Page 36 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

“We can build an economy that does not destroy its natural support systems, a global community
where the basic needs of all the Earth’s people are satisfied, and a world that will allow us to

think of ourselves as civilized. This is entirely doable.”

- Lester Brown

Related Groups and Forms of Community Conversations and Expression

There are many descriptions and names like Community Conversations that describe

attempts at civic involvement and include various forms of participatory groups, deliberative acts

of engagement, public forums and citizen action. There are many usable terms and interchangeably

are referenced to a growing movement of group communication that are more than likely to meet

face to face than on Facebook. While my research primarily references gatherings that are termed

Community Conversations there is no central national organization monitoring them or leading

the charge. There are however dozens of different intentional dialogue groups ranging from

location, intention and purpose. An example of established ongoing efforts includes “Study

Circles” which changed its name to Everyday Democracy to provide a clearer sense of the

meaning of dialogue-to-change work is a nationally disseminated small-group dialogue process,

refined and headquartered in Pomfret, Connecticut. Similarly, the National Issues Forum is a

model for structured public discussion developed and promoted by the National Issues Forums

Institute in Dayton, Ohio. The Public Conversations Project promotes constructive

conversations and relationships among people who have differing values, world views, and

perspectives about divisive public issues. PCP designs and facilitates conversations in which

people who have become destructively divided by their differences can deliberately avoid

repeating their habitual, unproductive ways of relating and, instead, develop new modes of

communicating that lead to mutual understanding, respect and trust. “Conversations Cafes” (a

simple, easily-learnable process designed to contribute to a culture of dialogue and meaningful

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