Page 137 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

Civic dialogue is seen in many ways as a dynamic action carried out through the sharing

of thoughts and opinions on issues of common concern. The literature details civic and deliberative

processes, which includes all or parts of the following steps: issue framing, goals and intent, the

invitation, setting and context (the dialogue environment and gathering space), the dialogue and,

the resulting outcome and/or action. Of prominent focus in the practice of deliberative dialogue

and discourse is on what is said, the words that are shared, and the interactions between participants

and facilitators. The process of sharing and the practice of deliberative dialogue also involves

hearing all voices and divergent perspectives through the act of listening.

The literature of sociology, communications and media, and international cultural studies

provided insight into the act and role of listening in democratic processes. References to

courageous listening (Husband, 2000, 2009), listening in silence (Fiumara, 1990), and path

building (Bickford, 1996) are distinct aspects of the civic and deliberative dialogue interactions

that affect the experience and flow of interaction. Listening precedes understanding, whereby

listening “is an act of attention, a willingness to focus on the other, to heed both their presence and

their communication and understanding, an act of empathetic comprehension and will to search

for the other’s intention and meaning” (Husband, 2009, p. 441). Fiumara’s concept (1990) of

listening in silence promoted a non-Western view of communication and expression using a

“logocentric culture in which the bearers of the word are predominately involved in speaking,

molding and framing” (p. 23) in a space which advanced understanding in the absence of words.

Courageous listening (Husband, 2000, 2009) is a concept that extends mere listening in a

way that makes it, in the context of public communication and democratic discourse, a public

obligation for promoting discourse or dialogue across difference. As such, courageous or inter-

subjective listening (Bickford, 1996) addressed the interactions and positioning of privilege in

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