What is a dilemmas café?
A dilemmas café involves people coming together to discuss several dilemmas experienced by participants. A dilemma is a choice between alternative courses of action, when it is not clear which is the right one to choose. A dilemmas café may be on any topic, e.g. science, parenting, social work. This guide focuses on ethical dilemmas in community-based participatory research (CBPR). Ethics is about matters of rights, responsibilities, harms and benefits.
Aims are to raise participants’ awareness of ethical challenges in CBPR; encourage collaborative dialogue, including critical listening and questioning; stimulate learning through hearing about different ways of seeing and understanding issues; explore a variety of recommendations for action.
What happens? In a facilitated gathering of 15-40 people, three people in turn present a dilemma from their own experiences. Participants choose a dilemma to work on, and join a table with the presenter of their chosen dilemma and a facilitator. They tease out, discuss and record the issues. After 30 minutes, participants either move tables and tackle a different dilemma or remain at the same table. Presenters and facilitators stay at their tables and brief new participants on the earlier dialogues. Depending on time, there can be two or three rounds of dialogues. After this participants reconvene in a large group to share insights and learning.
Read more:
University of Durham Dilemmas Cafe.pdf (1.6 MB)
Tags
participatory, community-engagement, ethics