Explaining and Arguing

Download or read book Explaining and Arguing written by Charles Antaki and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1994-08-04 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explanations identify causes, back up claims and justify actions. Social scientists study them because they reveal how people understand and construct their worlds. This stimulating book offers a critical review of the major approaches to the study of everyday explaining and arguing. Using concrete examples to illuminate the range of contemporary approaches, Antaki's concern is to test theory against practice. He draws a picture of explanation as a richly social achievement of speaker and audience, involving a balance between delicate manoeuvre and the exercise of discursive power.