Invitation

We are happy to invite you to the

Third International Conference on Dialogical Practices

«Listen to me!» 

Humanizing Human Practices

Kristiansand, Norway, 23^rd to 25^th of September 2015.

“Listen to me!” is an ambiguous title: it is a cry, a plea, the expression of a fundamental condition for existing. If no one ever listens to me, I gradually turn into nobody. On the other side “listen to me!” may also illustrate the monologic voice of the educator or professional who “knows best” and tries to control and form the other through an instructive approach. Developing dialogical ways of working is about “humanizing human practices”. Only through dialogue we can give space to people’s vitality – in a realm of intersubjectivity.

Children want to be heard! The conference will explore the title “Listen to me!” Humanizing human practices in relation to children and adolescents, within various contexts. 

We will do this through three broad themes.

1. Dialogues of everyday life: We are all dependent on the dialogues of our everyday life - in our everyday social arenas. This urges us, as professionals, to engage in the social reality and networks of the people we are trying to help.
2. Dialogues and social justice: Social justice is about being included or excluded - offered or denied a place - in a community. This makes the various dialogues of our lives into political events, and dialogical practices into political practices
3. The dialogical body: Dialogical practice should not be reduced to communication and understanding in a cognitive sense – a matter of the mind. Dialogical practice operates through the movement, expressivity and responsiveness of the body.

This conference creates an arena were professionals, scholars, researchers and service users from various disciplines can meet and share their experiences and ideas, and co-create ways of working dialogically within human practices.

A pre-conference will be organized with Jaakko Seikkula, John Shotter, Jim Wilson, Peter Rober, Justine van Lawick.

A more detailed program, call for proposals, and further information will be presented later this autumn. Stay tuned.

For further information contact: Tore Dag Bøe: tore.d.boe@uia.no, Tone Lunde Brekka: tone.l.brekka@uia.no or Jaakko Seikkula: jaakko.seikkula@psyka.jyu.fi 

Organizers:

Network for Open Dialogical Practices www.opendialogicalpractices.eu
Institute for psychosocial health, University of Agder, Norway www.uia.no
Department for Children and Adolescent’s Mental Health, Sorlandet Hospital, Norway www.abup.no