Deliberate Dialogue

Abstract

The previous chapter focused on negotiation as a process for constructively resolving conflict. Unlike negotiation, which attempts to reach an agreement between parties with different interests, or debate, which is usually aimed at convincing an audience, dialogue attempts to build better communication, relationships, and understanding between persons or groups who are stuck in a repetitive conflict system. In such cases, the practice of deliberate dialogue may be used to establish a foundation for negotiated agreements or to develop respectful communication and possibilities for socially constructive coexistence despite passionate differences. Deliberate dialogue may be called for when the communication that people are engaging in holds them back from their best and most important purposes. These could be contexts in which the "stuck" and unproductive communication is overt and loud or environments in which there are significant silences between groups. Dialogue is also potentially effective in situations of grave conflict or post-conflict, where years of violent conflict have generated what we might call a "culture of war" that rationalizes sharp survival behavior, partisanship, and mistrust. Dialogue may also be very helpful in cases where there is international involvement around social change, whether in the frame of economic development, public health, governance, and so on. In such contexts and interactions, there are cross-cultural issues, as well as asymmetries in economic power and "education." These can lead to assumptions and conclusions that sidestep opportunities for the change to become more rather than less (self-) conceived, generated, and managed by the people whose societies are facing the huge challenges that call for change. Deliberate dialogue will have a very limited effect if there is no significant interest within the groups that are being brought together or if they feel that their purposes are better met, at that point in time, by some other process. This chapter provides an overview of the major theoretical foundations for the field, the common practices used to facilitate dialogue, and some examples of how dialogue fosters cultures of peace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)