Overcoming violence through a democratic and dialogical process
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
In this article, I present a way of understanding how to overcome violence through dialogue and the democratic organization of group relations. The goal is to discuss how this approach to overcoming violence in an NGO (non-governmental organization) revealed the need to be flexible, to listen to each other, and to be willing to create a new unknown path together with the students by developing the activities to overcome violence (AOV). The objective of the AOV was to change the interpersonal relationships in the organization, to make it a place of co-existence for the children and adults, and to overcome this preponderant form of relational violence. I present actual events that took place at a Brazilian NGO specifically founded to provide care for children at social risk. The project I designed at the NGO focused on the (re-)organization of teaching activities and daily life as a community practice creating a community as a space where the relationships among the participants could become more democratic. The idea was to transform the power and individualistic domination of the NGO’s teachers, coordinators, or founders into shared power relationships established through democratic and dialogical processes.
The expected result was that the young attendees of the NGO would become community authors of their own life in the institution and have more personal autonomy. this process also showed us that while we could transform reality, the reality was also transforming our expectations. The very dynamics of the dialogical process require openness in the sense that one cannot predefine the goals according to one’s wishes. One has to be ready to accept the new, unexpected issues that may arise through dialogues and change initial objectives. In any case, I would reckon that one cannot strictly control the dialogical process. For this reason, the means and instruments, as well as the procedures for the AOV have to be understood, created, and reinvented during the process by the participants themselves and not by a single person prior to the AOV. The results showed that an action plan and instruments could only be suggested as a guide during the events, but not as an a priori condition, independent of all those involved in the actions taken.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.
References
Bakhtin, M. M. (1999). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. Translated by Caryl Emerson (v. 8).. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Dafermos, M. (2018). Relating dialogue and dialectics: a philosophical perspective. Dialogic Pedagogy: An International Online Journal, 6. doi: 10.5195/dpj.2018.189.
Ilyenkov, E. V. (1982). The dialectics of the abstract and the concrete in Marx's Capital. Moscow: Progress.
Lane, S. T. M. (1994). O processo grupal. In S. T. M Lane & W. Godo (Eds.). Psicologia social: o homem em movimento. (13th ed). São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense.
Leontiev, A. (1978a). O desenvolvimento do psiquismo. Tradução de Manuel Dias Duarte. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte.
Leontiev, A. N. (2009). The Development of Mind. Pacifica, CA: Marxist Internet Archive Publications, 419 pp.
Leontiev, A. (1978b). Actividad, conciencia y personalidad. Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Hombre.
Lukács, György. (2010). Prolegômenos para uma ontología do ser social. Tradução de Lya Luft e Rodnei Nascimento. São Paulo: Boitempo.
Marino Filho, A (2012). Sentido de comunidade e formação da consciência: bases orientadoras para o fazer do psicólogo. In Anais, 1th International Congress on Historical-Cultural Theory e 11th Journey of the Nucleus of Education of Marília, Brazil. Abstract retrieved from: http://www.inscricoes.fmb.unesp.br/publicacao.asp?codTrabalho=NTMxMA==.
Marino Filho, A. (2014). Educação, Formação de Sentido e Sofrimento Psicológico. In Anais, 17th Journey of the Nucleus of Education of Marília and 4th International Congress on Historical-Cultural Theory Marília, Brazil. Abstract retrieved from: http://www.inscricoes.fmb.unesp.br/principal.asp
Martín-Baró, I. (1989). El grupo humano. In I. Martín-Baró. Sistema, grupo y poder. San Salvador: UCA Ed.
Matusov, E., A. Marjanovic-Shane (2015). Rehabilitation of Power in Democratic Dialogic Education. Democracy in Dialogue, Dialogue in Democracy: The Politics of Dialogue in Theory and Practice. K. Jezierska and L. Koczanowicz. London, Routledge. http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/Articles/Matusov,%20Marjanovic-Shane,%20Rehabilitation%20of%20power%20in%20Democratic%20Dialogic%20Education,%202015.pdf
Montero, M. (2004). Introducción a la psicología comunitaria: Desarrollo, conceptos y procesos. Buenos Aires :Editorial Paidós.
Sánchez Vázquez, A., (1977), The Philosophy of Praxis, Merlin Press, London
Vásquez, A. S. (1980). Filosofia de la práxis. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Volosinov, V.N. 1929/1973, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Translated by L. Matejka and I.R. Titunik, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-55098-6.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986) Thought and Language. Trad. Rev. Ed. Alex Kozulin. The MIT Press Cambridge: Massachusetts London, England.
Vygotsky, L. (1987). Imagination and its development in childhood. In: The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky Volume 1: Problems of General Psychology Edited by Robert W. Rieber and Aaron S. Carton. Plenum Press. New York and London
Vygotsky, L. S. (2000). Obras escogidas III. Trad. Lidia Kuper. Madrid: Visor.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2001a). A construção do pensamento e da linguagem. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.