Culture and mediation: A contemporary processual analysis from southwestern Gambia

The project findings suggest that theorizing about peacemaking behaviors must delve much further than the meta-level of comparison and that constructs such as individualism versus collectivism and high- and low-context societies must be used cautiously. Societal perspectives are highly uneven and culture operates on multiple levels and is continually at work, although its effects may not always be observable. Mediators are impacted by structural constraints such as socio-cultural patterning, but they are also agents who are able to adjust their behaviors in reaction to contextual factors and according to their personal preferences.