Power and Recognition in the Dialogic Dispositif

The article takes its point of depature in the dialogical turn, highlighting the proliferation of dialogue as both a practice and an ideal.This encompasses the involvement and recognition of citizens, users, patients, students, and employees in local democracy, decision-making processes, learning situations, organizations, and workplaces.We undertake a meticulous examination of a coaching conversation occurring between a leader and an employee in a social institution.The article adopts a method-developing perspective by connecting ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EMCA) with Michel Foucault's power analytics, including his concepts of dispositive and technology.This approach bridges traditionally disparate academic paradigms, enabling us to pinpoint the concrete manifestations of power and elucidate a range of social technologies.Our analysis focuses on employee power, an aspect previously underrepresented in existing research literature.We demonstrate how the potential for employee power emerges when leaders adopt a coaching approach as a conversational tool to foster equal dialogues.The article presents an exemplary analysis of power dynamics specifically related to the emergence of the dialogic turn, thereby contributing to the existing research literature within the field of ethnographic interactionist studies.