Liberation in the Face of Uncertainty

In this volume, Dialogical Self Theory is innovatively presented as a guide to help elucidate some of the most pressing problems of our time as they emerge at the interface of self and society. As a bridging framework at the interface of the social sciences and philosophy, Dialogical Self Theory provides a broad view of problem areas that place us in a field of tension between liberation and social imprisonment. With climate change and the coronavirus pandemic serving as wake-up calls, the book focuses on the experience of uncertainty, the disenchantment of the world, the pursuit of happiness, and the cultural limitations of the Western self-ideal. Now more than ever we need to rethink the relationship between self, other, and the natural environment, and this book uses Dialogical Self Theory to explore actual and potential responses of the self to these urgent challenges.

Различая диалогическое Я

Перевод текста: Skinner D., Valsiner J., Holland D. Discerning the Dialogical Self : A Theoretical and Methodological Examination of a Nepali Adolescent’s Narrative // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung. — 2001. — Vol. 2, no. 3.

The Dialogical Self Analogy for the Godhead: Recasting the “God is a Person” Debate

May God may be understood and referred to as a “person”? This is a live debate in contemporary theological and philosophical circles. However, despite the attention this debate has received, the vital question of how to account for God’s trinitarian nature has been mostly overlooked. Due to trinitarian concerns about the unqualified use of “person” as an analogy for the Godhead, I intervene in this debate with a two-fold proposal. The first is that proponents of using a person as an analogy for the Godhead will be better served by using a psychologically informed analogy of a “self” instead. In particular, the Dialogical Self model of a person holds much promise. In what follows, I argue that the “Dialogical Self Analogy” for the Godhead is more likely to uphold God’s trinitarian nature, avoid trinitarian confusion and related problems than “person” analogies do. The primary benefit of speaking of God as a Dialogical Self is that it offers a psychologically modelled analogy for God, whilst avoiding the language of person, yet strongly taking into account God’s trinitarian nature. This has the important benefit of preserving the concept and language of “person” for the trinitarian persons (the prosopa/hypostases), and hence avoiding the linguistic, conceptual and ecumenical confusion that arises when referring to the Godhead as a person. The strength of using the model and language of a Dialogical Self as an analogy for the Godhead (instead of person) is demonstrated by showing its compatibility with Erickson’s criteria for describing the Trinity.

Intergroup Dialogues in the Landscape of Digital Societies: How Does the Dialogical Self Affect Intercultural Relations in Online Contexts?

The effects of intergroup dialogues on intercultural relations in digital societies and the growing conflict, inflammatory and hate speech phenomena characterizing these environments are receiving increasing attention in socio-psychological studies. Based on Allport’s contact theory, scholars have shown that online intercultural contact reduces ethnic prejudice and discrimination, although it is not yet clear when and how this occurs. By analyzing the role of the Dialogical Self in online intercultural dialogues, we aim to understand how individuals position themselves and others at three levels of inclusiveness—personal, social, and human—and how this process is associated with attitudes towards the interlocutor, intergroup bias and prejudice, whilst also considering the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity. An experimental procedure was administered via the Qualtrics platform, and data were collected among 118 undergraduate Italian students through an anonymous questionnaire. From ANOVA and moderation analysis, it emerged that the social level of inclusiveness was positively associated with ethnic/racial identity and intergroup bias. Furthermore, the human level of inclusiveness was associated with the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity, and unexpectedly, also with intergroup bias. We conclude that when people interact online as “human beings”, the positive effect of online dialogue fails, hindering the differentiation processes necessary to define one’s own and the interlocutor’s identities. We discuss the effects of intercultural dialogue in the landscape of digital societies and the relevance of our findings for theory, research and practice.

Construction of borders: Intra-psychological dynamics of emerging national identity

Border-making is an inevitable experience in human life. Borders can be viewed as part of an external sociocultural structure that guides the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, in addition to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis, borders can be conceptualized as an intra-psychological process of identity formation that is involved in meaning making and in organizing experiences with the world. Within the framework of cultural psychology, this article will provide an account of the process of bordering, using the example of Estonian identity that is approached as an affective process of semiotic construction of borders between us and the “other” (i.e., “non-us”). Using the dialogical self theory, it will examine how different I-positions (e.g., I-as-Estonian) related to collective and personal past experiences are involved in the construction of borders. The tendency to incline toward re-creation of the established structure of borders with the potential to renegotiate them is also revealed in this study.

Cognitive dialogue as a human-forming strategy of education

Актуальность статьи обусловлена необходимостью определения развивающих, обучающих и воспитывающих векторов когнитивного диалога, сопряженных с человеко-мерностью знания, определяющей гуманистические смысловые приоритеты Человека современного противоречивого мира. Цель статьи - ввести понятие «когнитивный диалог» в проблемное поле когнитивной педагогики как человекообразующей стратегии педагогического взаимодействия, детерминирующего концептуально-ценностные образования гармоничного развития личности. Определены этапы развития диалогического самопознания в процессе когнитивного диалога в единстве логических и эмоционально-образных координат на материале художественных произведений.Результатом исследования явилась разработка принципов когнитивного диалога: принципа человекосообразности, обеспечивающего развитие гуманистической рефлексии взаимодействия в рамках интеллигентного сообщества субъектов образовательного процесса;принципа гармонической соразмерности, определяющего концептуальное гуманистическое осознание симметричного согласования личностных и социальных смыслов когнитивного развития человека и результативных правил их реализации в образовательной практике. Статья предназначена для педагогов, психологов, преподавателей вузов, исследователей в области современной педагогики. The relevance of the article is due to the need to determine the teaching, educating and developing vectors of cognitive dialogue, coupled with the human dimension of scientific knowledge, which determines the humanistic semantic priorities of the Man in the modern contradictory world. The purpose of the article is to introduce the concept of "cognitive dialogue" into the problem field of cognitive pedagogy as a human-forming strategy of pedagogical interaction, which determines the conceptual-value formations of the harmonious development of the individual. The stages of development of dialogical self-knowledge in the process of cognitive dialogue in the unity of logical and emotional-figurative coordinates on the material of works of art are determined. The result of the study was the development of effective principles of cognitive dialogue: human conformity, which ensures the development of humanistic reflection of interaction within the framework of the intelligent community of subjects of the educational process, harmonious proportionality, which determines the conceptual humanistic awareness of the symmetrical coordination of personal and social meanings of human cognitive development and the rules for their implementation in educational practice. The article is intended for teachers, psychologists, university-teachers, researchers in the field of modern pedagogy.