Overcoming Polarization in the Public Square: Civic Dialogue

ISBN-13: 9783030455859 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 208 str.

Lauren Swayne Barthold

Spis treści

CONTENTS

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

1 Introduction                                                                                                                       1

 

2 The Roots of Dialogue                                                                                                      31

 

3 Understanding (as) Dialogue                                                                                           65

 

4 Defining Dialogue                                                                                                              111

 

5 The Power of Dialogue                                                                                                     167

 

6 The Virtues of Dialogue                                                                                                    207

 

Bibliography                                                                                                                          247

 

Index                                                                                                                                      262

 

O autorze

Lauren Swayne Barthold teaches ethics and conflict transformation at Endicott College, USA.  She also serves as program developer for the Heathmere Center for Cultural Engagement, a non-profit devoted to engaging youth through dialogue and the arts.

Blurb

This book describes how civic dialogue can serve as an antidote to a polarized public square. It argues that when pervasive polarization renders rational and fact-based argumentation ineffective, we first need to engage in a way that builds trust. Civic dialogue is a form of structured discourse that utilizes first-person narratives in order to promote trust, openness, and mutual understanding. By creating a dialogic structure that encourages listening and reflection, particularities and differences about fraught identities can be expressed in such a way that leads to the possibility of connecting through our fundamental, shared, and deeply felt humanity. Drawing on Plato, Buber, Gadamer, Dewey, cognitive bias research, as well as the work of dialogue practitioners, Lauren Swayne Barthold provides a sustained defense of civic dialogue as an effective strategy for avoiding futile political arguments and for creating pluralistic democratic communities.