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Volume 2 Number 1
Fall 2007
| From
Dialogical Practices to Polyphonic Thought? Developmental Inquiry and Where to Look for It Michael Bamberg Clark University, USA Barbara Zielke Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany |
pp. 223-242 |
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| ABSTRACT. In
this contribution we start with a critical reading of assumptions that
have led to the postulation of a dialogical and polyphonic self. We
critically review the empirical basis for these assumptions as
resulting from therapeutically informed techniques according to which
clients/participants are led to engage in particular modes of
self-reflection and conclude that the positions, valuations, and their
connections to affect are predominantly constructs designed for the
purpose to assist in ‘self-reflection’—with the aim to intervene and
change the subject’s self positions. This leads to the questions what
actually is to be ‘acquired’ and where to look for empirical evidence.
We will argue that it is not necessary to anchor dialogicality and
positioning in the self; that is, we do not need to equip the self with
a priori positions and dialogicality. Instead, we suggest that
situated, actual conversations may result in positions and that
speakers taking these positions subsequently can be described as
dialogical and polyphonous—but that the occasionings of positions best
serve as the actual sites for developmental inquiry into their
genesis—in contrast to a person’s interiority. |
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| Keywords: dialogue, positioning, narrative identity, developmental inquiry | ||