Page 410 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

The theory explains how individuals evaluate their own opinions and abilities by

comparing themselves to others in order to reduce uncertainty in these domains and learn how to

define the self. Following the initial theory, research began to focus on social comparison as a

way of self-enhancement, that once become introduced evoke the concepts of community service,

giving back and expanding personal motivations of social engagement towards causes and serving

the greater good.

Communities in Conversation and Relational Leadership

The dialogues on race also displayed leader-as-exemplified qualities using practices

derived from relation leadership principles and the belief that leadership is derived from everyday

dialogical practices and the belief that “we exist in mutual relationship with others and our

surroundings and as such, we both shape and are shaped through these encounters” (Cunliffe &

Eriksen, 2011). I believe the conveners and facilitators of the Albany NY Community

Conversation dialogues on Implicit Bias intuitively understood the link between dialogism and the

polyphony that emerges from civic and participatory dialogue practice.

Dialogism emphasizes the realizations that conversations are organic, and live on after the

many voices of a fluid, emergent natured (polyphonic) dialogue conversation stops (Cunliffe &

Eriksen, 2011). Through the dialogue, African American, Multiracial and White resident’s ideas

were shared, new meanings were constructed about race from local lens and a historical context.

Civic dialogue focuses on the strength of the collective, which supersedes individual

interests. As such, the dialogue group facilitators assisted participants in creating a dialogue

environment that emphasized a dual individual and collective well-being through the interactions

and conversations of group members interacting in collaboration with facilitator guidance and

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