ABSTRACT

Increased polarization and divisive political speech threaten meaningful civic discussion. This study examines a campus public dialogue to understand how dialogic commitments sustained discursive openings for talking across polarizing positions. Specifically, our analysis identifies three patterns of interaction that constituted sustained openings: conceptual expansion, deliberation of meaning, and dialogic moments. Additionally, we contend two communicative practices extended dialogic commitments: discursive vulnerability and critical reflexivity. Finally, we draw on structuration theory to explain how participants disrupted polarizing political tropes to instead enact rules and resources associated with dialogue. Our analysis asserts a rethinking of polarization as communicative – that is, an enactment of dominant political discourses – and elucidates how students with limited instruction instead sought mutual understanding and authentic engagement.

摘要

日益加剧的两极分化和分裂性的政治言论威胁着有意义的公民讨论。本研究考察了校园公共对话，以了解对话承诺如何为跨越两极分化的立场进行对话提供话语空间。具体来说，我们的分析确定了构成持续开放的三种互动模式：概念扩展、意义深思熟虑和对话时刻。此外，我们认为两种沟通实践扩展了对话承诺：话语脆弱性和批判性反思性。最后，我们利用结构理论来解释参与者如何打破两极分化的政治比喻，转而制定与对话相关的规则和资源。我们的分析主张重新思考两极分化的交际性——也就是说，