Social confl ict as a subject of mediation: Theoretical and methodological conceptualization in the plane of the sociological approach

The article presents a retrospective meta-refl exive analysis of the views of thinkers on social confl icts and approaches to their resolution: from the classics of antiquity to the present day through the prism of assessing social confl icts as a subject of mediation - an approach to preventing and resolving confl icts with the participation of an independent neutral mediator (mediation). The goal of the study is to search for theoretical and methodological foundations of mediation in the plane of the sociological approach. The judgments reproduced by many authors on a social confl ict as an ineradicable norm of life; a way of transforming an individual and a group; a resource for achieving unity; the way of coordination of interests as a way to overcome a confl ict; the non-unconditional nature of law; this importance of refocusing in resolving a confl ict from private interests to the public good, in fact, is the basic theoretical foundations of mediation practice.