Different approaches to group dialogue : an exploratory study of the inter-relatedness of analogous types of planned collective dialogue processes

This paper reports on the findings of a study of planned group dialogue processes conducted between November 1999 and March 2001 using a survey of practitioners, conversations with selected dialogists, and an integrative literature review of selected theorists. It explores a number of dialogue processes with the objective of determining whether or not there is an underlying order to the field. In finding that organizing principles do exist, the study recommends a typology for practitioners and researchers to use as a nomenclature in describing the many types of contemporary and indigenous dialogue processes. The study explores secondary questions about the types of dialogue practitioners and theorists cite and the distinguishing criteria they use for differentiating dialogue types, such as methods of facilitation and whether a dialogue has a strategic concern or is non-contingent