ArgLab Book Celebration

ArgLab invites you to celebrate the release of the book Argumentation in Complex Communication, by Marcin Lewiński and Mark Aakhus (Cambridge University Press, 2023) on February 17. The book will be presented by the authors and discussed with Prof. Andrea Rocci (Università della Svizzera italiana). A small reception will be held afterwards.

About the book

A pervasive aspect of human communication and sociality is argumentation: the practice of making and criticizing reasons in the context of doubt and disagreement. Argumentation underpins and shapes the decision-making, problem-solving, and conflict management which are fundamental to human relationships. However, argumentation is predominantly conceptualized as two parties arguing pro and con positions with each other in one place. This dyadic bias undermines the capacity to engage argumentation in complex communication in contemporary, digital society. This book offers an ambitious alternative course of inquiry for the analysis, evaluation, and design of argumentation as polylogue: various players arguing over many positions across multiple places. Taking up key aspects of the twentieth-century revival of argumentation as a communicative, situated practice, the polylogue framework engages a wider range of discourses, messages, interactions, technologies, and institutions necessary for adequately engaging the contemporary entanglement of argumentation and complex communication in human activities.

To join the session on Zoom, click here (password: 783181).

For more information, do not hesitate to get in touch with Dima Mohammed at dmohammed@fcsh.unl.pt.