Call for abstracts: Dialogue with and among the Existing, Transforming and Emerging Communities, for a special issue of The Journal of Dialogue Studies. Deadline: Extended to May 16, 2021.
The Journal of Dialogue Studies invites papers addressing ‘communities’ through the lens of dialogue.
Communities have been designated as secure, physical and emotional comfort zones for individuals and unofficially regulated and codified relations between their members. There are communities in which people have a common interest or passion; communities that are united around the idea of bringing about change; communities of people who belong to the same region or country; communities that comprise people of the same profession; and finally, communities of circumstance, that is, groups of people who came together as a result of external factors.
More than a physical entity, a community is about commonalities and it creates attachments. Similar to other social structures, communities always harbour their own values while they may have some underlying liabilities for individuals. However, community is an evolving phenomenon. Communities emerge, transform, and disappear in response to the context they were born into. In today’s world, traditional communities exist side by side with new and emerging communities, ranging from online forums and social media groups to online gaming communities.
As such, new communities emerge every day and challenge traditional views on what a community is. In the life cycle of a community, ‘dialogue’ comes into the picture as a prominent instrument facilitating the transformation and evolution of communities. It is dialogical engagements (inter- or intra-community) of the individuals that allow these social structures to evolve and transform.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 