonization. In: Weitekamp E and Kerner HJ (eds) Restorative Justice: Theoretical Foundations. Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing, 32–49), conferencing, as a ‘fragmented’ form of justice has at least proved ‘flexible and accommodating toward cultural differences’ (Daly K. (2001a) Conferencing in Australia and New Zealand: Variations, research findings, and prospects. In: Morris A and Maxwell G (eds) Restorative Justice for Juveniles: Conferencing, Mediation and Circles. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 59–84), and its early development in New Zealand was certainly seen as part of a wider political response to the over-representation of young Maori and Pacific Islander people in the criminal justice system.
- 5.
In Maori culture a marae is a meeting place where a range of ceremonial activities are enacted.
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Zappavigna, M., Martin, J. (2018). Ceremonial Redress: How Conferencing in Fact Achieves Its Goals. In: Discourse and Diversionary Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63763-1_7
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