The publication of this `workbook' by Flanagan and Bausch comes at a time that is desperately needed. The science of structured dialogic science (SDD) is very young. Nonetheless, in the arena of applications, it has already supported hundreds of groups and thousands of people realize organizational changes to degrees that would have never been achievable with any other approach. The methodology has been successfully applied hundreds of times in non-governmental settings, peace groups, businesses, local authorities, governments, and international organizations. Alone our group based in Cyprus has applied the methodology in almost a 100 pan-European settings, which cover the whole spectrum of applications ranging from education, youth, peace and culture, to science, research and technology.
Despite the explosive number of worldwide implementations, a practical guide to the application of the methodology of dialogic design, which addresses the needs of both trained facilitators as well as students, was missing. The `workbook' by Flanagan and Bausch comes to rescue. It not only fills this gap, but moreover it sets new standards and new objectives for the wider dissemination and exploitation of SDD.
The approach of Flanagan and Bausch, to allow the exploration into the problématique of global sustainability, to be conducted either online in virtual classrooms or face-to-face in traditional course settings opens also the door for the envisioned scalability of SDD, which capitalizes on emerging communication technologies. Their work will hopefully facilitate the transition of our mindset from the `virtual classroom' to the `virtual dialogue' concept.
The examples in this `workbook' take inspiration from the kind of problems, for which SDD was originally developed, i.e., growing worldwide complexities and uncertainties. The student will inevitably embrace the thesis that the type of wicked problems that mankind faces are of a global nature and it is therefore indispensable that also our actions towards their resolution capitalize from methodologies that facilitate the harnessing of the collective wisdom and target their interventions to those elements of the system that have the greatest capability to influence change at the global level.
In sum, the `workbook' by Flanagan and Bausch constitutes an excellent contribution in our effort to achieve greater awareness as well as to build capacity across the world that will serve as leverage to positive social transformations.
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