Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change

by Marianne Mille Bojer, Roehl Heiko, Knuth Marianne

In a world of increasing complexity, answers have a short life-span and people have a growing desire to solve their own problems. Sustainable social change is increasingly depending on successful dialogue. This book provides a closer look at transformative dialogue tools and processes for social change. It profiles ten dialogue methods in depth, and another fifteen more briefly. The methods covered conceptually and in case studies include Deep Democracy, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, Scenario Planning, World Cafe, the Israeli-Palestinian School for Peace and many more. The book gives insight into the foundations of practical dialogue work, a dictionary to distinguish dialogue from other forms of conversation, and inspiration from traditional African approaches to dialogue. The authors, an international team of Dialogue Practitioners, offer guidelines for assessing what tools to use for which situation on the basis of their experiences. This makes it a unique and indispensable resource for the practitioner of social change.

Genres: Leadership

148 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2008

Reviews

[Pedro Limeira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is kind of a catalog of some methodologies of dialog. It was really enriching for me to get to know some new ways of having meaningful conversations and to have some criteria to compare all of them, such as "is it applicable in a conflict situation?" or "does it fit for more than 30 people?".

I liked the text, it is really easy to grasp, but I have a feeling that the book is not recommended for people that doesn't have any kind of experience as a dialog facilitator; it doesn't talk much about the facilitator role and the hard preparation to mobilize or invite people to dialog.

I would love if that book became a kind of online database in which we could add more methods and experiences ;)

[Brenden L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change explains simple tools for organizing conversations about social issues. It demonstrates how these tools enable people to consider different viewpoints and collaborate more effectively. My favorite thing about this book is how it makes hard conversations easier by looking at other perspectives. The worst thing about this book is how repetitive it is. The main motif of this book is connection and working for social change. Overall, the book is alright. I personally wouldn't read it again, but if you want to learn tools for social change, go ahead.