Invited Presentation at the IFAC SWIIS 2013 Conference International Conference (Workshop) on International Stability, Technology and Culture Prishtina, Kosvo 6-8 June 2013

When we move beyond the determinism of cause and effect view, and explore international mediation within cross-cultural contexts, we encounter both the reality and actuality of conflicts. In these reality-actuality encounters, it is not just how we see others but also how others see us in conflict. The mediation process can be seen in terms of identifying knowledge and communication gaps that hinder reconciliation, and locating potential of interlocking commonalities that facilitate it. This view of the evolving mediation process does not just focus on mapping the reality and actuality of conflicts but also mapping the 'in-between' spaces of actuality-reality gaps. In this paper, we explore how human-centred concepts of 'symbiosis', 'culture of the artificial' and 'valorisation' provide a conceptual tool for a shared framework of mediation.