Abstract
In this article I discuss some potential problems inherent in dialogue based methods when it comes to contributing to enduring participatory change. By dialogue-based methods I refer mainly to the dialogue conference and the development organisation, as described by Gustavsen (1992) and Pålshaugen (1998), (2001) and (2002). In a broader sense I refer to the linguistically oriented framework of these methods. The empirical context for the paper is a planned enterprise development project. This will be run as a network project among four to seven small and medium sized companies and at a general level it aims to increase the capacity for continuous learning and change in the enterprises. Here the involvement and mobilisation of all employees is important, and dialogue-based methods will be used. Based on prior work with these enterprises, I see some potential obstacles up front concerning the ability of dialogue-based methods to contribute to enduring participatory change. In the article these concerns are discussed through different theoretical perspectives and illustrated with examples from the field.
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Notes
It started with “Samarbeidsprosjektene” (The co-operative projects) between the two main Norwegian labour marked parties (The Confederation of Business (NAF) and The Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) in the 1960s and 1970s. Ideas and experiences from this work were taken further through research and development programs and projects in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition a system of agreements between the parties was developed, as a steady framework for this kind of co-operative development work (HABUT, today HF-B). From 1990 until 2000 the research program Enterprise development 2000 (BU 2000) was running, and today we have VC 2010.
Similar concerns are expressed in the book by Cooke and Kothari (2002), which address the inherent danger of participatory methods leading to unjust and illegitimate exercise of power. For example they address the fact that participatory approaches and methods now are used large scale by powerful institutions as governments, development agencies, universities and multinational agencies (e.g. the World Bank).
The experiment is a major tool in research. In the social research of the time social psychology experiments were conducted in laboratory settings. Lewin found these to be too far removed from reality to be able to say something of value. Instead he proposed the field experiment; experiments carried out in real life situations.
As for example defined in the introductory chapter of “Handbook of Action Research”... action research is a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a participatory worldview ...” (Reason and Bradbury 2001, p 1).
There is a variation in which term that is used, and it is difficult to find any general rule explaining this. In my field psychology, social constructionism is used for the Berger and Luckman variant, in order to distinguish it from psychological constructivism in cognitive psychology.
My main sources in this literature review (Gustavsen and Pålshaugen) have either very few or a variety of references. In addition they seem to be “constantly on the move”, without being very explicit about theoretical foundations all the time. I therefore make little attempt to trace and place their exact foundations and movements and instead try to make explicit my own position.
Pålshaugen builds on Hannah Arendt and her argumentation that the human capacity for reason is not primarily rooted in independent thinking, but depends on willingness to make public use of ones personal power of judgement.
Foucault uses the term power/knowledge to accentuate how power operates in and through discourse as the other face of knowledge (Gubrium and Holstein 2000).
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Leirvik, B. Dialogue and power: the use of dialogue for participatory change. AI & Soc 19, 407–429 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-005-0324-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-005-0324-7