Case Studies and Dialogicality

Abstract

Dialogicality is one of the dialogical approaches in human and social sciences. It postulates that the nature of the Self-Other interdependence is unique. Uniqueness of the Self-Other interdependence is strongly discernible in communication involving people with congenital deafblindness. This raises a fundamental methodological question: how to transform the unique and dynamic nature of dialogue into an empirical project that would allow general claims to be made about dialogicality? It is argued that while single cases do not allow for statistical generalisation, they allow for theoretical generalisation of research findings, as well as for generalisation of practices in professional services. Examples of theoretical generalisation of concepts such as ‘dialogical learning’ and ‘resilience’ are discussed.