The research group Dialogic Communication takes its starting-point in the so-called dialogic turn in the production and communication of knowledge. The dialogic turn is characterised by a proliferation of dialogue-based approaches across fields of practice including organisational, digital, health, research, science, environmental and development communication. In these practices, communication is conceived as processes of dialogue in which knowledge is co-produced collaboratively through the participation of different knowledge forms and social actors. In the dialogic turn, “dialogue”, “collaboration” and “participation” have become buzzwords which promise democratic, participatory processes; as a result, there is a tendency to underplay the tensions arising in the meeting between different knowledge forms and knowledge interests.

Beyond the buzzwords
The research group goes beyond the buzzwords and carries out research on how “dialogue”, “collaboration” and “participation” are ascribed meaning and enacted in specific fields of communication practice.  We apply a critical-reflexive approach that, at one and the same time, interrogates the tensions inherent in the enactment of dialogic communication and is oriented towards further developing dialogic methods from a position normatively supportive of dialogue.  

We design many of the projects in the research group as forms of collaborative research in which actors in the field under study participate as co-producers of knowledge.

Head of research group: Louise Phillips