DIALOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT

The paper conceptualises interpersonal communication as a cooperative dialogue, unlike the conflict and instrumental conceptions of communication. The dialogic maxims are the following: active and equal participation of all communicators, mutual respect and responsibility, frank and open communication, openness to changing one's own views, co-creation of meaning. Dialogue is not only a way of interpersonal communication, but is primarily an inner orientation or epistemological position for which it is necessary to make a conscious decision, and it demands development. Instead of competition, conformity, dishonesty, (covert or overt) antagonism, mistrust, dialogue brings cooperation, solidarity, trust, mutual responsibility, and care. As such, dialogue is a normative ideal which is relatively rarely realised in practice. In this article, we investigate factors in a social context that impede its implementation. These are on one hand institutionally assigned or acquired positions, which often imply asymmetry in the distribution of communications options (actually the currently predominant institutional frameworks and communication practices within them) while, on the other hand, we mention the personal (psychological) factors that hamper the dialogical stance.