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a new course of action. He and the other contributors (Will Friedman, Keith Melville, Robert

Kingston, Alison Kadlec, Steven A. Rosell, and Heidi Gantwerk) describe methods used by

organizations like Public Agenda, National Issues Forums, and Viewpoint Learning, Inc., to

advance the public’s learning curve through various forms of civic engagement, education,

dialogue and deliberation. (https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/38393)

Within the context of deliberative democracy and dialogue, coming to public judgment is

an expression that refers to heightening awareness through education, bringing individuals

together with different perspectives to forge alliances, or simply sharing ideas and viewpoints with

others. In identifying the process of arriving at a point of public judgment, Yankelovich (2001)

described a progression of events among those gathered for dialogue comprised of consciousness

raising, followed by working through, and, lastly, resolution. Although the goal of public

engagement process is ultimately consensus and resolution, the bridge between this endpoint and

the initial activity of awareness and education is the important step of working through.

Yankelovich described working through as a process of transition and change.

While Yankelovich’s research considers ‘working through’ from the perspective of public

opinion and the media, the research for this effort will center on the fundamental interactions that

occur among individuals in a group dialogue that might be typically observed in a Community

Conversation setting describing what occurs during the working through process. Civic

engagement and participatory methods of convening, along with dialogue processes, allow for

greater participant voice and involvement in decision-making which should allow for a wider

opening of free expression and interaction of these processes. The act of community-based civic

engagement through dialogue, as evidenced through careful convening, requires that those

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