E-grāmata: Creating Space for Democracy: A Primer on Dialogue and Deliberation in Higher Education

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We live in divisive and polarizing times, often remaining incomfortable social bubbles and experiencing few genuine interactions withpeople who are different or with whom we disagree. Stepping out and turning toone another is difficult but necessary. For our democracy to thrive at a timewhen we face wicked problems that involve tough trade-offs it is vital that allcitizens participate fully in the process. We need to learn to listen, think,and act with others to solve public problems. This collaborative task beginswith creating space for democracy. Thisbook provides a guide for doing so on campus through deliberation and dialogue.

At the most basic level, this book describes collaborativeand relational work to engage with others and co-create meaning. Specifically, dialogueand deliberation are processes in which a diverse group of people moves towardmaking a collective decision on a difficult public issue.

This primer offers a blueprint for achieving the civicmission of higher education by incorporating dialogue and deliberation intolearning at colleges and universities. It opens by providing a conceptualframework, with leading voices in the dialogue and deliberation field providinginsights on issues pertinent to college campuses, from free speech and academicfreedom to neutrality and the role of deliberation in civic engagement.Subsequent sections describe a diverse range of methods and approaches used by severalorganizations that pioneered and sustained deliberative practices; outline someof the many ways in which educators and institutions are using dialogue anddeliberation in curricular, co-curricular, and community spaces, including venuessuch as student centers, academic libraries, and residence halls. All of thechapters, including a Resource Section, provide readers with a starting pointfor conceptualizing and implementing their own deliberation and dialogueinitiatives.

This book, intended for all educators who are concerned aboutdemocracy, imparts the power and impact of public talk, offers the insights andexperiences of leading practitioners, and provides the grounding to adopt oradapt the models in their own settings to create educative spaces andexperiences that are humanizing, authentic, and productive. It is an importantresource for campus leaders, student affairs practitioners, librarians, andcenters of institutional diversity, community engagement, teaching excellenceand service-learning, as well as faculty, particularly those in the fields of communicationstudies, education, and political science.