Dialogue for Transformation

How to Create a Transformative Dialogue Process?

Dialogue is a concept that is used to describe many types of conversation. In some cases the word is used to describe little more than monologue or a series of monologues. We use the term Transformative Dialogue to describe a particular kind of conversation: one that leads to change on a fundamental level.

There are many stories, told by individuals and groups, about challenges in society. They are met by other stories that challenge, contradict or regale them. They are all characterised by the desire for change but very seldom do those who tell the stories meet to explore differences, similarities and possible synergies. Dialogue is a way to create change.

In this page, you’ll find three different stories on how to design and conduct a process that aims to tackle difficult and crucial questions, such as segregation, youth invovement in organized crime and climate crisis – and in the end, change the society through dialogue and stories.

In this page, you can also find The Connect Guide, a practical tool on how to support different groups in creating transformative dialogue.

Story of Oulu

From Misunderstanding to Trust

In Oulu we want to discuss trust in the society. What interests us, is what happens when there is no trust and how it affects young people, the school world, teachers and ultimately Oulu as a whole. And how the lack of trust affects safety in society. Our goal is to understand how we can create change and start implementing it.

As immigrants, people are often afraid, because they don’t trust the system. They are afraid that maybe social workers or the police are intervening in their lives. They are afraid to say what they want to say.

Story of Eskilstuna

Younger and Yonger people are involved in organized crime

We can’t have young people running around having weapons and being criminal. It hurts them, and it obviously hurts the rest of the society. I think it’s such a big problem in Eskilstuna, because we have a lot of segregation.

In Eskilstuna, we want to bring the voice of immigrant background youth from problematic suburbs to decision makers and to the wider audience.

Story of Terrassa

Tackling eco-anxiety with social movement

Eco-anxiety can be understood as the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one’s future and that of next generations.

In Terrassa, we encourage people to embrace the negative feelings and to transform them into positive actions.

When you are in front of this big problem that concerns the whole world, you wonder, can I change these things, or can I change these things on my own? It’s so big and you get scared. You don’t feel that you have the power to change anything and it’s what this is about. We wanted to create a group, where these single persons could feel more powerful, when they are surrounded by other people – like us.

The Connect Guide

The Connect Guide gives a reader pratical excercises and theory on how to approach and understand dialogue, as well as methodology one can use in a dialogue process.

It is titled to be for youthworkers on how to support youth leaders in creating transformative dialogue, but can be used by anybody, who is interested to understand, how one can frame and create transformative dialogue process in a society.