Constructive Dialogue; Promise and Limitations

Institutional Affiliation

Nova Southeastern University

Start Date

17-1-2025 9:30 AM

End Date

17-1-2025 11:00 AM

Proposal Type

Presentation

Proposal Format

On-campus

Proposal Description

As Coser [1] and others have theorized, conflict is not only normal and inevitable, it actually is necessary for the social system as it exerts pressure for justice, equity, innovation and creativity. However, the clash of values and interests between or among individuals and groups vying for power, status and distributive justice can be, destructive and deadly. Managing conflict non-violently remains the foremost challenge of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. However practitioners and scholars have struggled with the competing imperatives; pacification of conflicts can easily perpetuate subjugation and exploitation while confrontation can lead to destruction, death and trauma.

The traditional toolkit of negotiation, mediation, facilitation aims for parties to reach agreement but hardly do they resolve all the mistrust, animosity, structural imbalances and competition that lie at the heart of many conflicts. This presentation seeks to explore one under examined and underutilized intervention that holds promise but also has limitations in that endeavor; facilitated dialogue also known as constructive dialogue.

Facilitated dialogue can provide a platform for parties to, at the very least, hear each other and get to know what the other’s concerns, hurts and desires are. It may even open the way to negotiation and mediation. But it too is fraught with challenges and dysfunctions. Parties may have no interest in hearing the other or engaging with them. Even when parties do participate, they may do so for tactical reasons rather than commitment to resolution and furthermore dialogue takes a long time.

Despite the challenges however, facilitated dialogue is worth more exploration. At the very least it enables parties to know where each stands and opens the space for acknowledging the power positioning that is so integral to negotiation. The objective of discursive intervention is transformation of realities that instigate and propagate violence into understandings that might engender peaceful resolution based on joint constructions or reconstructions of the parties’ realities. In the presentation, we will seek to offer a definition of facilitated dialogue as an efficacious method for conflict intervention with particular characteristics and methodological pathways. The promises and the challenges of the method will also be explored.

[1] Coser, Lewis A. Social Conflict and the Theory of Social Change. The British Journal of Sociology Vol. 8, No. 3 (Sep., 1957)

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Jan 17th, 9:30 AM Jan 17th, 11:00 AM

Constructive Dialogue; Promise and Limitations

As Coser [1] and others have theorized, conflict is not only normal and inevitable, it actually is necessary for the social system as it exerts pressure for justice, equity, innovation and creativity. However, the clash of values and interests between or among individuals and groups vying for power, status and distributive justice can be, destructive and deadly. Managing conflict non-violently remains the foremost challenge of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. However practitioners and scholars have struggled with the competing imperatives; pacification of conflicts can easily perpetuate subjugation and exploitation while confrontation can lead to destruction, death and trauma.

The traditional toolkit of negotiation, mediation, facilitation aims for parties to reach agreement but hardly do they resolve all the mistrust, animosity, structural imbalances and competition that lie at the heart of many conflicts. This presentation seeks to explore one under examined and underutilized intervention that holds promise but also has limitations in that endeavor; facilitated dialogue also known as constructive dialogue.

Facilitated dialogue can provide a platform for parties to, at the very least, hear each other and get to know what the other’s concerns, hurts and desires are. It may even open the way to negotiation and mediation. But it too is fraught with challenges and dysfunctions. Parties may have no interest in hearing the other or engaging with them. Even when parties do participate, they may do so for tactical reasons rather than commitment to resolution and furthermore dialogue takes a long time.

Despite the challenges however, facilitated dialogue is worth more exploration. At the very least it enables parties to know where each stands and opens the space for acknowledging the power positioning that is so integral to negotiation. The objective of discursive intervention is transformation of realities that instigate and propagate violence into understandings that might engender peaceful resolution based on joint constructions or reconstructions of the parties’ realities. In the presentation, we will seek to offer a definition of facilitated dialogue as an efficacious method for conflict intervention with particular characteristics and methodological pathways. The promises and the challenges of the method will also be explored.

[1] Coser, Lewis A. Social Conflict and the Theory of Social Change. The British Journal of Sociology Vol. 8, No. 3 (Sep., 1957)