Source: (2012) Dissertation. Master of Arts (Restorative Justice). Hull University.
People make up communities. Communities make up nations. If restorative processes are
capable of transforming people then they must also be capable of transforming communities
and nations. There are many definitions of restorative practice but the unifying denominator
is essentially that a dialogue occurs. Scripted and facilitated restorative dialogue aside for a
moment, I ask does dialogue have transformative qualities in its own right and if so, to what
extent? How deep are the transformations? Do personal transformations impact the
community? Can such transformations through dialogue impact on justice as well? In
researching this hypothesis, in-depth interviews were conducted with delegates of the unique
Organised Dialogues conducted between July 2009 and July 2012. The astonishing findings
that transformation is occurring on multiple levels as a direct result of engaging in true
dialogue reveals areas of insight and poses questions of great significance for peace
negotiators, government ministers, organisational theorists, change managers, community
builders and conflict resolvers, in fact all who inhabit the landscape of transformation. (author’s abstract)
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