Defense Date
7-30-2004
Graduation Date
Summer 2006
Availability
Immediate Access
Submission Type
dissertation
Degree Name
PhD
Department
Communication and Rhetorical Studies
School
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
Committee Chair
Janie Harden Fritz
Committee Member
Michael Dillon
Committee Member
Ronald C. Arnett
Keywords
Benin, Dialogue, Listener
Abstract
The interpretation explores the issue of participatory communication within the particular Beninese context of public dialogue by focusing on the communicative praxis of intellectual elite and by taking the public dialogue of the 1990 National Conference of Benin as a case study. The interpretive listening of such a situated participatory public dialogue results in the framing of two major metaphors: communicative silencer and responsive listener. First, the interpretation unveils that the possibility of broad participation in the democratization of Benin is compromised by a culture of silence in which intellectual elite become communicative silencers of the silenced communities including the illiterate, the poor and the underprivileged. Second, the interpretation pays heed to the communicative alternative emerging from the public dialogue experienced during the National Conference echoing a call to the intellectual elite to become responsive listeners.
Format
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Quenum, A. (2006). From Communicative Silencer to Responsive Listener: Participation and Public Dialogue in Benin (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1074