Page 391 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

The process of sustained dialogue includes:

• “People talking and listening carefully, such that they can be changed by what they hear

[and experience as a result of what they heard];

• A continuous process involving the same people in order to transform conflict and

dysfunction in relationships; and

• A design for addressing deep rooted relational conflict” (Saunders, 2011, p. 4).

In keeping with the concept of intergroup contact, sustained dialogue is a process of

relational work to uncover issues that are rooted and perpetuates conflict and division.

A key aspect of the sustained dialogue model involves transforming relationships between

and among people. Sustained dialogue provides a forum for people to dialogue long enough to get

at the issues that divide them by identifying and focusing on facets of the relationship that cause

problems and block resolution (Saunders, 2011). As detailed in Chapter III, the Albany

Community Conversations were advertised as dialogues on Implicit Bias that ended up

incorporating the topics of race as they were presented. The first session had no participatory

dialogue activity, however the second to fourth dates all in 2016 included full dialogue sessions.

Thus, the opportunity for sustained discourse around the topic of race in many respects

includes the days between in-which the dialogue series occurred as well as the period afterwards.

It is not unlikely that the intervening period between the dialogue sessions (for return participants)

offered a period of reflection for attendees and facilitators. Additionally, the opportunity for

reflection during or outside of the actual civic dialogue setting can begin or assist the process of

cognitive or emotional transformation, which is essentially the act of thinking and pondering that

can alter or change current beliefs and thinking (Wheatley, 2007). Few scholars address the effects

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