Write a reflective paper on your experience of participating in this class using these articles. Your
paper should reflect upon and refer back to the orientation memo you wrote at the
beginning of the term. The goal in this final paper is for you to reflect on your
experience within and around dialogue, considering what skills you bring to
dialogic interaction and how you might better facilitate, as a leader and
participant, constructive dialogue. Please reference at least 3 relevant readings in
INTRODUCTION
Knowing Farhat Agbaria and Cynthia Cohen, I knew whatever they proposed would be
something with a unique perspective – something encouraging a deeper look. And the
article that we have written together is just that.
This article encourages coexistence practitioners to reach beyond the usual techniques
and skills used in coexistence work, to look at the underlying power dynamics within the
group. Taking this deeper look requires a certain measure of courage, partly because it
involves looking at the complexities of one’s own identity, both for facilitators and
participants, and how one’s own power plays into the group dynamics. But we believe
that those who engage in this work are ready to take that courageous look.
Although this is the first time they’ve written an article together, this work builds on
other collaborations that Farhat and Cynthia have done in the past. Farhat and Cindy met
as facilitators of youth from the Middle East at Seeds of Peace camp in Maine. They
worked together again when Farhat was named a Brandeis International Fellow, and
Cindy and I were part of the Brandeis staff for that program. Farhat was one of sixteen
coexistence practitioners and scholars from the Middle East, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and
the former Yugoslavia.
Farhat Agbaria, himself a Palestinian Israeli with extensive experience facilitating
encounters and dialogues, directs the Face-to-Face program at the Arab-Jewish Center for
Peace at Givat Haviva, Israel. Cynthia Cohen, now director of the Brandeis Initiative in
Intercommunal Coexistence, has facilitated coexistence efforts in such far-flung places as
the Middle East, Biloxi, Mississippi, and Belize. Her particular interest is in the ethical
and aesthetic dimensions of reconciliation.
This article was made possible by a generous grant from Humans All Foundation.
This is only one of several resources available from the Brandeis Initiative in
Intercommunal Coexistence. If you’re interested learning more, please contact us or visit
our website: www.brandeis.edu/ethics.
We hope this article will be useful to coexistence practitioners and others whose work
intersects with that field, in efforts to work together towards lasting change.
Marci McPhee
Assistant Director, International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life
September, 2000
Note: We express warm appreciation to Vera List and Lauren Small for their support of
this work.
1
Working With Groups in Conflict:
The Impact of Power Relations on the Dynamics of the Group
By Farhat Agbaria and Cynthia Cohen
This article addresses an issue that almost always arises when facilitating encounters or
dialogues with groups in conflict situations: inequities in power and how these are
manifested and addressed in small groups. We decided to write this article because we
observed, in a variety of settings, work that was being described as “coexistence
facilitation” but that overlooked or ignored conflict-related power dynamics.
We believe that, in contexts of inequity and injustice, in order for encounters and
dialogues to contribute to meaningful coexistence, inequities in power must at least be
acknowledged and addressed. When we say “meaningful” coexistence work we are
referring to dialogue that, in part, promotes changing the social and political dynamics
in the direction of greater equity. We are not referring here to efforts designed to support
an inequitable or unjust status quo.