The shifting role(s) of communication and argumentation in the public sphere

On Monday September 3rd 2018 at 11.00 in room 354, Rick Iedema, Professor and Director of the Team-based Practice & Learning in Health Care at King's College London, will hold a research seminar titled The shifting role(s) of communication and argumentation in the public sphere.

This talk addresses some of the main ways in which communication and argumentation practices are changing in the public sphere. The presentation opens with the changing role of communication and argumentation by making reference to our 'journey into disenchantment' that started with the Enlightenment. This journey maps the shift of contemporary epistemology away from human-centric towards systems-centric thinking thanks to systems theory and complexity theory. The presentation then discusses how this shift manifests in health care, moving towards greater stakeholder participation against a background of greater electronic data processing capability. The presentation then touches on the communicative transformation of the contemporary political sphere as it appears to be moving from truth as form/content towards truth as contagious adoption/imitation of non-technocratic and non-logical modes of communication and argumentation.

Prof. Iedema's research area revolves around the complexity of medical practice where argumentation is said to play a fundamental role. This is due to the dilution of the power of clinicians' authority, to the active participation by patients, to the greater range of medical treatments to choose from, all this supported by different types of evidence and arguments. Medical decisions are made in a context with a high level of diagnostic uncertainty and bureaucratic and financial constraints and are seen as the result of clinicians' personal positions, making them more vulnerable. The consequence of this is that the training of medical professionals must include more real-play simulations, in-situ reflections and feedback on conflict management and negotiation, even in cases where difficult choices are to be made. Clinicians must improve their skills in the decision-making process with different stakeholders, who may have different opinions, different religious/linguistic/cultural background, knoweldge and preferences.

An open discussion among participants will follow.

For further information, please contact Chiara Pollaroli ([email protected]).