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Listening Posts have been employed as a methodology for capturing ideas that are currently held within society as a whole (Dartington 2000, Stapley 2003). By meeting in a group and sharing preoccupations and experiences, some of the unconscious dynamics operating in society may emerge. In this tradition a ‘Listening Post’ was included as part of the Australian Institute of Socio-Analysis (AISA) year three Fellowship Programme.
This paper discusses the AISA Listening Post, its themes, and the hypotheses collaboratively derived from the themes. I focus on raising some issues for discussion in relation to the methodology of Listening Posts and refer to literature relating to ‘median’ groups (de Mare, Piper and Thompson, 1991) to examine and illuminate some of the dynamic processes occurring in a Listening Post. This paper emphasizes the importance of exploring the relevance of the ‘social unconscious’ and some suggestions are offered as to how Listening Posts can be used and adapted in a variety of contexts.
The early beginnings and development of the study of society as an intelligible field of study is described in some detail by Khaleelee and Miller (1985), and Dartington (2000). Dartington (2000) discusses how