Hvor skal talen komme fra? Dialogen som omsiggribende ledelsesteknologi

This article investigates the recent proliferation of appeals to “dialogue“ as a solution to problems in a wide range of institutional settings in Denmark, public as well as private. Instead of bureaucratic, top-down management and expert driven public services, we are told that we need “dialogue based“ management, health care, elder care, social counselling and so on. Dialogue is often presented as a tool that will reverse the stifling dominance of authoritative expertise and leadership, liberating the energy, innovative potential and desires of employees, clients and patients. We argue, however, that dialogue is not simply a governmental technological tool that can be utilised by some to liberate or govern others or govern nature. Any technology structures actions and this means that “the governors“ also inevitably exercise power over themselves. This article demonstrates how dialogue technology restructures institutionalised domains of speech and thus contributes to reconfiguring interrelations and relations to oneself within modern society. Key words: governmentality, dialogues, governmental technology, preventive dialogue, outreach social work, 360 degrees evaluation.