Dialogic organizing and polyphony under an authoritarian rule: The public debates of the Hirak movement in Algeria

Farida Souiah, assistant professor in political science, OCE, emlyon business school
Tuesday, February 11th | 12h15-14h15 Room | B-114

 This paper contributes to the literature on monologic and dialogic organizing by examining dialogic and polyphonic spaces under an authoritarian rule. While dialogic organizing, rooted in Bakhtinian thought, has been widely explored in organization studies, it has also been critiqued for its overly idealized vision of dialogue. Rather than portraying dialogue as an ideal or utopian construct, this study conceptualizes it as a struggle—a practice that must be continuously sustained, negotiated, and defended.

Empirically, the paper analyzes 21 public debates held in Algeria during a revolutionary movement demanding the end of authoritarianism. These debates—functioning as collective agoras—were not merely a means of political change but a form of resistance, marking a rupture from the monologic discourse imposed by the regime. The findings reveal that, for participants, the act of sustaining dialogue, despite constraints, was a political victory, asserting a space for polyphony in an environment long dominated by state-imposed monologism.  Beyond rejecting romanticized conceptions of dialogue, this study illustrates how dialogic spaces remain unequal, contested, and shaped by exclusionary processes. However, participants actively negotiated and vocalized these asymmetries, inequalities, and power imbalances through collective dialogue. In multilingual settings, linguistic diversity introduced further challenges, sometimes impeding mutual understanding. Yet, despite these barriers, dialogue retained its symbolic and political significance, functioning as more than just a communicative practice. Ultimately, this paper argues that in an authoritarian context, dialogue is not only a means of meaning-making or social change but an end in itself.