Building of civic capital. Deliberation is grassroots democracy in action, developing community capacity for citizens to deal with public issues of shared concern and solve their own problems. Dialogue gives participants a mechanism for having an impact on an issue they care about. Emergence of common ground in a neutral setting. It is not a facilitated process with a predetermined outcome, nor is there an expectation of consensus or group decisions toward action.
Study circles are fundamentally collaborative education with a problem solving component.
Public agreement or solutions to problems are not the goal but rather are potential outcomes that emerge through discussion and deliberation. Although there may be conflict and issues to be hashed out, there are no winners or losers. Study circles are not explicitly a way to resolve disputes, although techniques of conflict resolution are sometimes useful. The explicit purpose of study circles is to surface perceptions and ideas for use by members and the group itself, not to solicit information for others to act on. Structure of the process.