The essentials of dialogue.

Dialogue is a survival skill of the human race. It is based on our ability to share our experiences of the world around us, of others and ourselves. Through speaking we communicate our daily thoughts and feelings, express our wonders, direct everyday actions, teach children to understand the world around them, argue and reconcile.

The Dialogue Book is related to the dialogical approach developed in Finland over the past 30 to 40 years which has then spread around the world. It covers a range of practices for educational, social and care work, as well as for work communities, teams and management of organizations.

The book outlines the principles of dialogue and describes in practical terms the facilitation of dialogical conversation and the role of the facilitator.

Sample chapters

Chapter 1: What is Dialogue?
The definition of dialogue, Differences to other types of conversation, Understanding and trust, Creativity: appropriate play

Chapter 8: Facilitation Acts
Dialogical Questions, Noticing the silent, Limiting speech, Working with emotions, Disagreements, Play

Read the sample chapters here.

Order

You can order the Dialogue Book from Amazon.

Into Kustannus 2024
ISBN-10: ‎ 9523935682
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-9523935686

Dialogical Supervision – Creating A Work Culture Where Everybody Learns is a guide to professional supervision in various fields of expertise. It is written especially for professional supervisors and students of supervision, and yet it also provides insights and tools for those team leaders and managers who act as “everyday supervisors” for their employees. The work is composed as a practical handbook which offers a coherent theoretical description and practical implementation of a new kind of professional supervision.

The book addresses the fundamentals of supervision: learning, reflection and dialogical interaction. It then presents guidelines for practical implementation, diverse orientations, and methods of supervision. The work also includes sections dealing with various types of supervision relationships: individual, community, group and managerial supervision. The different chapters of the book also contain several practical methods which together form a “toolbox for supervisors”.

The basic premise of the book is to emphasise the importance of dialogue in creating a fundamentally different work culture to that which predominates. In celebrating economic growth, ruthless competition and individual achievement, this culture has led to an increasing fragmentation of people’s experiences and the loss of their sense of agency. At the same time, we need to solve extremely complex problems that require unprecedented creativity. In order to deal successfully with the challenges of modern work, we need to utilise the skills and knowledge of every single employee. This book offers clear methods for this to be realised.

DS_Contents

Read the sample “Dialogical interaction” DS_Sample.

While Michel Foucault’s philosophy has been widely influential, it is difficult to grasp in its entirety. The premise of this book is that through the concept of practice a new kind of coherence can be perceived in his work.

The focus of the book is the role of practice in the three axes of Foucault’s philosophy: knowledge, power and ethics. This provides a deeper understanding of his central philosophical question: “How have humans become objects of their own thought?”

Practices and Thought in Michel Foucault’s Philosophy offers a concise introduction to Foucault’s main philosophical ideas. It also makes an original contribution to scholarly discussions of his key concepts and their development in his works.

John Dewey’s philosophy is becoming extremely relevant for our times. From being one of the best-known thinkers in the world in the early 1900s, Dewey’s ideas went into near oblivion for decades. Now it seems that his philosophy was well ahead of his time. Most notably, he created a new philosophy of experience that enables us to rethink our place within nature.

The main innovation of Dewey’s thinking was his new way of understanding the experience of all living beings. Influenced by the theory of evolution, he understood experience as a continuously developing interaction between acting individuals and their environments. From this perspective, Dewey detected the fragmentation of experiences inherent within the modern way of life. The tools he developed to counter this are based upon learning collectively from individual experiences.

John Dewey’s Ecology of Experience reveals the relevance of Dewey’s ideas for our contemporary social, political and ecological crises. It creates a comprehensive picture of his thinking on human psychology, education, ethics, science, art and religion. In its conclusion, the book assesses the main theme in his political philosophy: the democratic way of life.

Under pressure from global economic instability, ecological crises and growing authoritarianism, democracy is critically endangered. In order to secure the future of democracy, we need a new kind of civic activity with dialogue at its core.

Dialogue is crucial for enhancing communication and for cultivating democratic coexistence in our multi-cultural world. Aiming at a better understanding of the world’s phenomena, of other people and ourselves, dialogue helps communities to sustain one of democracy’s most important requirements: people’s ability to learn from one another.

Combining perspectives from political philosophy and the author’s extensive practical work with dialogue, this book affirms the power of dialogue for defending, revitalising, and developing democratic societies. It aims to clarify the meaning of democracy not only as a system of government but also as a moral way of life.

Dialogue in Democracy highlights the vital significance of dialogue for strengthening and maintaining democracy, not just as a political goal but essentially as an ideal to be realised on an everyday basis. The book appeals to a broad diversity of citizens working in different areas of society: in education, business, politics and public services, as well as religious communities, scientists, athletes, and artists.