(theme 2)

Emile Kolthoff (Law) en Frank Inklaar (History)

The relationship with your neighbours is perhaps the most basic level at which safety in the city plays a role. Problems between neighbours can lead to legal proceedings, intense emotions and feelings of insecurity. A method for solving conflicts between neighbours is neighbourhood mediation, a form of civic participation in which trained volunteer neighbours help to re-establish contact, discuss problems and come up with solutions for their conflict.
In this research the phenomenon of neighbourhood mediation is approached from two angles. From the historical point of view, it examines the process of appropriation in the second half of the 1990s when the original American concept of neighbourhood mediation was introduced and disseminated in the Netherlands, focusing on the municipality of Zwolle's case as one of the first three experiments with neighbourhood mediation in the Netherlands. The criminological and policy angle is used to investigate whether the objectives of neighbourhood mediation in Zwolle have been achieved over the past 20 years and whether neighbourhood mediation contributes to the sense of security of involved citizens.

The study was completed in March 2021. The report is available online: Buurtbemiddeling als bron van sociaal kapitaal: Een onderzoek naar de historie, werking en impact (only in Dutch).