Page 419 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

complexion of Metasphere composition when conflict and disagreement surface. As such, in

addition to describing the emergent tensions and disagreements during the dialogues on bias and

race, my research explored an expanded concept of the ‘meta dimension’ which includes feelings,

cares and reflections of participants and facilitators and the metaphosrical process needed for

working through.

Community Conversations and other forms of public engagement are initiatives that put

everyday people at the center of local problem solving. Community Conversations, as a form of

local engagement, empowers residents and stakeholders (business owners, and organizers) with an

approach for tackling difficult issues through authentic conversations that promote relationship

building and a means of peeling back divergent thoughts, opinions and interests. While local group

dialogue processes can result in collective action, relative to the local dialogues on social issues

such as race, the primary outcomes emerging from the sustained effort was twofold, including

risking to engage and the development of new understandings.

Unlike debate, Community Conversations offer a form of group dialogue that is based on

exploring differences without a presumed attitude that the outcome will produce an individual

winner or loser. Rather, local dialogues in this format is an approach to local leadership that allows

the public to confront differences as a practice that promotes civic wellbeing in a way that is

distributed and leaderful (Raelin, 2011). Demonstrating attunement to one’s attentive presence (I-

awareness) and leadership-exemplified (LE) practice, through dialogue is not just talk, rather it is

participatory action and learning derived from a higher level of engagement through Community

Conversation.

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