COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING CMM

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COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING (CMM)

• Of Barnett Pearce and Vernon Cronen

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BASIC PROPOSITIONS

• Main focus people who disagree can live together
  in relative harmony
• Quality of life is directly related to quality of
  communication
• Persons-in-conversation co-construct their own
  social realities and are simultaneously shaped by
  the worlds they create
• Change communication change quality of life
  this is the proof offered by CMM

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Some CMM Approaches

• Levels of meaning, and different accounts that
  inter-actants tell about episodes, relationships,
  identities and cultural patterns
• Strange loop Diagnosis causes A to change
  attitude to B, leads B to new behavior, leads A
  to doubt diagnosis, and return to old attitude,
  leading to regression by B.
• Handling moral conflict by finding ways for
  adherents to conflicting positions to listen to
  the other position from a third-party perspective
• Dialogic communication trained facilitators
  encourage cross-community dialogue, facilitating
  the telling of stories, reframing, weaving
  together diverse stories.

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4 Principles of Social Construction

• Our connections with others form who we are.
  Communication is highly consequential.
• The way people communicate often more important
  than what they communicate
• Actions of persons-in-conversation are
  reflexively reproduced as dialogue continues
• As social constructionists, CMM researchers see
  themselves as curious participants in a
  pluralistic world. Preferred model of research is
  action research

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STORIES TOLD, STORIES LIVED

• Stories lived are the co-constructed actions we
  perform with others
• Coordination occurs when our stories lived fit
  with the stories lived by others
• Stories told are the stories we use to make sense
  of our stories lived
• Coherence takes place when we interpret each
  others stories the same way

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Coordination and Coherence

• We coordinate with others to achieve our
  respective visions of what is necessary, good,
  noble etc.
• To coordinate we dont have to see the world in
  the same way (people in church may have different
  beliefs about meanings of rituals they share)
• Coordination in sense of co-construction of
  social reality is limited by power imbalances.
• People achieve meshing of stories lived through
  dialogic communication speaking in a way that
  makes it possible for others to listen listening
  in a way that makes it possible for others to
  speak.

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How People Tell Their Stories

• Every act of speech is wedded to four contexts
• An episode is a communication routine that has
  boundaries and rules (e.g. phone-call home plea
  for extension on a paper)
• A relationship between persons-in conversation
  suggests how speech might be interpreted
• Self-Identity
• Culture describes webs of shared meanings and
  values.
• Both parties affect and are affected by the
  other. Contexts co-evolve as people speak.

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UNTOLD STORIES

• THOSE THAT PARTICIPANTS HAVE DECIDED NOT TO
  DISCLOSE
• LIE BELOW THE LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
• THOSE THAT OTHERS IN CONVERSATION ARE UNABLE OR
  UNWILLING TO HEAR

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DIALOGIC COMMUNICATION

• Refers to what has been said by the previous
  speaker
• Claims that what was said raises a question or
  prompts an insight
• Answers that question or describes that insight
• Expresses where he or she now stand on the issue.
  

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Critique

• Core ideas difficult to pin down
• Lack of consistency in use of terms
• Can be enlightening, also perplexing
• Whereas symbolic interactionism focuses on
  communication in the formation of identity and
  self-perception, CMM focuses on communication in
  the formation of shared social realities