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This article reflects on the complexity of co-generative learning processes between a university and regional actors, drawing on the author's experience facilitating an action research course. The course engages students in collaborating with regional practitioners on real-life territorial development challenges. Through glimpses into the co-generation process from student exam papers, the article highlights the challenges students face in navigating ambiguity and complexity when exposed to real-life territorial issues. Concepts such as regional complexity, Bildung, interiority, and democratic dialogue are used to analyze how structured reflection and facilitation through participation with regional actors can enhance students' critical capacities for reflection and action. The main theoretical contribution is extending the concept of co-generative learning of Morten Levin and action research for territorial development by integrating students as reflective, facilitative actors in educational and regional development processes. Action research for territorial development provides a framework for accompanying the social transformations needed to address complex challenges. The article shows that by engaging in real-life issues through participatory, reflective processes, students develop crucial skills for facilitating collective territorial development efforts. Despite limitations related to geographic context and the course structure, the insights gained offer valuable implications for applying Levin's legacy in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bestuurskunde is the property of Boom uitgevers Den Haag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conformity and polarization are two reactions to pathogen threats like the Covid-19 pandemic. This article discusses the dilemma between protecting public health as well as preserving the democratic dialogue and constitutional rights. I compare two countries which reacted very differently to the pandemic. While Germany was marked by high social conformity levels, in the United States political polarization was predominant. The analysis focuses on the time between March and November 2020. I show, first, the differences and interactions between conformity and polarization. Second, societies seem to be more aware and concerned about polarization than about conformity. Third, I show that both reactions, high conformity and polarization levels, are detrimental for the democratic dialogue and constitutional rights.

In this article, Barbara Applebaum examines "the inability to disagree claim" as it arises in objections made by those who want to ban "critical race theory" from being taught in schools and universities. Employing insights from the recent scholarship around willful hermeneutical ignorance, she discerns the important role that marginalized conceptual resources play in conditions of just and constructive dialogue. When such resources are misinterpreted and denied uptake, the resulting harm impedes the epistemic agency of marginally situated knowers. Applebaum claims that many high‐profile anti–"critical race theory" arguments put forth by politicians, scholars, and others are a form of willful hermeneutical ignorance, and she concludes by showing how more just communications, in which disagreement is distinguishable from dismissal, can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conformity and polarization are two reactions to pathogen threats like the Covid-19 pandemic. This article discusses the dilemma between protecting public health as well as preserving the democratic dialogue and constitutional rights. I compare two countries which reacted very differently to the pandemic. While Germany was marked by high social conformity levels, in the United States political polarization was predominant. The analysis focuses on the time between March and November 2020. I show, first, the differences and interactions between conformity and polarization. Second, societies seem to be more aware and concerned about polarization than about conformity. Third, I show that both reactions, high conformity and polarization levels are detrimental for the democratic dialogue and constitutional rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ethics communication has been described as a pedagogical form, promoting development of ethical competence among nursing students. The 'one to five method' was developed by this research group as a tool for facilitating ethical communication in groups among healthcare professionals but has not yet been evaluated. Aim: To explore post-graduate nursing students' experiences of practicing ethical communication in groups Research design: The study design is qualitative. Participants and research context: The study comprised 12 nursing students on a post-graduate course for Registered Nurses focusing on palliative care. After education the students engaged as participants and facilitators in ethics communication in groups, with support from the 'one to five method'. Data were derived from the students written reflections and subjected to thematic analysis. Ethical considerations: The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards in the 2013 Helsinki Declaration and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty at Umeå University Results: An overall theme was identified, 'being supported to achieve a democratic dialogue concerning ethical problems' and five themes, related to each step of the 'one to five method'. The themes concerned: putting the experience of an ethical dilemma into words; being confirmed by shared emotions; defining the value conflict using ethical principles; expressing virtues of empathy and raised awareness; jointly finding various action approaches. Discussion: Regular ethics communication in groups encourages nursing students to actively seek understanding and clarification of ethically difficult situations. Conclusions: The results indicate that ethics communication in groups could be a way of developing virtues during education. Interventions using the 'one to five method' need to be further studied among student groups from other healthcare contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to gain knowledge about key conditions in the process of digitalization using a socio-technical systems design as a theoretical framework and a case-study approach. Semi-structured interviews with 15 relevant stakeholders are conducted to learn about barriers to and enablers of the development and implementation process in a manufacturing company. After conducting a thematic analysis, eight higher-ranked themes relevant to the digitalization process are identified. These are grouped to describe the overarching phenomena, resulting in four enablers (shared trust, shared visual understanding, shared user perspective, and shared learning) and four barriers (trusting the system, understanding benefits, perspective of economics, and learning to manage scope). The study takes a holistic view of digitalization in its investigation of the development and subsequent implementation processes. The findings contribute to the literature via three key takeaways for stakeholders of a digitalization process in manufacturing. First, it is vital to understand and strengthen the role of the key enablers identified in this paper. Second, managers should observe and identify barriers in their own organizations, related both to technical and social aspects. Third, some of the enablers described in this paper can serve managers as helpful tools to approach the expected barriers to digitalization. This paper also challenges the research literature by arguing that research conducted on digitalization that sets new standards and premises for the working life in industry needs to use up-to-date socio-technical design concepts and theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The democratic dialogue model is a domestic constitutional model of rights protection, which is used to explain and evaluate the relationship between domestic courts and legislatures. It is characterised by there being some capacity on the part of the legislature to respond to a court decision and it claims, among other things, to produce a 'better protection of human rights'. This paper examines whether the democratic dialogue model can be, and should be, applied to the relationship between state legislatures and, respectively, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union (the European Courts). The paper first demonstrates that this proposed application of the model differs from other accounts of dialogue hitherto applied at the transnational level. It examines how exactly the model can be applied to the relationship between national legislatures and the European Courts and it demonstrates that the model provides an explanatory framework for the interactions between the institutions. It argues that the normative claims of the domestic dialogue model are achieved when the model is applied in the proposed way, but it acknowledges that the achievement of those normative claims might not always be desirable at the transnational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that a theory of human needs is essential to buttress and give content to the concept of consumption corridors. In particular it enables us to, first, define a safe, just, and sustainable space for humanity, and second, to decompose and recompose consumption based on a distinction between necessities and luxuries. After an introduction, the article is divided into four parts. The first compares different concepts of human needs and concentrates on universalizable need theories. The second presents a method for agreeing on contextual need satisfiers, and the third discusses current research identifying the floors of poverty and necessities. A fourth section then sets out how sustainable needs can underpin the upper bound of the corridor and how this ceiling might be measured in income and consumption terms. However, once we move from a national to a global perspective a profound dilemma is encountered as rich country corridors diverge from a global consumption corridor.

Copyright of Revista Derecho del Estado is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article argues that a theory of human needs is essential to buttress and give content to the concept of consumption corridors. In particular it enables us to, first, define a safe, just, and sustainable space for humanity, and second, to decompose and recompose consumption based on a distinction between necessities and luxuries. After an introduction, the article is divided into four parts. The first compares different concepts of human needs and concentrates on universalizable need theories. The second presents a method for agreeing on contextual need satisfiers, and the third discusses current research identifying the floors of poverty and necessities. A fourth section then sets out how sustainable needs can underpin the upper bound of the corridor and how this ceiling might be measured in income and consumption terms. However, once we move from a national to a global perspective a profound dilemma is encountered as rich country corridors diverge from a global consumption corridor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we focus on how Chinese students' experience emerged and evolved in the educational activities of the twenty-first century, one hundred years after John Dewey's visit to China. With the help of a case study, I find that (1) the individual's experience is lived and understood in combination with others' lives; (2) democratic dialogue is a concrete way of democratic life; and (3) the teacher is more of an escort than a trainer in the evolution of the students' experience systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Literatura y Lingüística is the property of Universidad Catolica Cardenal Raul Silva Henriquez and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Políticas Públicas is the property of Revista Brasileira de Politicas Publicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines three questions regarding the controversial relationship between Greece and the eurozone during the current crisis. First, why was Greece “bailed-out” in 2010? Second, why the Greek economy collapsed despite the largest “bail-out” in global financial history? Third, was the electoral mandate of the Syriza government for ending austerity while remaining in the eurozone contradictory? There are conflicting answers to all three questions and the paper compares the answers of the so called “dominant narrative” to those provided by the “counter-narrative” of the eurozone crisis. The paper reaches the following conclusions. First, the primary motivation for the “bail-out” of Greece was the maintenance of European and global financial stability. Second, although programme implementation was less successful in Greece than in other “programme” countries the catastrophic collapse of the Greek economy had more to do with the programme itself than its implementation. Third, the meaning of democratic decision-making in the Euro-group needs re-appraisal and must go beyond seeing the Greek demand of a policy reversal in the eurozone as simply a clash of democratic mandates in a 19 member monetary union. Political unity will not only improve efficiency but also democracy and accountability in eurozone policymaking.

Copyright of International Journal of Action Research is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the global world produces new social problems and the continuously changing environment of work organizations calls for new modes of operation, there emerges a need for discussion forums to analyze and find practical solutions, involving the people concerned. This article examines, within the framework of realist evaluation, the potential of democratic dialogue, a Nordic method of workplace development, to generate outcomes that are put into practice in work organizations. Democratic dialogue is seen as a social program that, by providing the participants with new resources and new reasoning in work conferences and other dialogue forums, enables them to make new choices. The focus is on three Finnish action research networks applying democratic dialogue, and the recompilation of these cases along the Context-Mechanism-Outcomes formula of realist evaluation. Changes in the organizational patterns of communication, linked to the criteria of democratic dialogue and the design of work conferences, are identified and examined through the lenses of varied organizational concepts that elaborate the underlying processes generating change. The article suggests further research to compare cases with the same starting points but differing outcomes to trace the finer distinctions in the preconditions for accomplishing the desired objectives.

Copyright of International Journal of Action Research is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents the results of a structural and semantic analysis of the concept of new political communication which, according to the theory of the English researcher Brian McNair, includes: political rhetorics, the actions of symbolic communication and some actions with political connotation. The three categories of political communication, defined on the basis of the criterion: the intention of emitter to the political environment, were studied and described in order to argue the transformation of the process of transmission-reception of political messages from a unidirectional dialogue into a bidirectional one. This theoretical approach has served to justify the role of the online component of the election campaign as the main innovative element of political marketing model of the XXIst century. The conclusion was that communication between candidates and voters is totally different from that of the political marketing model of the XXth century. Known in scientific literature as bottom-up communication, it allows voters to be actively involved in election campaigns thanks to the input possibilities and feedback offered by new media: e-mail, SMS, forums, websites, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the pressing need for humans to limit their consumption to more supportable levels, this study investigated how one social studies teacher taught the social issues associated with a sustainable food supply. This article discusses what the teacher's curricular, pedagogical, and assessment strategies were in engaging students with dialogical questions about more sustainable consumption. In addition, it offers insights for how such instructional techniques might inform a more personally- responsive approach to teaching about sustainability education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses action research strategies in regional development. It argues that regional settings are complex, and conceptualises this as the "third place". This complexity implies a democratic challenge. Furthermore, using regional leadership as a case, it argues that in order to approach this as action researchers, one needs to discuss the assumptions the research is based on. The article discusses two action research approaches: the socio-technical approach and the democratic dialogue approach, and argues that in the complex setting of the "third place", and at a pragmatic level, one might use insights from the two approaches. The argument for this is that regional development in practical terms both implies functional and structural challenges, but is also a matter of meaning construction. We discuss this as sequential governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 30 years have seen the development of 'New Commonwealth' forms of judicial review. These models of review are characterized by an emphasis on institutional dialogue over either legislative or judicial supremacy. Thus, instead of giving courts a strike down power, dialogic review grants courts the power to declare legislation 'incompatible' with human rights norms while leaving the final say on the legislation with the legislature. This article explores the potential for controversy when such a non-binding mechanism is employed in the arena of the criminal law. In particular, it focuses on the Northern Irish case of R v McR and the Australian case of Momcilovic v the Queen. These cases demonstrate the difficulties associated with the operation of dialogic review in the criminal law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many proponents of action research for democracy seem to presuppose that to anchor action research in democratic ideals is a sufficient base for action researchers to legitimate their democratic purposes and intentions. This article starts out from the presupposition that anchoring action research in democratic ideals is in fact idealism, and argues the case that action research for democracy has to be anchored in some democratic institution of society to have a real legitimacy base for engaging in cooperation with others on democratic development. From this point of departure, a Scandinavian approach for democracy that aims at impact on society as well as social science is presented. The article presents just selected aspects of this tradition. The presentation is based on the presumption that some of the aspects, that seem to be relevant only within a Scandinavian context, may in fact have general relevance for any other approach of action research for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and writing of public policies aimed at the use and/or promotion of foreign languages or public linguistic policies does not take into account a participatory effort from the different groups of society that will by benefitted or affected by their implementation; on the contrary, the responsibility of developing these policies (such as the Colombian National Bilinguism Plan) has been left in the hands of experts in the topic. The role of citizens as participants in the development and/or evaluation of public linguistic policies for the promotion and teaching of foreign languages is practically inexistent and the Colombian State has not established participation strategies. This paper proposes the use of democratic dialogue as a participatory tool for the design of more contextualized policies, that involve all the agents benefitted or affected by their implementation. The most appropriate way for the government and society to come together is through the exercise of those essential rights that allow and guarantee optimum conditions for dialogue, debate, criticism, dissent, and open discussion among parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about an action research project which took place from 1976 - 1979 in a screw factory in Northern Germany. This is long time ago, but the action research process has developed perspectives which are very up to date thirty five years later, in German trade unions as well as in work life in general. Within a joint learning and development endeavour 45 workers and a group of 5 researchers (3 sociologists, 1 psychologist, 1 engineer) have co-operated in a democratic participation process. We experienced action research as dialogical, devoted to democracy as a value, enhancing all participants' innovative qualifications, and very much based on joint learning and education. One of the main results is the better knowledge of preconditions for democratic participation in work life: Democratic participation needs public spaces in organisations; it needs time to develop; changes must meet participants' interests; cooperation between participants has to be as much non-hierarchical as possible (see Gustavsen's concept of democratic dialogue: Gustavsen 1992); and there has to be a lot of learning and education incorporated into the action research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kind of influence do the organisers and foresight professionals exercise over the process of a foresight study or project? Are they architects or pawns in a power game? The influence of organisers on the process and outcome of participatory foresight for public dialogue and policy-making is a still understudied, but increasingly important aspect of evaluating foresight projects. With multi-stakeholder participation reaching new levels of complexity in foresight projects, organising becomes a critical success factor. This paper looks at the organising process and the influence of organisers in a foresight project conducted by the Research Council of Norway, and in a Norwegian municipality. Highlighting the taken-for-granted practices might lead to a better understanding of the underlying dynamics of local processes and the wider implications for the future of national organisations and democratic dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role that visual literacy can play in promoting cricital dialogue among young children. Edith Malcolm, a Jamacian-born US teacher was observed as she encouraged her class of six to eight year olds to learn to ‘read the world‘ through dialogue about the illustrations in picture books. The dialogue generated suggests that even very young children are able to actively participate in democratic dialogue centering on illustrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]