Intergroup Dialogue: A Critical-Dialogic Model for Conflict Engagement

AbstractIn this chapter, we focus on intergroup dialogue as a particular approach to intergroup conflict. Extending the tradition of intergroup contact, intergroup dialogue seeks to engage participants from diverse backgrounds to build relationships and enhance collaborative social justice actions to address intergroup conflicts. We use a conceptual framework of affective, analytical, and action asymmetries to understand how intergroup conflicts manifest in intergroup dialogue between members of high-power and low-power groups. We draw on participant reflections to illustrate how they experience the four-stage intergroup dialogue model and how they see the asymmetries manifest in their interactions. Participant narratives also help illustrate how four critical-dialogic communication processes—engaging self, appreciating difference, critical reflection, and alliance building—enable participants to engage across these asymmetries in both learning about intergroup conflicts and learning from the intergroup conflicts that occur in their interactions.