Dialogue and conflict in predators-reindeer management

This paper present a study of the communication in the “dialogue forums” which aim to find solutions regarding the conflict of interest between preserving viable predator populations versus reducing predation losses in... [ view full abstract ]

This paper present a study of the communication in the “dialogue forums” which aim to find solutions regarding the conflict of interest between preserving viable predator populations versus reducing predation losses in domestic reindeer husbandry in Sweden. About 20 “dialogue meetings” between representatives of state agencies and Sami villages were observed and recorded. The material was analysed with symbolic interactionism and social practice theory to explore how disagreements and agreements occur and are dealt with and how norms on how and what to talk about are created and contested. We found that the communicative norms in these dialogue forums did not support joint investigation of disagreements. Although the actors in interviews indicated disagreements, these were rarely articulated in meetings, and when they were it often resulted in communicative uncertainty and what we call doubts of inter-subjectivity and subsequently reduced communicative capacity. Instead disagreements and goal interference were visible as passive, unarticulated resistance against the formal logic of the dialogue procedure. Further, we found that the knowledge and solutions developed in the dialogue forums had low legitimacy in external decision making bodies which inhibited decisions from being implemented. We think this was due to the design of the dialogue procedure did not take the situated character of knowledge and values into consideration, but assumed knowledge to be automatically transmitted between different levels in the decision making system.