Participatory and Empowering Community Dialogue Spaces: Exploring Local Meanings of Life Quality in a Danish Community-Health Partnership
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Abstract
This article examines how Dialogue Conferences (DCs) within the communityhealth project Welfare and Relations (WeARe), a partnership between two hospital institutions and a social housing organisation, contributed to locally grounded understandings of quality of life among older residents. Drawing on four Dialogue Conferences, 18 months of fieldwork, and interviews, we show how life quality emerged as a relational, situated accomplishment shaped through dialogical interaction. Residents emphasised green surroundings, mobility, safety, and small social infrastructures, while DCs enabled shared reflection and micro-practices such as coordinating outings, watching over neighbours, and initiating activities. We argue that DCs function as participatory spaces that support relational forms of empowerment through locally resonant socio-material practices.
Keywords: Community-based, wellbeing, dialogue conference, relational ethics, action research
Espacios de diálogo comunitario participativos y empoderadores: Explorando los significados locales de la calidad de vida en una asociación danesa de salud comunitaria
Este artículo examina cómo las Conferencias de Diálogo (CD) en el marco del proyecto de salud comunitaria Bienestar y Relaciones (WeARe), una colaboración entre dos instituciones hospitalarias y una organización de vivienda social, contribuyeron a una comprensión local de la calidad de vida entre los residentes mayores. A partir de cuatro Conferencias de Diálogo, 18 meses de trabajo de campo y entrevistas, mostramos cómo la calidad de vida emergió como un logro relacional y situado, moldeado a través de la interacción dialógica. Los residentes priorizaron los entornos verdes, la movilidad, la seguridad y las pequeñas infraestructuras sociales, mientras que las CD facilitaron la reflexión compartida y microprácticas como la coordinación de salidas, la atención a los vecinos y la iniciativa de actividades. Argumentamos que las CD funcionan como espacios participativos que promueven formas relacionales de empoderamiento mediante prácticas sociomateriales con resonancia local.
Palabras clave: Comunidad, bienestar, conferencia de diálogo, ética relacional, investigación-acción
Bibliography: Munk, Nicolas Tristan/ Larsen, Kristian/Møller, Tom/Schifter Larsen, Trine: Participatory and Empowering Community Dialogue Spaces: Exploring Local Meanings of Life Quality in a Danish Community-Health Partnership, IJAR – International Journal of Action Research, 1-2026, pp. 73-90.
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