Peace and Conflict Studies - Spring 2014

Peace and Conflict Studies Volume 21, Number 1 63 individual level patients and clinicians may modify their behavior if they “see” the connection between their behavior and health inequalities; at the community level, awareness may lead to groups organizing and pushing for changes in public policies that maintain oppressive structures (Benz, Espinosa, Welsh, & Fontes, 2011). Participants in World Café dialogues have described the process, not as “an activism against the authority structure but for the world we want” (Tan & Brown, 2005, p. 89). World Café conversations serve as a conduit to minimize the distance inherent in unequal power relationships and serves as a bridge between the past and the future (Tan & Brown, 2005). Stepping away from a neutral stance and hosting World Café conversations through a critical theory framework could transform the taken-for-granted inequities that take place in end-of-life care. Hansen (2008) makes a compelling argument as to how conflict practitioners who wish to address social justice issues would benefit from incorporating into their practice an analysis of power and how to assist clients in overcoming structural and cultural violence. In the Patient Safety World Café, some of the unequal power relationships that participants identified as being important to them were the following: justice, equity, and addressing power imbalances; address political barriers such as corruption and fear of retaliation; the need for meaningful dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals; and challenge conventional authority in healthcare. By facilitating a discussion of these themes, participants shared their collective wisdom as to how to address these social justice concerns, and more importantly they began building networks and relationships. Facilitating World Café conversations with physicians, healthcare clinicians, patients, family of patients, policy makers, and administrators could be valuable in unveiling end-of- life structural and cultural violence to the extent that it allows participants to: 1) discover and reframe unconscious biases; 2) share new meanings and knowledge through collective discoveries; 3) build relationships and networks; 4) develop attitudes that stimulate innovative thinking 5) engage in self-reflection; 6) cultivate collective intelligence; 7) identify and analyze the causes and effects of unequal distributions of power in healthcare; and 8) explore in-depth some of the key challenges and opportunities in end-of-life care. Brown and Isaacs (2005) invite us to see conversation as action because, based on their experiences with World Cafés, when participants are having conversations about issues that they care about they want to organize and take further action. In the Patient Safety World Café, one of the themes that emerged was, “transform pain and hurt into action.” Participants in the Patient Safety World Café drafted a joint statement pledging to fight medical errors and