Introducing the Strata Approach to Dialogue Analysis (SADA): the case of political NGOs in Israel

ABSTRACT

While research on dialogue has been flourishing over the past few decades, critics contend that this scholarship often misses the core philosophical idea of dialogue, focusing instead on the absence or presence of dialogic principles in various organizational settings. This study has both empirical and methodological objectives: a) to solve a built-in lacuna in on-going dialogue research that frequently addresses important aspects of PR and dialogue in a blended manner, thereby undercutting the ability to develop in-depth critical research and examine the issues of dialogue more comprehensively; b) to provide an empirical contribution to understanding dialogue within the context of political NGOs’ public relations in Israel’s divided society. We suggest a layered approach as a methodological solution to this void by introducing a Strata Approach to Dialogue Analysis (SADA). Israel’s divided society, comprising various opposing groups, serves as a case study to demonstrate the advantages of SADA over current analyzes of dialogue. By revealing the differences between dialogic potential (features), actual dialogue (process), and the perception of dialogue (orientation), SADA enables the development of in-depth, critical research, i.e. examining the issue of dialogue more accurately and comprehensively.