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Voice, listening, and telling stories:the communicative construction of rhetorical citizenship in small groups

Carolyne Lee

School of Culture & Communication, Melbourne University, Australia

Judy Burnside-Lawry

School of Media & Communication RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

2013 - Research Fellow @ European University Institute, Italy

2 Presentation

Introduction (3 mins)

Theoretical framework (7 mins)

Case study (9 mins)

Implications of findings to study of rhetorical citizenship (4 mins)

Questions and Feedback (7 mins) = 30

3 Introduction

View rhetorical citizenship through new theoretical lens comprising:

Voice

Narrative

Listening

Small group

basic unit of communication

facilitates ‘detailed study of human communication exchange’

Poole &Hollingshead:359

Voice Narrative Listening

4 Theoretical Framework

Rhetorical Citizenship

process of rhetorically constructing & articulating one’s position regarding an issue or belief in that social context.

Feedback Loop

Deliberation

‘holding together all reasons and considerations relevant to the issue—not only those of one’s own… but also others that may speak against it, and that one has not yet considered’

Koch & Villadsen, 2012: Location 122

articulate one’s position

listentake into account

respond appropriately

= mutual sensemaking

5 Theoretical Framework

Listening receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to

spoken and/or nonverbal messages’ ILA, 1996: 4

affective, cognitive & behavioural (verbal, nonverbal, interactive) dimensions

Coakley, Halone & Wolvin, 1996

Participatory communication model assess the quality of listening & voice in communicative contexts

Jacobson, 2007

6 Theoretical Framework

Narrative

homo sapiens renamed ‘homo narrans’ Fisher,1987

stories are ‘symbolic interpretations of aspects of the world occurring in time, and shaped by history, culture and character’

Fisher 1987.xi

‘value –laden warrants for believing or acting in certain ways’

Fisher, 1987, p.xi

story-telling was the means of collective memory before writing

Allen, 2002: 2

7 Story-telling by Indigenous Australians

8 Theoretical Framework

form intrinsic to human thinking

organisations as collective storytelling systems... in which the performance of stories is a key part of members’ sense making

Boje, 1991

‘society cannot work…unless there is …..shared meaning’

Bohm, 1996, cited in Allan 2000: 230

‘sensemaking is a collective process’

Weick, cited in Allan 2002

9 Theoretical Framework Voice

‘society’s ills are due to a lack of shared meaning’

Bohm, 1996, cited in Allan 2000: 230

a decline in engagement in the democratic process, especially among younger citizens’

Couldry, Livingstone and Markham, 2007:4

aim for Aristotle’s “phronesis”—that is, practical wisdom.

opportunities for the expression of opinion and voice

respectful listening to each other’s rhetorical constructions of their citizenship, shared sense-making, openness and reflexivity.

voice’ as process, as ‘giving an account of oneself and what affects one’s life...’

(Couldry 2010, p.vi).

to have one’s voice heard and taken into account is seriously diminished ‘

governed in ways that deny the value of voice and insist instead on the primary of market functioning.

Couldry, 2010: xi

10 Theoretical framework

Voice

is people’s practice of giving an account, implicitly or explicitly, of themselves as members of the society within which they act.

synonymous with rhetorical citizenship,

involves ‘telling a story, providing a narrative’ Couldry, 2010: 7

11 Methodology

involves systematic collection of anecdotes using anthropological observation

Boje’s distinction between narrative and ‘ante-narrative’ analysis

Snowden’s (2001)ethnographic analysis—get people to talk, record it, analyse it.

3 participants

3 topics university courses going online

national identity

refugees

12 Topic 1- online university courses R: I would like to talk about university courses going online. … Does everyone know

what MOOCs are?

G: “I’m undecided on the fees versus free; like, I know it’s open access and worldwide and global but, like, I’m pretty neutral, I don’t really know where I stand because I see both sides.” (G:2)

D: Before we were saying how people might be at work and need to have a degree...I could tell you a thing from personal experience: my mother at 50 years, decidedto complete her degree in foreign languages while teaching, she’s a primary schoolteacher, and while working she went to university and got her degree. It was ... as aperson who works, I think it’s even better to have someone, a teacher, who guides youbecause you don’t have any experience, you’re not used to studying, and you alwaysneed someone who guides you...” (D:4)

13• G: “, ... well I’m not as old as your mum but ... but one of the reason I chose [University of] Melbourne is because it’s all on campus and you have to attend classes and everything; … and I tried to juggle part time masters study with full time work and it didn’t work, and for that reason I’ve decided … to quit full time work so I have the ability to come to uni and interact … because otherwise I could get my piece of paper on line but it would just be a piece of paper and nothing else.”

• G: well I got really irked… [when someone used the term] ‘illegal asylum seekers’, and I was … ‘Well that’s just a really stupid take’... but... I don’t actually know too much about the situation, … I’ve just started working at Amnesty International. ...we’re a big country, we’ve got lots of land, why can’t we share? That’s just my take. None of this political rubbish ... no one comes here … because they think, ‘Oh I’m going come to Australia and see how it is...’; they… can’t leave [legally], often it’s a life and death situation, … it’s their one chance of survival, and that’s my take on it.”

14 G: ... my dad was one of the first Indians to come, and at that time all the Indians were the outcasts and now they’ve assimilated, then maybe the Vietnamese... If we actually look back, then it was like the Sudanese, Africans, and they are now assimilating and now it’s all the people who are coming as asylum seekers coming from [Afghanistan]... and we need to make more of an effort to assimilate them or to educate them...

15 Implications for process of rhetorical citizenship

articulate one’s position

Listentake into account

respond appropriately

narrative narrative

narrative

narrative formulate one’s opinion

Feedback Loop

an ongoing process of reflection, exchanging narratives, back and forth

Couldry,2010:8

16 Implications for process of rhetorical citizenship

stories are the main way humans share meanings

assist in mitigating the noted present lack of voice in society

conditions that would enhance the expression of voice

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construction of shared meanings among citizens

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Thank you for listening Questions? Feedback?