An Arendtian dialogue on genomics: Opening political spaces through interdisciplinary connexions

Abstract

As a practice, dialogue reveals and constructs plural perspectives. It is the foundation of a shared reality, one that cannot be reduced to a monolithic viewpoint claiming to hold absolute truth. We academics, often enclosed within our disciplinary tribes, tend to repeat familiar formulas and languages that reassure, contain and ultimately build barriers, making it difficult to imagine new spaces for dialogue and learning. This work recounts the importance, pleasure and challenges of constructing a multi-voiced dialogue on shared and collective concerns, using the example of a dialogue between Management and Organization Studies (MOS), Natural Sciences, and Law on the impact of genomics on our lives. Inspired by Arendt’s theorization of dialogue, we call for the need to recognize and question the epistemological binary that opposes truth to opinion. We also acknowledge the potential of each discipline, through inter/intra-disciplinarity dialogue, to recognize the world as inherently shared and to develop awareness of the implications of genomics in its application. This shared world necessitates collective responsibility and action, grounded in an ethic of interdependence that recognizes the public and inalienable value of genetic data. In this context, genomics constitutes an exemplary case for illustrating the significance of dialogic organizing.