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Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change

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Reviewed by Rocio Chaveste, Kanankil Institute, Mexico 2011

In the midst of this globalized world in which we live, the book invites us to think about Dialogue as a tool to generate democratic spaces with shared meanings. Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change, was written by three women and one man who met, in the summer of 2005, to talk about supporting the Nelson Mandela Foundation's Dialogue work in South Africa. The objective, as describe in the introduction, is to share "dialogue methods applicable to face-to-face gatherings of groups of people meeting to address collective social challenges".

More than a theoretical treatise about dialogue, this book reads as a handbook for practitioners. However, it presents in the first section called Foundations, some necessary principles to take into account as we embark in the process of facilitating social change for groups, organizations and communities independently of their size. In the second part the authors describe, step by step, 10 different methods including examples of their use and a brief discussion of each one. In addition to these, they introduce us briefly to other ways of being with each other that run from Deep Ecology developed by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, to the Theatre of the Oppressed as practiced since the 1950's in Brazil.

The last section, called Epilogue, engages us with their reflections on dialogue and community and its meaning in Southern Africa. The book is a must for those of us who are deeply involved in the process of co-constructing a better future for all.

This book is intended to expand the idea of dialogue through the numerous tools as they exist today in the world. The authors invite the reader into a journey around the multiple tools developed to enhance rich, controversial, evolutionary dialogue in organizations, communities, families, political and social settings. The book gives an accurate approach of each tool, complete with a method fingerprint intended to give the reader an overall view and appreciation of the value and insight of every tool presented. A captivating tool of tools, relevant for students, leaders, social workers and educators, as well as other lay persons.