Overview:

Focuses on two or three public issues chosen by the instructor for their accessibility and the possibility of dialogue in them; for example, the potential for dialogue around the issue of: (a) Canada’s role in international peace-keeping and protective intervention; (b) the GVRD’s narcotics policy and practices; or (c) aboriginal communities urban life. Readings will be provided on both the specific issues and the analytic questions about dialogue, see below. Special guests will be invited to discuss their experience with the specific public issues, and with dialogue and negotiation in general.

Grading:

Participation 10%

Mid-term Exam 30%

Final Project 60%

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the school will also follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current calendar, General Regulations Section).

Seminar Topics Include:

The social organization of public issues.

The formation of public opinion and the framing of issues.

The use of rhetoric in the definition of public issues.

The shift from public issues to public controversy.

The history of successful and unsuccessful interventions in public controversy

The role of dialogue and negotiation in public issues

Understanding the politics and socio-economics of public issues

Experts and expertise in public issues and the media.

Issues, controversy, and conflict.

Qualified Instructors:

Robert Anderson, Robert Hackett, Martin Laba, Gary McCarron, Catherine Murray.

Examples of Required Readings on dialogue and negotiation (full bibliography of 100 readings available on request):

Altheide, David L., An Ecology of Communication: Cultural Formats of Control. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1995.

Anderson, Rob, K.N. Cissna, and R.C. Arnett (eds.), The Reach of Dialogue: Confirmation, Voice and Community. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1994.

Anderson, Rob, L.A. Baxter, and K.N. Cissna (eds.), Dialogue: Theorizing Difference in Communication Studies. London: Sage, 2004.

Asher, Nicholas and Alex Lascarides, Logics of Conversation. Cambridge University Press, 2003. See chapter 8, “Dispute in Dialogue”.

Banathy, Bela and P.M. Jenlink (eds.), Dialogue as a Means of Collective Action. New York: Kluwer, 2005.

Grudin, Robert, On Dialogue: An Essay in Free Thought. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Kolb, D., When Talk Works: Profiles of Mediators. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994.

Raiffa, H., Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making. Harvard University Press, 2002. See part 4, “Many Parties: Multi-Party Interventions”.

Roberts, N.C. (ed.), The Transformative Power of Dialogue. Oxford JAI, 2002. Vol. 12 in “Research in Public Policy and Management”.