CHALLENGING VISIONS OF DIALOGUE

Sustainable Dialogue as a Necessary Template for Sustainable Global Community (Part #5)

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

The challenges of governance do not necessarily call for radical transformation of institutions. Rather they call for a shift in the way of thinking about what is circulated through society's information systems as the triggering force for any action and its integration.

At present governance in the international community is haunted by a form of collective schizophrenia -- a left- brain preoccupation with 'serious' academic models and administrative programmes, and a right-brain preoccupation with the proclivities of public opinion avid for 'meaningful' action (even if 'sensational;'). This quarrel between models and metaphors could be transformed by focusing more effectively on the metaphoric dimensions already so vital to any sustainable motivation of public opinion, and to the comprehension of complexity by policy- makers themselves.

The identity of the global community should not be so closely linked to the seemingly impossible task of maintaining a consensus on particular solutions as appropriate, and therefore 'correct'. The identity to cultivate should be detached from this level of short- and medium-term preoccupation. This confusion favours tokenism and unimplemented resolutions which in turn reinforce cynicism, alienation and loss of credibility. In these times all simple solutions eventually become problems, just as all problems are in effect unpleasant solutions.

The creative opportunity is to cultivate instead an understanding of how incompatible solutions can be woven together as phases over time in a cycle of policies. It is metaphors -- such as crop rotation -- which make comprehensible and credible such a complex approach. It is at this level of conservation and generation of metaphors that may be found a dynamic pattern for global governance appropriate to sustainable development.

There are many metaphors through which dialogue may be usefully explored. They include dialogue as: drama, architecture, dance, tournament, music, gardening and the like.

The challenge is to move beyond metaphors for the process as whole to a new understanding of what forms the basis for the pattern of exchange. What flows in dialogue may be thought of in industrial terms as with flows of water, steam, air, fuel oil, or electricity -- in each case through pipes or wires. Much thinking about social communication uses such metaphors implicitly (***), in such phrases as 'pumping out information', etc. These mechanical metaphors are very different from biological metaphors in which 'what flows' contains a transformative element, as with blood (haemoglobin, white corpuscles), lymph (hormones), glucose, adrenalin***.

A sustainable dialogue depends upon a pattern of systemic linkages or feedback loops. Using any mechanical metaphor, failures can only be distinguished in terms of broken or blocked conduits: there may be 'leakages' or 'blockages'. But there are more subtle failures that can only begin to be understood using biological metaphors, notably those based on metabolic diseases (*** networking diseases). In these terms, there is every possibility that most efforts at dialogue are highly susceptible to disease. Pursuing this metaphor, attention needs to be given to the appropriateness of both allopathic and homeopathic responses.

A trading community is often analyzed in terms of an 'input/output table', or matrix, of goods and services. The suggestion here is that it might be possible to identify a matrix of dialogue elements which are transferred in a sustainable dialogue. This might even take the form of a 'periodic table' somewhat analogous to the periodic table of chemical elements characteristic of bio-physical systems.

Exploring this periodic table analogy, the challenge is to be able to distinguish the nature of the 'columns' and then of the 'rows'. As with the chemical elements, the difficulty lies in the fact that it is unclear how to distinguish 'elements' from 'compounds' and to identify 'groups' (ie columns) as opposed to the periodic repetitions (ie 'rows') of such groups. In the case of dialogue elements, as participants in dialogues we are too closely involved with such elements in our every social interaction for it to be easy to distinguish and cluster them. In the dialogue experiments initiated by David Bohm some effort was made to distinguish elements such as thoughts and 'felts', but the approach taken here is somewhat different.

As a first effort, the problem of the 'rows' will be ignored assuming only that they may be used to capture 'heavier' or more consequential dialogue elements (realted to the levels discussed above). Their nature will however be prefigured by the 'column' (or group) characteristics and the dialogue elements effectively clustered (or 'crammed') into the first 'row'.

How many groups might be useful? In the case of the periodic table, with its organization into shells having different numbers of elements, a simple answer may be inadequate. But this may be all that is possible in a first iteration. Table 1 is a first step.

There are also more fundamental questions around whether favoured sets of 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 12 groups should be used. Each would draw the dialogue elements into a different configuration of groups. In the case of the periodic table there is a 'confusion' between 7, 8, 9 and 10 groups.

The purpose of a periodic table once developed lies in its ability to raise questions about the function of particular dialogue elements, whether 'positive' or 'negative'. Should 'chlorine' be excluded from a sustainable dialogue as being totally undesirable -- or only in combinations such as 'sodium chloride'? What are the advantages of the 'heavier elements'? How are 'dialogue compounds' to be distinguished from 'dialogue elements'? Etc.

Such clarification would then open the way to understanding what makes for 'healthy dialogue'. Is a sustainable dialogue to be understood as based on a balanced and nutritious diet, with trace elements, roughage and the like? Using insights from biological systems, does it require both "anabolic' and 'catabolic' cycles to sustain it? How are such cycles and 'metabolic pathways' to be identified? Is it useful to identify a phenomenon analogous to 'photosynthesis' whereby insights are converted into substantive matter under certain conditions? Is such a process only achieved by certain types of participant or attitude? Given the recognition that teams require a well-defined range of participant attitudes, is it similarly necessary for a dialogue to involve a variety of participant attitudes -- perhaps richer than that required for a task-oriented team?

Using a musical analogy, how do participants play off each other in a dialogue? What makes for interesting dialogue in musical terms? How are the melodic themes constantly reintroduced by particular participants to be integrated into the larger dialogic process. Is it useful to think of the periodic table of dialogue elements as somewhat analogous to the keyboard of a musical instrument (or synthesizer) capable of generating a range of sounds and chords? Could a dialogue be 'set to music' to offer an alternative insight into what was occurring -- or failing to occur? This shifts the perspective to how dialogic elements are mixed and combined over time. It is at this level that the dialogue may be understood as sustainable or not.

Dialogue analysis: Identification of the range of dialogue elements suggests the possibility of real-time analysis of a conference. As with a skilled minute-writer or note-taker, a suitably trained person could code interventions by participants. (Verification could be achieved by several such people coding in parallel into a computer system which would accept only coding confirmed by two or more coders). Each intervention would then be recorded as a sequence of such elements and would lend itself to a variety of analyses. A suitable indicator board, possibly based on the above periodic table, could be used to flash both the elements currently presented and the total elements of each type for the speaker and the conference. The current condition of the dialogue could possibly even be related to measures and ratios for a healthy dialogue.

Performance dialogues: The plethora of media talks shows and panels have exposed people to some ways in which the famous tend to dialogue. As an experiment there is a case for designing performance dialogues in which those with proven skills in dialogue interact. The purpose being to push the possibility of entrancing dialogue beyond its current limits. This could even be done as a form of cooperative game to be evaluated by an audience.

Dialogue handicaps: Participation in meetings and dialogues is one of the few activities for which no training or qualifications are as yet required. In practice, however, people become known for their abilities in this respect and, circumstances permitting, are invited or excluded accordingly. By pushing the standards of dialogue to higher levels, it may become possible to constrain unskilled participants in situations where their involvement increases the probability of unsustainable dialogue.

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]