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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Encouragement of dialogue in communities: active listening

I have heard it many times that people in Iran have an oral culture and tradition; which means that messages are mostly transmitted in speech or songs, and will takes various forms of sayings, folktales, chants, etc. It also means that they talk but the do not write; however it seems people do not listen too.
In our workshops in various Tehran communities (mahalah), we had to encourage an dynamic dialogue on major problems among people living in a community. People, especially women and the members of local councils, loved such 2-3 hour meetings since they had a chance to talk about their own problems in presence of neighboring individuals; we found that people do not tend to listen. We, as facilitators, were there to encourage "dialogue". Dialogue means a process of talking and listening. Of course, when we are talking about listening, it is mostly active listening. As an active listener, he or she should be able to repeat back in his/her own words what he/she has been told (or what she/her has heard). This does not mean the listener agrees with what she/he has been told, but rather understands what others are mentioning. In fact, active listening - as a part of dialogue - improves mutual understanding in a community.

To be able to encourage "listening" in our project in Tehran communities, we used the five following techniques:
  • Before the meeting starts, the facilitators remind the participants that they have two ears but one mouth. It is better to listen twice than they talk.
  • The facilitator reminds people to listen carefully what others mention and not to refer to anything repeated during the brainstorming.
  • Creating a pause either through paraphrasing or repeating, would help the participants to actively listen and think about the comments.
  • The facilitators have to use the same language as people using, and to avoid expertise and literary words. People may listen better to a familiar language. 
  • The facilitators will mention the fact that we are here not to judge but to understand what exactly people think about their own priorities in community.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Community acts in an environment

I remember, once in a local community, people were invited to attend a planning programme. I started to facilitate the meeting based on the process that had been designed. During the meeting, one of the local authorities thought that he should intervene, and when necessary, he started to continue the meeting without me. I let him continue, since I was really tired on that day (and of course I had no other choice); but then I found that he was just trying to end the meeting, since somehow, he might have thought that the people might demand something more than the capacity they had as local authorities of the municipality (as a governmental ). That was one of the worse memories of my facilitation activities.
Community empowerment will not happen without a general change within the system. The whole administrative system has to accept that such empowerment activities are a part of the general policy. In fact, the community acts within an environment and receives so many inputs from the environment. An enabling environment can help a community to move forward while a disabling environment impedes a community to progress.
However, a facilitator who is involved in community empowerment cannot wait until the system accepts the general idea of community empowerment. He or she has to start her work, even if there are problems. It means people have to experience participatory decision-making. That can start with very small projects in community. Such small activities will affect the environment.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Community Studies or Mahaleh Studies

Today, I was just moving around in UM library, and I found a book entitled: Community Studies. The book edited by Colin Bell and Howard Newby was first published in 1971. The book opens discussions on community that "was thought to be a good thing", however "its passing was to be deplored, feared and regretted." The author continues to find community position within the whole literature of eighteen to twentieth century. When reading that, I was thinking why we have not tried to look carefully at our notion of "mahaleh" in our own Iranian culture; a notion that now Tehran Municipality is trying to revive. About 130 years ago, Tehran had only five major mahaleh; now Tehran has been divided into 374 mahaleh.

In Mahaleh, the concept of neighborhood is so powerful. Mahaleh can be somehow a community, in which people are connected since they are living together. Ham-Mahaleh-ee, or the person who is living in the same mahaleh, is a powerful notion. Mahaleh could create a social identity, which may motivate people living in one mahaleh to help each other, to work for their own mahaleh. Mahaleh had a name; when somebody was asked where he/she had been born, you might hear he/she referred to the name of mahaleh. Now, reference to a mahaleh in responding to the place of birth has been forgot, since Tehran has really become a big city.