Talking Shops

It's just a bloody Talking Shop...

Based on the democracy cafe idea, here's a blueprint of how it might happen. As the conversation cafe folk say:

The process and materials are designed to spread like a a friendly virus. All materials will be on the web for people to download. The riches of dialogue process is distilled to barebones, to enable anyone to follow simple guidelines and host a talking shop!

"Because when you put strangers, caffeine and ideas in the same room, brilliant things can happen. For that very reason, the British Parliament banned coffeehouses in the 1700s as hotbeds of sedition..."

Proposed structure

Please note: Notes from the last meeting to discuss the structure of democracy cafes/talking shops are available here.

A: A cafe-style blackboard

... with a menu - starters, main course and a 'sweet' pudding.

Select one, and get a piece of card with it written on that is then displayed prominently above your table so that others can come and join in.

The 'sweet' is a light-hearted topic. (Maybe after the main course...) E.g. Why does toast always land butter side down? (Something better than that, I hope!) (Ideas from tabloids probably a good way of getting subjects here.)

B: A list of topics, questions and issues:

Some open topics - e.g. war & peace

Some more specific e.g. rather than 'poverty', something like 'should we feed the world, or just look after ourselves?' Rather than 'food' - are supermarkets evil? Rather than 'US foreign policy' - is George Bush a moron? (A good one for the Devil's advocates, coz they'd have to argue he isn't!) Rather than 'Europe', 'Are the French cheese eating surrender Monkeys?'

C: Role-playing:

We're proposing to have some of us as Devil's Advocates, replete with red horns. They'll also be other devil horns, so that others can indicate they're in contrary mood too. Changing roles will be encouraged.

Other roles?

D: Groundrules

- mostly stolen from the US conversation cafe movement:

Acceptance: Suspend judgment on others
Listening: Respect one another
Curiosity: Seek to understand rather than persuade
Diversity: Value other's views - value diversity of opinion
Brevity: Go for honesty and depth, but don’t go on and on: be aware of who has and hasn't spoken
Commercial and agenda-free: no-one may attend primarily to promote or impose a particular agenda, point of view, outcome, solution or cause – or market a product, service or event. (I would structure this by making people occasionally be forced to be ‘devils advocate’ and adopt points of view that they don’t agree with / from a hat... )
Empowering others: provide clear information to all hosts and participants about the mechanics of hosting a Conversation Cafés and the open, inquisitive spirit of hosting.

We'll also try and produce a 'guide to good arguing', which will include something on the importance of seeing things from another's point of view.

Ideas Bank for topics and themes

Utopias: 'what would a sane transport system look like?' : 'how should we educate our kids?' : 'will there be playstations/jetskis/christmas crackers in your ideal world?' : 'what would your ideal job be like?'

Markets: 'do you feel you have choice as a consumer?' : 'do you produce anything?' : 'how else could distribution work?' : 'can we imagine an alternative to markets?'

Old age: 'Caring for the elderly - cash or community?' : 'how does it/would it feel to reach old age?' : 'are retirement homes universally bad, or universally good?' : 'does everybody deserve an equal pension?' : 'when is the right time to stop earning a living?'

Diversity and Tolerance: 'should there be 'no platform for racists'?' : 'should governments make laws against people's religious practices (e.g. the muslim viel or circumcision)?' : 'why is diversity a good thing?'

Sex Industry: 'Spearmint Rhino & 'Sex Slaves' in Attercliffe - part of the same trade?'

Keep em in!: Are curfews the answer to anti-social behaviour?

Asylum: No more room for Asylum seekers? : Should Sheffield let in more asylum seekers?

Burning: Is incineration the true green alternative? : Should we incinerate or recycle our waste?

Power: who's got the most power in Sheffield?"

Gentrification: Making things better or just covering up? : Inner city ring road - good or bad?

Regeneration: Posh flats, posh hotels, who decides where the money goes? : What is the money being used on?

New developments: Whose city? : Who can afford the yuppie flats?

Health: "work or die?" long term sickness and the benefit hole.

Of course, we should also have some blank cards and let people make up their own topics.

Inspiring quotes...

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes

Maggie Kuhn

To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing

Raymond Williams

Conversation is thinking in its natural state.

Malvina Reynolds, 1967

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

J.S. Mill, On Liberty 85

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no-one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.

JS Mill, On Liberty 104

Real generosity toward the future consists of giving your all to what is present.

Albert Camus

Don't ever doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is all that ever does.

Margaret Meade

Do not ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. For what the world needs is more people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman or Harold Whitman (depending on which bit of the web you look for the source.)

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

Goeth

When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist.

Dom. Helder Camara

People will continue to commit atrocities, as long as they believe in absurdities.

Voltaire

Only dead fish go with the flow.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you

want to concentrate on.

George W. Bush,(joking) at a Gridiron Club dinner, Washington, D.C., March 2001.

You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People (1882)

(Some of the above are available on postcards from this independent publisher.)