Dialogue and the Coordinated Management of Meaning
Relevant Readings:
I. CMM extends and applies concepts associated with Symbolic Interactionism, the Interactional perspective (Paul Watzlawick), and also Fisher"s Narrative Paradigm.
A. "persons-in-conversation co-construct their own social realities and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create." (Griffin, p. 66)
B. CMM has been developed as a technique for intervening into the social worlds of actors.
f life for participants.
II. Some key ideas of CMM
A. Takes seriously the idea of a plurality of worlds.
1. If reality is socially constructed, it follows that there is a plurality of worlds.
a. generated by persons in social, group, and relational settings.
b. as in Watzlawick"s Interactionist approach, these settings tend to be marked by patterns of interaction that create the social world of its participants.
1) "strange loops" as an example: repetitive patterns of interaction.
2) the key here is that alternating shifts in the definition of the situation lead to alternating patterns of behavior.
3) for therapists using CMM, the important question is "What kind of relationship do you want with your son?"
B. This example suggests there are usually a number of ways a situation might be framed.
1. These differences in framing meaning can lead to fundamental conflicts among groups and individuals.
2. foster incommensurable renditions of reality
3. These are "moral conflicts"
C. In such situations practitioners of CMM propose techniques to increase recognition of other perspectives.
III. The key role of dialogue in this process.
A. Dialogue is often identified as the richest form of human communication.
B. Seen as key to creating understanding between human beings.
C. Differs from debate or deliberation.
D. Philosophers have identified key features of dialogical exchanges:
E. Dialogue is a process of becoming "profoundly open to others." (Griffin, p. 69)
1. Cupertino Community Project as an example
IV. The analysis of interaction patterns
A. Distinction between "stories lived" and "stories told."
1. Stories lived: co-constructed actions that we perform with others.
2. Stories told: narratives we tell to make sense of the stories lived.
a. A classroom as an example.
3. The narratives capable of being circulated among people include untold, unheard and even unknown stories.
B. Coordination occurs when we fit our stories lived into the stories lived by others in a way that makes life better.
1. Not necessarily built on a shared understanding of reality.
2. but on points of possible cooperation.
C. The Atomic model
1. A way to analyze the narrative dimension of social life to uncover the context that lends actions their meaning.
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Self |
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Relationship |
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Speech Act |
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Episode |
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Culture |
2. The nucleus of the model is the speech act.
3. the speech act is shaped by four contexts.
a. Episode: a communication routine that has clear boundaries and rules
b. Relationship: the aspect of the speech act that connects a person to another.
c) Self: the aspect of a speech act that refers to the speaker"s nature or character.
d) Culture: the aspect of a speech act that refers to the web of shared meanings and values that define the social world.
V. CMM has emerged as a successful technique for mediation in various contexts.