Books... Bakhtin's centripetal and centrifugal forces in relationships

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

"Bakhtin's dialogism is theory of the contradicting process as realized in the ongoing tension between centripetal (i.e. unifying) and centrifugal (i.e., differentiating) dialectical poles. Each pole of the centripetal-centrifugal contradiction is constituted in the particulars of the situation at a given point in time. The centripetal pole consists of whatever phenomenon or quality occupies the dominant or normative position, whereas the centrifugal pole consists of whatever phenomena are subordinate, peripheral, or secondary. Substantial fluidity characterizes centripetal and centrifugal poles, in that a phenomenon that is dominant at one point in time can be subordinate or secondary at another point in time, and vice versa. Because dialogism is a general theory of sociality, rather than a context-specific theory, Bakhtin did not pursue the particular  phenomena that constitute centripetal and centrifugal forces for any specific context, including the context of personal relationships. Thus a first step in extending dialogism to personal relationships is to particularize Bakhtin's abstract centripetal contradiction." p.141.

Duck, S. (Editor) Social Context and Relationships. London: SAGE Publications, 1993.