Making social worlds : a communication perspective / W. Barnett Pearce.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pearce, W. Barnett.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication--Social aspects.

Communication.

Interpersonal communication.

Social perception.

Meaning (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

xvii, 250 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2007.

Summary:

How one acts during "critical moments" can change the world. The tools and concepts of CMM - Coordinated Management of Meaning - show us how to discern and to act wisely during the moments that shape our future. This text presents the most accessible introduction to CMM, one of the groundbreaking theories of speech communication.

In an age in which what happens anywhere affects us everywhere, and in which we must become accustomed to interacting with people whose customs are different than our own, more sophisticated patterns of communication are demanded. This book provides the concepts and models to help us understand these. By analyzing examples from everyday life - everything from intimate family conversations to speeches by heads of state - the author demonstrates how the tools of CMM enable special insights into our social interactions. Written in an informal yet intellectually stimulating way, Making Social Worlds opens up the theory of CMM to students, scholars, and practitioners.

Contents:

An Invitation... ix

Extended to... xii

Everyone xii

Students xii

Professionals xv

With Appreciation for... xv

Chapter 1 Critical Moments that Shape Our Social Worlds 1

A Critical Moment in a 911 Emergency Telephone Call 1

Why Acting Wisely in Critical Moments is Important: We're in a Race that We Need to Win 6

9/11: A Missed Opportunity to Act Wisely in a Critical Moment 12

What happened? 12

How was the story told? 13

How did President Bush respond? 16

Could President Bush have responded in another way? 17

Examples of acting wisely in critical moments 18

Could President Bush have acted more wisely in the critical moment of 9/11? 21

Chapter 2 Taking a Communication Perspective on Social Worlds 29

Everybody Has a Theory of Communication, Although Most People Don't Know It 30

If Communication is so Important, How Should We Understand It? 30

My Discovery of Social Worlds 38

Social worlds 40

The worldliness of social worlds 41

There are many social worlds 42

Social worlds are made 48

Each of us is an agent in the process of making social worlds 52

Questions Asked by Those who Take a Communication Perspective on Social Worlds 53

Chapter 3 Paradigms and the "Physics" of Social Worlds 57

What was That? 58

Paradigms 58

Questions and Questioning 61

Playfulness 65

Systemic 67

Process 68

Emergent Characteristics 70

Chapter 4 Communication: Coordinating Actions and Making/Managing Meanings 78

Theory as a Way of Seeing Things 78

Coordinating Actions 80

Choosing "coordination" as a sensitizing concept for understanding communication 83

Understanding how patterns of communication develop and discerning critical moments 88

Acting wisely in critical moments 93

Making/Managing Meaning 95

Coherence: the gift of meaning and purpose 96

Subjugation: the cost of fitting into prefigured molds 98

Mystery: the gift of wonder and openings for exploration 98

Communication as the Site where Social Worlds are Made 100

Chapter 5 Doing Things in Communication: Speech Acts 105

Speech Acts and the Quality of Our Lives 105

Our Social Worlds are Made of Speech Acts 106

Why call them "speech acts"? 108

How many speech acts are there? 109

Where do speech acts come from? 110

Speech Acts are Made in Coordinated Actions 112

Performing Speech Acts 115

What is being done by what is said? Conversational implicature 116

To what is that a response? The conversational triplet 117

What can/must/should I do? Logical force 119

What is the wisest course of action? Ante-narrative 121

Making Better Social Worlds 122

Change the situation so that there will be a different ratio of speech acts 123

Resist or prevent the performance of undesired speech acts 124

Facilitating or enabling the performance of desired speech acts 126

Chapter 6 Episodes and Patterns of Communication 131

Social Life is Episodic 132

Our Social Worlds are Made of Episodes 133

Making Episodes 134

Making/managing meaning: perceiving the flow of experience as episodes 135

Realizing episodes in coordinated action 148

Patterns of Communication 157

Making Better Social Worlds 162

Freeing us up so that we can make wiser choices 162

Calling better patterns of communication into being 165

Chapter 7 Selves and Forms of Consciousness 171

Here I Am! 171

Selves are Made in Processes of Communication 173

Forms of Consciousness Emerge in Processes of Communication 181

The Role of Selves in Making Social Worlds 189

Making Better Social Worlds 191

Is there an innate impulse toward evolution of consciousness? 192

Is there a special kind of transformative learning? 192

How can we support each other in our zones of proximal development? 193

How can we structure our institutions so that they support the evolution of consciousness? 194

Can we take proactive steps to structure better forms of communication? 195

Chapter 8 Relationships and Relational Minds 199

The Difference between Being Related and Being in Relationship 199

Relationships and Minds as Objects in Our Social Worlds 200

Relationships as Contexts for the Way We Communicate 204

Making Relationships in Communication 210

The Evolution of Relational Minds 213

Making Better Social Worlds 216

Chapter 9 Afterword: Something of a Guide for Using CMM 224

Warning! 224

Ways of "Using" CMM 225

How Do You Know if You've Used CMM Well? 226

A Typical Four-phase Sequence in Using CMM 227

Description 227

Interpretation 228

Critique 229

Putting it into practice 230

Entry Points for CMM Practice 231

An Example of Consulting Using Systemic Questioning 232

This is a Test... 239.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1405162597

1405162600

9781405162593

9781405162609

OCLC:

85018140

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description