Louise Jane Phillips

Analysing the dialogic turn in the communication of research-based knowledge: An exploration of the tensions in collaborative research:

Tensions have been identified in the shift to dialogue whereby researchers produce and communicate research-based knowledge in interaction with different social actors. This paper draws on three perspectives on those tensions— science and technology studies analyses of public engagement, action research and dialogic communication theory—in order to explore how the tensions are articulated in the communication processes that are integral to the co-production of knowledge in a case study of collaborative research about virtual worlds. The data analysed are based on the workshops where the collaborating actors (university researchers and practitioners) co-produce knowledge through communication processes in which different expert-identities and knowledge forms are negotiated. The analysis explores the balancing-act between imposing control on the research process and opening up for a plurality of voices. The paper concludes with a discussion of the value of a reflexive approach for the analysis and design of dialogic research communication.

Rhetoric and the Spread of the Discourse of Thatcherism

This paper puts forward a model of processes of discourse and rhetoric as a way of understanding the attempt of Thatcherism to create a new common sense in British society. The theoretical model is first presented. This includes a notion of the role of a special type of rhetoric (consisting of key words and formulaic phrases) in discursive processes and a notion of the active part played by language users in reproducing and transforming discourses. The aim is to draw a link between macro-processes of social and cultural change and micro-processes of everyday language use. The roots of the rhetoric in the genre of the everyday world facilitate take-up by the mass media and the public and thus the penetration of the discourse of Thatcherism into the language of individual language users. The empirical study which is then presented focuses on the role of one key word, choice, in reproducing and restructuring the discourse of Thatcherism in different sociopolitical domains: official Conservative Party texts and official Labour Party texts (speeches by Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members to the Annual Party Conferences in 1991), print and broadcast news media (news coverage of the Conferences), the arguments of grass-roots Labour Party members (1991) and grass-roots Conservative Party members (1991 and 1992). It was found that in all the domains studied, the discourse of Thatcherism was reproduced and transformed through the selective use by language users of choice in collocation with other rhetorical terms. A degree of resistance to the discourse was also found. The paper concludes with a short account of the fate of Thatcherist discourse in the UK since the time of the study.

What's in the 'co'? Tending the tensions in co-creative inquiry in social work education

Abstract Higher education is one of many fields of practice that have undergone a so-called ‘dialogic turn’ whereby processes of co-creation proliferate as a means of generating knowledge. According to dialogic ideals, co-creation harnesses the transformative potential of dialogue across difference and empowers participants as co-learners or co-researchers. But what does the ‘co’ of ‘co-creation’ entail in practice? The aim of the article is to explore the tensions in the ‘co’ of co-creation through critical, reflexive analysis of the enactment of one particular approach to co-creation, ‘Academic Co-Creative Inquiry’ (ACCI), in a social work course in a higher educational institution in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using the Integrated Framework for Analysing Dialogic Knowledge Production and Communication (IFADIA), the analysis identifies tensions arising in the interplay between top-down and bottom-up dynamics in a contested terrain of dialogic and neoliberal discourses. It is argued that ACCI’s and IFADIA’s reflexive sensitivity in relation to tensions offers some resistance to neoliberalism in higher education.

Virtual worlds as sites for social and cultural innovation

There is a growing recognition of the importance of virtual worlds as environments and media that carry the potential for social and cultural innovation by making possible new forms of social relationships based on communication among avatars. The articles in this special issue exemplify some aspects of this potential but also point out some of the many questions and unsolved problems that follow with innovation and the continuous development of virtual worlds. The two key concepts of virtual worlds and innovation are both widely used concepts that refer to emergent and rapidly changing phenomena without sharp contours or clearly defined boundaries. In the context of this special issue, we treat both virtual worlds and innovation as emergent phenomena in flux. Some of the features of virtual worlds, however, may also be seen as stable. According to Bell (2008) and Schroeder (2008, 2011), virtual worlds depend on stable, persistent digital infrastructures. Moreover, the online presence of gamers and residents is referred to by digital symbols and signs – be they avatars, space ships or green dots – and the technological platforms are accessible 24/7 over longer periods of time. They appear to be stable technologies and platforms, almost permanent. How is it, then, that we see them as emergent phenomena in flux? Our focus in this special issue of Convergence is on social and cultural innovation in and with virtual worlds which means that the technological innovation of the digital platforms and of the technology in itself are not our primary interest of reflection and analysis. Social and cultural innovation are phenomena of a fluid nature, subject to continuous change: the way we see and understand ourselves and each other, the way we experience exciting and extraordinary events or seek inspiration by thought-provoking art installations, the way we build virtual communities of high ideals or take the opportunity to live out behaviours otherwise not acceptable in our everyday life, these are all examples of human relationships with distinctive features that hold the potential for creative and innovative responses to new environments.