Transformative conferencing, dialogue and sustainable community

From the 1980s, research and experimentation has focused on three concerns which overlap in a number of ways:

• transformative conferencing
• dialogue
• community 

The idea of sustainable communities is a sub-theme of our research on international organizations. For instance, many of the international organizations and networks we document in the Yearbook of International Organizations can be understood as communities, and in many cases understand themselves to be communities (especially when they become on-line electronic communities of discourse). Similarly, the international conferences we document in the International Congress Calendar can also be understood as "instant communities", and may see themselves as such (especially when they form part of a regular series).

Dialogue has also emerged as a key concern amongst international organizations, in relation to the question of sustainable community. It has been the subject of a number of studies by the UIA, whether linked to or separate from the question of conferencing. With the increasing interest in "sustainability", the psycho-social dimensions of "sustainable community" are seen to be associated with those of "sustainable dialogue".

The assumption is made that key insights into sustainable community can be achieved through explorations of the possibilities and constraints on transformative conferencing. Profiles of processes, conditions and criteria facilitative of transformative approaches to conferencing have been made available in the 1986 edition of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential.

Other resources available on an external site include Selected Websites on Dialogue, Documents Relating to Community, Lifestyle and Occupation and a Discussion on Critical Thinking vs Specious Arguments.