Intergroup Dialogue: Deliberative Democracy in School, College, Community, and Workplace

Intergroup dialogue represents a grassroots effort to meet one of the major challenges facing our democracy today: the lack of communication among diverse groups of people in schools, in communities, and in the workplace. By forging lines of communication among different elements of society, intergroup dialogue helps to create a more just, harmonious, and strong democracy.

Intergroup Dialogue is the most comprehensive study of intergroup dialogue to date, showcasing twelve in-depth case studies, offering critical perspectives, and exploring the foundation of such dialogue in democratic theory. The case studies are drawn from leading American organizations offering intergroup dialogue, including the Anti-Defamation League and the National Conference for Community and Justice, as well as several major universities and consultants to corporate America. Each case study presents a particular program's rationale, its details, an account of its successes, and evaluation data.

The pieces collected by David Schoem and Sylvia Hurtado will be of interest to community leaders, teachers, human resources managers, student affairs deans, and intergroup dialogue practitioners in the United States and abroad; particularly as the 2024 presidential election draws near.

David Schoem is Faculty Director of the Michigan Community Scholars Program and teaches in the Sociology Department, University of Michigan.

Sylvia Hurtado is Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Michigan Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.