The dialogic turn: dialogue for deliberation

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes providing that: The full-text is not changed in any way A full bibliographic reference is made A hyperlink is given to the original metadata page in eResearch eResearch policies on access and re-use can be viewed on our Policies page: Much of current debate on deliberative democracy verses on the difficulty of bridging the gap between normative theory and practical development. This article argues that, in order to bridge that gap and facilitate deliberative scenarios, more attention must be paid to the sociological core of deliberative democracy, namely, interpersonal communication. Dialogue scholarship has gained momentum over the past decade, offering a way forward in terms of enlarging the concept of deliberation while enriching its processes. This article proposes some reflections towards an integrated model of dialogue and deliberation (D+D) for collaborative policy making scenarios. The purpose is to explore, from a pragmatic and post-empiricist orientation, this particular crossroads of political science and communication scholarship. Introduction 1 " Participatory democracy […] depends on the quality of communication in which choices are identified and decisions are made. And this quality requires that we treat public communication as more than just a decision-making tool –a means to an end. [...] Participatory democracy works best when there is a complex array of communication patterns available, each intersecting with the others to create a robust and vibrant public sphere. " Spano (2001:27) The purpose of this article is to bring together, on an exploratory level, two areas of scholarship that have evolved in parallel; namely, deliberative theory and dialogue studies. The former represents one of the most important developments in the democratic theory of the last decades. The latter offers a variety of practical approaches to fostering collaborative communication on the ground. Subsequently, the article is mostly comprised of a review of the literature that is relevant to frame 1 An earlier version of this article was discussed at the IX Spanish Congress of Political Science, thanks to a Research Travel Award provided by Abbey Santander UK. The author thanks the colleagues at the Deliberative Democracy Group for the stimulating discussions on the subject. Last but not least, many thanks as well to the anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments and suggestions. 43 areas where these disciplines may be brought together in order to …