S. P. Gill: Tacit engagement: beyond interaction

Excerpt

Satinder Gill’s book, Tacit Engagement: Beyond Interaction (2015 Springer) offers an insightful and important critique of tacit engagement moving beyond a mechanical model of ‘interaction’ as an information exchange system into one that can hold onto the fullness of dialogue—open-ended, not instrumental, and spontaneous interaction. To grace this special issue on Buber a review of this book is apt. Gill draws on Buber’s I and Thou throughout her book to illustrate the unique approach of Buber and his commitment to relationality and dialogue. For Buber, I-It relations were characterized by experience of the other—taking from them something that is needed. He contrasted this with I-thou—a meeting with, fully in the moment, a way of recognizing rather than taking. It is true that Buber never believed the I-Thou could be sustained, and he embedded in his concept of I-thou a temporary feature, suggesting that as soon as one tries to grasp the I-Thou, it becomes the I-It, evaluative, rational, precise. With that said, as this special issue bears testament that the Thou offers something beyond the I-It—Gill invites us to consider these possible journeys. …