ABSTRACT
Chapter 16 taps into the use of ordinary speech to provide structure and meaning to people’s communication across social divides. The authors offer a theoretical commentary on the issue of everyday language-games from a Wittgensteinian perspective, with due consideration for the politics of it all. Two ‘serious game’ tools are then used to drive the point home, in a PAR perspective. The first tool helps different stakeholder groups rank their goals in order of importance and review possible Disagreements and Misunderstandings they may have about them. Negotiation Fair is another highly interactive method to assess and negotiate what people can expect of each other. Neither of these tools require prior knowledge of specialized language or concepts. Rather, each is like an empty box that can be filled with the richness of ideas grounded in local language, experience and hopes for better lives. Brief stories illustrating these tools revolve around gender-based differences in village priorities in West Bengal, competing goals of Cree and government officials in Canada and nutrition policy in Burkina Faso. All raise critical questions and tensions that had to be voiced first, plainly and directly, in order to be effectively addressed.
