dialogue – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Facilitated Dialogue: An Emerging Field of Museum Practice

Foteini Venieri. (25 February 2022). Facilitated dialogue: An emerging field of museum practice. EXARC, 2022/1.

Overall, the data collected showed that the project highlighted the importance of intercultural coexistence and communication.

In 2020, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett argued that a museum should be understood as a forum rather than a temple (in Badior, 2020). Venieri takes this as a starting point, and studied ways in which several types of museums could serve to facilitate dialogue. She found that “Recently, science and history museums are initiating facilitated dialogue-based programming to address a variety of present-day issues that affect society at large and/or local communities. As the field of facilitated dialogue-based programmes develops, questions around the aims, techniques, and challenges of such initiatives in museums emerge. This paper explores the theory and practice of facilitated dialogue in science, and history museums as well as its implications for the museum field.”

Badior, Daria. (14 July 2020). Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett: “A 21st century museum is a forum not a temple”. LB.ua.

Derry Café Tackling Loneliness in the Migrant Community

Maria Cassidy and Mike McBride. (29 December 2022). Derry café tackling loneliness in the migrant community. BBC News NI.

The North West Migrants Forum in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, has organized the Social Connection Café. Director of programmes at the forum, Lilian Seenoi-Barr, said the café gave people from all backgrounds an opportunity to connect with others.

We wanted to tackle loneliness and isolation by providing a space where people feel welcome and at home. We wanted to create a connected Derry, where people can feel like they are home, even if they are originally from far away. -Lillian Seenoi-Barr

People who attend the café can get food, hot drinks, play board games and also have the opportunity to speak to people from different cultures and backgrounds.

The North West Migrants Forum (NWMF) is a network of individuals working together to tackle racial inequality and prejudice. Based in Derry/Londonderry, NWMF was first founded in 2012 with the fundamental goal of supporting and advising members of black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities who reside in Northern Ireland.

Theory in about 1 Minute: Dialogue

In the fourth episode of the series “Theory in about 1 minute,” the concept of dialogue is presented by Alistair Clark (audio only).

Theory in about 1 minute is a series of podcasts/videocasts recorded in three languages (Brazilian Portuguese, French, and English) presenting basic theoretical concepts for studies in language acquisition in accessible language. The texts cover topics such as bilingualism, subjectivity, alterity, language, speech genres, mother tongue, literacies, early literacy, and many others. The series is an initiative of the Research Group on Language Acquisition at Unesp/Araraquara (GEALin) in Brazil.

This podcast would make a good classroom resource for teaching about dialogue. See also KC14: Dialogue, and KC1: Intercultural Dialogue, as well as other Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue produced by this Center.

CFP IADA 2023: The Dialogicity Continuum (Online)

Call for papers: International Association for Dialogue Analysis: The Dialogicity Continuum: Rethinking the Value-ladeness of Communication and Discourse, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 12-15 June 2023, Online. Abstract Deadline: 1 March 2023.

“With the background of a tidal spread of neoliberal ideologies, in recent decades we have witnessed the global flourishing of populist leaders and governments, leaning towards totalitarian and fascist regimes. These regimes share the tendency for personal veneration, moral corruption, excessive use of oppressive methods, and types of governmentality that employ separationist and exclusionary discourses and divisive rhetoric. They also share a global spread, including within liberal democracies.

Moreover, such tendencies have been fueled during the last two decades by the related pervasive rise of social media and social network sites. These pervasive, private owned technologies, further echo, magnify, and enhance radicalism and separationist ideologies, deepening social exclusion of ever-growing marginalized publics and populations. Radical reactionary discourse and social media networks are viewed as reactionary in relation to civic ideas and ideals, and hyper-conservative in terms of potential emancipatory and democratic social change.

At the same time, social media platforms and social network sites specifically act as online spaces of and for support, communality and solidarity. At times they supply arenas for radical social activism, which may spill over from cyberspaces to offline spaces of protest and defiance. Scholars of public discourse have in the past focused mainly on negative rhetoric and discourse. Yet recently, we have experienced an emerging tendency to emphasize the implications and ramifications of positive and hopeful communication and discourse in the public sphere.

At this point in time, we wish to intervene, and to position the discussion of positive and negative modes of communication and rhetoric in center-stage. We offer to do so by proposing a conceptual continuum, whereon different value-laden communication and discourses may be arranged, arching between positive and negative types of communication and discourse.

In the part of the continuum that concerns positive communication and discourse, we may offer such discursive themes and genres as hope, trust, support, solidarity, community, social justice and social activism, civility, politeness, and amicable communication. On the other side of the continuum, we may see communication practices and discourse strategies associated with despair, disappointment, alienation, impoliteness, hate speech, and racism.

We propose an exploration into this continuum and into these discursive and value-laden themes, by applying the concepts of dialogue and dialogicity; and vice versa, we seek to interrogate and develop the conceptual and methodological vocabulary of dialogue studies, through examining these contemporary, powerful and pervasive discourses. Indeed, the tensions between negative and positive discourses shed light on the role of negotiations and dialogue across a myriad of environments and of scholarly disciplines.”

Everyday Democracy (USA)

Everyday Democracy is a USA-based organization whose mission is to help communities work equitably and inclusively to build a strong democracy. The dialogue-to-change approach is central to their work, and is grounded in race and intergenerational equity.

One of their strategies is to build a network of organizations across the US that see themselves as part of a larger movement for strengthening democratic capacity for equitable community voice and change. Their Anchor Network is comprised of organizations across the US committed to community engagement and using approaches such as dialogue to change, to promote racial and intergenerational equity.

The next orientation session for potential Anchor Partners will be held 1 November 2022. This is open to any local, state, or national organization interested in joining the network. Registration is required. For further information, contact Lauren Litton with questions.

CID Poster #6: Dialogue Defined (reprise)

(We are reprising the series of posters, because it has been several years since they were originally created, and they are much too wonderful to let them not be noticed by newcomers to the site!)

This is the next of the posters designed by Linda J. de Wit, then in her role as CID intern. For this poster, you literally have to look from a different perspective to read the quote; the picture of birds on a wire also represents taking different perspectives. The source of the quote is:

Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2016). De la possession des compétences interculturelles au dialogue interculturel: Un cadre conceptuel [Moving from having intercultural competencies to constructing intercultural dialogues: A conceptual framework]. Les Politiques Sociales, 3/4, 7-22.

Just in case anyone wants to cite this poster, the following would be the recommended format:

Center for Intercultural Dialogue. (2017). Dialogue defined. CID Posters, 6. Available from:
https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dialogue.png

As with other series, CID Posters are available for free on the site; just click on the thumbnail to download a printable PDF. They may be downloaded, printed, and shared as is, without changes, without cost, so long as there is acknowledgment of the source.

As with other series, if you wish to contribute an original contribution, please send an email before starting any work to receive approval, to minimize inadvertent duplication, and to learn about technical requirements. As is the case with other CID Publications, posters should be created initially in English. Given that translations of the Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue have received so many views, anyone who wishes to translate their own poster into another language (or two) is invited to provide that as well. If you want to volunteer to translate someone else’s poster into a language in which you are fluent, send in a note before starting, to receive approval and to confirm no one else is working on the same one.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue
intercult.dialogue AT gmail.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Claiming the Power of Dialogue toolkit (France)

Claiming the Power of Dialogue: Toolkit for Antirumours Dialogue, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France. Published April, 2021.

Imagine you are having a conversation with your neighbours when they drop a negative comment about migration. We all face similar situations from time to time – how have you handled them?

Did you let it pass or did you speak up? Did you explain why the comment was discriminatory or hurtful? In the policy brief “Claiming the power of dialogue: Toolkit for antirumours dialogue,” strategies for face to face dialogue are presented with the aim of providing the readers with a simple toolkit to engage in active antirumours dialogue. The policy brief complements the Antirumours handbook and other antirumours materials, and is part of a series of papers and training materials developed for the Academy on Alternative Narratives and Intercultural Communication.

KC14: Dialogue Translated into French

Continuing translations of Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, today I am posting KC#14: Dialogue, which John Stewart wrote for publication in English in 2014, and which Mohammed Guamguami has now translated into French.

As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists of Key Concepts organized chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept, and by languages into which they have been translated, are available, as is a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

KC14 Dialogue_French

Stewart, J. (2021). Le dialogue. (M. Guamguami, Trans.). Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 14. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/kc14-dialogue_french.pdf

If you are interested in translating one of the Key Concepts, please contact me for approval first because dozens are currently in process. As always, if there is a concept you think should be written up as one of the Key Concepts, whether in English or any other language, propose it. If you are new to CID, please provide a brief resume. This opportunity is open to masters students and above, on the assumption that some familiarity with academic conventions generally, and discussion of intercultural dialogue specifically, are useful.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.