invitational rhetoric
I’ve lately been interested in the idea of invitational rhetoric. I haven’t read enough about it yet but it seems to have some really promising ideas and methods for arriving at transformative communication. I want to include here a list of some of the basic concepts of invitational rhetoric (I found the following online, in a review of a book about invitational rhetoric by Sonja K. Foss and Karen A. Foss. Here it is:
Five core assumptions characterize invitational rhetoric: (1) the purpose of communicating is to gain understanding; (2) the speaker and the audience are equal; (3) different perspectives constitute valuable resources; (4) change happens when people choose to change themselves; and (5) all participants are willing to be changed by the interaction. The goals of invitational rhetoric are to clarify ideas and to create an environment in which growth and change can occur for both audience and speaker. Speakers can facilitate the exchange of ideas by creating conditions of freedom, safety, value, and openness. Freedom is at the heart of an invitation to transformation—the freedom to choose to change; safety generates confidence for all participants to express ideas; value recognizes and appreciates the intrinsic worth of all participants; and openness is a willingness to explore diverse perspectives. This ideal environment increases the possibilities of achieving mutual understanding.
from a description of "Inviting Transformation" by Sonja K. Foss and
Karen A. Foss
What do you think? In my own mind, I make connections with this and anarchist ideas concerning transformation as opposed to simple replacement or rotation. I have been reading a bunch of things lately from different perspectives and concerns and somehow things keep overlapping in wonderful circles of cohesion. I remember something similar sometimes happening when I was in school; sometimes apparently divergent topics would come together in my mind, forming a series of interconnected ideas that seemed to illustrate a fluidity and symbiotic essence to pretty much everything!
Five core assumptions characterize invitational rhetoric: (1) the purpose of communicating is to gain understanding; (2) the speaker and the audience are equal; (3) different perspectives constitute valuable resources; (4) change happens when people choose to change themselves; and (5) all participants are willing to be changed by the interaction. The goals of invitational rhetoric are to clarify ideas and to create an environment in which growth and change can occur for both audience and speaker. Speakers can facilitate the exchange of ideas by creating conditions of freedom, safety, value, and openness. Freedom is at the heart of an invitation to transformation—the freedom to choose to change; safety generates confidence for all participants to express ideas; value recognizes and appreciates the intrinsic worth of all participants; and openness is a willingness to explore diverse perspectives. This ideal environment increases the possibilities of achieving mutual understanding.
from a description of "Inviting Transformation" by Sonja K. Foss and
Karen A. Foss
What do you think? In my own mind, I make connections with this and anarchist ideas concerning transformation as opposed to simple replacement or rotation. I have been reading a bunch of things lately from different perspectives and concerns and somehow things keep overlapping in wonderful circles of cohesion. I remember something similar sometimes happening when I was in school; sometimes apparently divergent topics would come together in my mind, forming a series of interconnected ideas that seemed to illustrate a fluidity and symbiotic essence to pretty much everything!
posted by matt iv at 10:01 AM
1 Comments:
did you get the book? i'd like to hear your thoughts on it when you read more. your description has also tempted me to look further.
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