Bakhtinian Dialogism

Bakhtinian dialogism refers to a philosophy of language and a social theory that was developed by Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895–1975). Life is dialogic and a shared event; living is participating in dialogue. Meaning comes about through dialogue at whatever level that dialogue takes place. Nothing can exist without meaning; everything has meaning.

Dialogue comes from the relation between self and other, where ‘other’ implies person, plant, animal, object or idea. Dialogism's a priori is that all existence is a web of interconnections from which meanings are being continually generated. These are linked and in constant dialogue through different means, language being just one.

The relation between self and other is shaped by position. Our respective positions include that which cannot be accessed by others since our minds cannot be read. The term surplus/excess of seeing refers to that which we see and shape from our respective positions but which cannot be accessed by others. From otherness and this surplus/excess of seeing in relation to the other comes consciousness.

Since life is shared as an event and we participate through dialogue, it follows that life demands a response from us. This response is always relational since it comes from the uniqueness of the position or space and time occupied by each of us. All that is said is in response to something and demands a response. Dialogue, thus, requires an utterance, a response and a relation from which flow the moral implications of the judging ‘I’ in response to the other.

Our speech and thoughts always incorporate the words of others; our words carry traces and hues from a host of influences, including sociolect, profession, gender, generation, education, context, year, date, time and so forth. Our words anticipate previous usage and the response of another. The words we choose in any given moment have a specific spatial, temporal and social context.

This entry addresses key elements of dialogism in relation to a Bakhtinian view of dialogue as a social process of meaning, language and dialogism and the idea of the public square with implications for action research.