ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how socially just practices are promoted by Collaborative-Dialogic Practices (CDP). Told through a series of encounters between street-involved youth and a community worker in Merida, Mexico, the chapter tracks the identity transformation of a gang member and blurs the distinction between clinical and community work. Distinct from the metaphor of “treating” a client, CDP is characterized by a “not-knowing” stance on the part of practitioners, who engage in mutual inquiry with the persons who consult them. Working this way, power is decentralized; a key skill comprises the ability to avoid assuming the role of the expert who labels problems and proposes solutions. The focus is on creating language expressive of the particular social interaction without imposing a singular language which risks privileging the “helper’s” interpretation.
