Page 110 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

(e.g., Arabs and Israelis, Russians and Afghans). Mikhail Bakhtin, an influential Russian social

thinker and literary critic, has strikingly original insights into the role of dialogue in literature. A

physicist, a Hebrew philosopher, a Russian intellectual, a diplomat, two management theorists —

it would be difficult to find a more diverse group of people. All of them have discovered something

special about dialogue, and in each instance the discovery grew directly out of work in their own

fields. Whether arising from fear, avoidance, denial, lack of critical thinking or from reluctance to

engage in difficult dialogues in an environment ill-prepared for genuine discussion (a viewpoint

held by many critics)—silences such as these undermine the basic premises of dialogue and creates

isolation. The implications are potentially wide-ranging—from an increasingly stagnant

intellectual climate where social experiences are divorced from thorny contemporary problems, to

a retreat to the cultures of disciplines with the scope of classroom activity relatively circumscribed.

(Clark) These silences occur in the widening gap between the content of our communal discourse

and the realities of our political, economic and social world. Many believe that this problem has

become systemic and indicative of what is happening not only in the home where Netflix

dominates, but in contemporary American education as well as in public discourse across the US.

The Public Sphere and Public Spaces

Public space, the public sphere, and civic gathering places describe the locations where

people gather to do the business of the public. Public spaces have a uniting quality and are

environments where members of the community assemble freely. Public spaces connect and

generate sharing among unaffiliated individuals. Throughout history and in urban centers, the

public square has existed as a physical gathering place where individuals assemble for dialogue

and a candid exchange of thoughts, opinions, and perspectives.

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