'Dialogues Unfolded'

  The DIAL project’s coordinator, The Sivis Study Centre from Finland, has been taking part in the national Well said ( Hyvin sanottu ) campaign for a few years. The campaign is coordinated by the public service broadcaster YLE, and its idea is to create safe spaces for dialogue and to strengthen mutual trust. One of the activities is the Well said festival, where we have facilitated dialogues every year. One part of the campaign is a national survey on dialogue. This year, 76 % of the respondents said they enjoy deep conversations and over 90 % agreed that listening is vital in dialogue – a skill we have tried to address in the DIAL project as well. However, people are quite worried that the culture of conversation and dialogue has deteriorated in the last year. This year 67 % of the respondents thought so. Most respondents call for more respect in public discussions and on social media. It might be a consequence of increasing polarisation, but this time 22 % of the respondents s...