The title of our forthcoming network workshop is “‘Dialogue’ and ‘participation’ in producing and communicating knowledge: issues of validation and ethics in research design and practice”. The workshop will take place on 8-10 September, 2010 at the University of Tampere, Finland. It is being organised by the Tampere network members led by Marja Vehviläinen. For the Call for Papers, please click HERE.  For the provisional programme, please click HERE.

The NordForsk-network invites you to participate in a public lecture on dialogic communication by Professor Kenneth Cissna on Friday, 26 March 2010 at Roskilde University, Cinema (”Biografen”) Building 41.1, 11.am-12.50pm.  Professor Cissna is from the Department of Communication, University of South Florida. The title of the lecture is “Dialogic Communication Theory and Research”.  Here is the abstract:

Beginning with a broad sweep of human communication theory, this presentation locates the development of dialogic approaches to thinking about communication in the twentieth century, especially in the theories of Martin Buber and Mikhail Bakhtin. After distinguishing three conceptions of dialogue within the philosophy of communication and discussing a number of broad characteristics of a dialogic approach to communication, the presentation considers the shape of dialogic communication scholarship over the last decade, and describes the author’s work with Rob Anderson as an example of dialogic communication research.

We are extremely pleased that Professor Cissna has accepted the invitation of the network to visit us at Roskilde University. He is a central figure in the emergent research area on the theory and practice of dialogue, and, among many other things, has co-authored Moments of meeting: Buber, Rogers, and the potential for public dialogue (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002) and The Martin Buber – Carl Rogers dialogue: A new transcript with commentary. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), guest-edited a special issue of Communication Theory on “Fresh Perspectives in Dialogue Theory” in 2008 and co-edited Dialogue: Theorizing difference in communication studies. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004).

For more information, please contact Louise Phillips (louisep@ruc.dk).

For information about the network workshop in Luleå (21-22 September 2009), including how to get there!, please see below (under the two items about the doctoral course and the one-day symposium).

We would like to invite doctoral students to participate in a Ph.D. course on dialogue theory and practice which we are organising in collaboration with the Danish National Research School in Media, Communication and Journalism(FMKJ).  Please note that the deadline for registration has been extended to 15 January 2010.  For information about the aims, content and structure of the course, course requirements and how to register, just click here.

You are invited to participate in this symposium which we are organising together with the Network on Experts and the Communication of
Knowledge funded by the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen (http://vidensformidling.mef.ku.dk/)
and the Science and Environment Communication Section, European Communication Research and Education Association/ECREA
(http://www.scienv-com.eu/). The symposium will take place on 9 October 2009, 10am-4pm, University of Copenhagen. For more
information, please click here.

FOR THE WORKSHOP PROGRAMME, PLEASE CLICK HERE

FOR LULEÅ AIRPORT BUS TIMETABLE, PLEASE CLICK HERE. We should get off at the ELITE STADSHOTEL BUS STOP.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE TAKING THE TRAIN OR BUSES TO LULEÅ: the central train station and bus station is about a 2 or 3 minute walk from town and it is possible to walk to the hotel from the train or bus station (about 10-12 minutes).

FOR MAP OF CAMPUS, PLEASE CLICK HERE. The meetings will take place in F building. We should enter F building through entrance F11. The conference room is one floor up, and is called “Bell”.

From the town centre (Smedjegatan or shopping bus stations) to the campus, we can take buses no 4, 5 or 8.  To get to the workshop in the mornings, we should take buses no 4 or 5. FOR THE TIMETABLE FOR BUS NO 4, CLICK HERE. FOR BUS NO 5, CLICK HERE. FOR BUS NO 8, CLICK HERE. We should get off at the bus stop, Pörsocentrum.

Theme: Analysing dialogic ambitions in research communication in the light of questions of governance, democracy and power

This workshop will focus on relations between the ideals of dialogic knowledge production and communication with respect to dialogue, power and democracy, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the concrete practices in which negotiations take place between the different participants and the different forms of knowledge under social, political and organisational conditions that constrain what can be said and done. A key issue will be the implications for democracy, governance and citizenship of the differing status ascribed to different forms of knowledge in the dialogue-based production and communication of research-based knowledge.

Invited Guest Speakers

Charlotte Tulinius (Medical Director of Curriculum, Royal College of General Practitioners, London, educational consultant for research training programme for GP trainees at University of Copenhagen and Associate on educational research projects, Centre of Educational Research and Development, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University) and Bibi Hølge-Hazelton (Associate Professor, School of Education, Århus University and Senior Researcher, Research Unit for General Practice, University of Copenhagen) will give a talk entitled “When the spiral of the action research process collapses in the clash of inter-professional perceptions and values”. Click here for short biographies : BIO. Click here for the abstract for their talk: ABSTRACT.

Sarah Parry (Associate Professor, Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation and Associate at the Innogen Centre, University of Edinburgh) will give a talk entitled “Understanding public engagement as a boundary object”. Click here for a short biography: BIO. Click here for the abstract for her talk: ABSTRACT.

Articles on the workshop theme by participants

Sarah Parry (2009), “Stem Cell Scientists’ Discursive Strategies for Cognitive Authority”, Science as Culture, 18(1): 89-114.

Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Gill Haddow and Sarah Parry (2006), “‘Talking the talk’ and ‘walking the talk’: The challenges of public engagement research”, Genomics Forum Newsletter, Issue 4.

Sarah Parry, Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Wendy Faulkner and Stephen Bates (2007), “The perils of public engagement”, Genomics Forum Newsletter, Issue 6.

Ewa Gunnarsson (2007), “Other sides of the Coin. A Feminist Perspective on Robustness in Science and Knowledge Production”, International Journal of Action Research, 3(3): 349-363.

Malin Lindberg (2009), “Challenging and changing Sweden’s innovation policy by a bottom-up approach in research”, Working Paper (please do not cite)

Title of presentation:

“Challenging and changing Sweden’s innovation policy by a bottom-up approach in research”
Malin Lindberg, Luleå University of Technology

ABSTRACT: In my session, I will scrutinize how four regional networks came to challenge and change Sweden’s innovation policy by a bottom-up approach in research. In the project Lyftet, dialogues seminars were carried out in order to create free spaces where the network members could share their experiences of promoting women’s entrepreneurship and innovation. The outcomes of these dialogues seminars highlight the questions of governance, democracy and power in relation to dialogic ambitions in research communication.

Louise Phillips (forthcoming), “Analysing the Dialogic Turn in the Communication of Research-Based Knowledge: an Exploration of the Tensions in Collaborative Research”, Public Understanding of Science (pre-print, pre-refereed version; NOT final version)

Maria Uden (2001), “Do women engineers make a difference?”  Paper for ITDG Conference, Ronneby, November 2001.

Background reading about Maria Uden’s case: n4c Newsletter, Issue 1

Photographs from the workshop

How to get here: map of Roskilde University

Please note that Lunch is in Building 01, Foyer.

Programme

Monday, 20 April:

12 noon-13.15: Lunch in Building 01, Foyer

13.15-15.15: Reflecting Teams in room 43.3.29
15.15-16.00: Break
16.00-18.00: Reflecting Teams in room 43.3.29

19.00- : Dinner and dancing in Room 40.2.25

Tuesday, 21 April:

9.00-10.00: Individual presentation + comments/discussion in room 43.3.29
10.00-10.15: Break
10.15-11.15: Individual presentation + comments/discussion in room 43.3.29
11.15-11.30: Break
11.30-12.30: Individual presentation + comments/discussion in room 43.3.29
12.30-13.30: Lunch in Building 01, Foyer
13.30-16.30: Open Space (including break) in room 43.3.29
16.30-17.30: Closing session (including discussion of future network activities) in room 43.3.29

Detailed Programme

List of Participants

Papers for Workshop:

Eva Amundsdotter
Jørgen Bloch-Poulsen and Marianne Kristiansen
Karen Dons Blædel
Ewa Gunnarsson
Simon Heilesen
Anu Hirsiaho
Riikka Homanen
Maja Horst
Christian Kobbernagel
Pauliina Lehtonen
Marianne Inez Lien
Ulla-Britt Lilleaas
May-Linda Magnussen
Louise Phillips
CarrieLynn Reinhard
Marja Vehviläinen
Karin Widerberg (also as pdf)

“Dialogue” has become a buzzword in the communication of research, and researchers at universities and other research institutions are being called upon to produce socially relevant knowledge and further social innovation in dialogue with different social actors and their perspectives. But what does the so-called dialogic communication of research actually entail? And what are the implications of the dialogic turn in the communication of research for questions of power, governance and democracy? The Nordic Network for the Study of the Dialogic Communication of Research (2008-2011) addresses these questions.

The following seminars will take place in 2009:

2-Day Seminar, Roskilde University, 20-21 April 2009.

Theme: Key concepts in dialogic research communication.

The seminar will begin on Monday, 20 April at 12 noon with lunch and end on Tuesday, 21 April at 17.30. The focus will be on the concepts of “dialogue” and “participation”. What assumptions, if any, are shared across different concepts of “dialogue” and “participation”? What differences are there between the different concepts? And what are the implications of those differences for how we design and carry out empirical research? Discussion will also take place about colloborative publication projects and the communication of the network’s research in non-academic fora such as art installations and meetings with practitioners involved in action research.

2-Day Seminar, Luleå Technical University, 21-22 September 2009.

Theme: Analysing dialogic ambitions in research communication in the light of questions of governance, democracy and power.

This will involve interrogating the relations between the ideals of dialogic knowledge production and communication with respect to dialogue, power and democracy, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the concrete practices in which negotiations take place between the different participants and the different forms of knowledge under social, political and organisational conditions that constrain what can be said and done. A key issue will be the implications for democracy, governance and citizenship of the differing status ascribed to different forms of knowledge in dialogically-conceived research communication. Fields of practice will include communication campaigns, organisational change communication, research communication, science and public communication and interpersonal communication in virtual worlds. There will also be further discussion of colloborative publication projects and communication in non-academic fora.