Page 134 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

new profound awareness gained by all of the dialogue attendees. Not to be detoured from the lack

of interest from participants in this regard I was curious to find out if the mechanics of dialogue

that led to a change in consciousness was primarily a function of process rather than process and

content combined. This sort of data gathering that was focused on identity within Community

Conversations was unknown at the time when my research proposal was developed and approved.

I had enjoyed dialogues of introspection and esoteric consideration of consciousness raising

offered by the Krishnamurti organization in Ojai, California and the efforts derived from the

intentional dialogue efforts spawned from David Bohm’s work which still fascinate me deeply.

Data gathering from Community Conversations had to encompass the dialogues that

primarily focused on topical themes that were commonly discussed in the groups I observed which

necessitated the addition of this section to the literature review to address the critical social issues

and societal dynamics that were of concern – which in essence was the purpose for the dialogue.

The Albany NY dialogues on implicit bias and race convened in a series of venues, over a 3.5

week period generated rich data gathering and the examination of a range of perspectives and

understanding about participant’s conversations on these topics. The dialogues on race and implicit

bias (which was my first Community Conversation series attended outside of California) provided

a forum for participants to explore ideas and perspectives and expand their understanding about

race relations and discrimination from local stories of personal experiences in small group settings.

Because the topic of the Community Conversation series in Albany maintained a singular

theme of “Implicit Bias” each session had a starter video or slides introducing the topic which gave

a contextual understanding for discussion and heightened interest in participating in the dialogues.

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