Communication Praxis for Ethical Accountability: The Ethics of the Tree of Action: Dialogue and Breaking down the Wall in Cyprus

摘要

This paper proposes the thesis that it is unethical to plan an action for social change without excavating the knowledge and wisdom of the people who are responsible for implementing the plans of action and the people whose lives will be affected. But the people, being immersed in contemporary complexity, do not know what they know until they know it as a consensus emerging from structured dialogue among a group which represents all stakeholders. We argue that the science of dialogic design may be used to achieve such an emergence. As a consequence, it satisfies the Ozbekhan Axiom of Engagement and the Laouris Law of Requisite Action. The paper elaborates for the first time on the ethics of the Tree of Action', which some stakeholders participating in co-laboratories have called the 'Tree of Life'.