The SNF DIALOGUES discuss the importance of dialogue in the age of polarization and populism.
Communication has never been as convenient as it is today, thanks to smartphones, video calling, social media, and other technologies that seem ideally set up to facilitate meaningful dialogue and serve our innate human need to communicate with each other. And yet we are more divided than ever, socially alienated, and unable to find common ground and trust one another.
Around the world, polarization, the rise of populism, hate speech, and the deterioration of public discourse are eroding the bedrock of democracy: dialogue.
On Wednesday, November 25 at 18:30 (EET), the SNF DIALOGUES, whose mission for the past three years has been to encourage open discussion of pressing topics, will focus on “The Power of Dialogue.” At this 37th DIALOGUES event, we’ll discuss the quality of public discourse and how conversation can give us an opportunity to find common ground and use our differences as an asset, rather than an obstacle, in solving the challenges that confront us all.
Participants in the “The Power of Dialogue” webcast:
- Nikos Alivizatos, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Athens.
- Dimitris Christopoulos, Professor in the Department of Political Science and History at Panteion University
Hahrie Han, Director of the SNF Agora Institute, will address the polarization that marked the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the fault lines in American society around the crucial issue of the pandemic. Sydney Nixon, an SNF Paideia Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, will share a message about the importance of dialogue and the need for students to have access to an education that prepares them to take an active role in open discussions.
The DIALOGUES are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou.
*The opinions expressed by DIALOGUES participants are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) or iMEdD. Speakers’ remarks are made freely, without prior guidance or intervention from the team.