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10 - Constructive Engagement across Deep Divides

What It Entails and How It Changes Our Role as Communication Scholars

from Part IV - Engagement with and through Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Hartmut Wessler
Edited by
Matthew Powers  and
Adrienne Russell
Matthew Powers
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Adrienne Russell
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Summary

This chapter focuses on the idea of constructive engagement, an umbrella term for mediated and non-mediated forms of communication in which differences can be expressed, respected, and resolved. Hartmut Wessler identifies three ways current scholarship can shift to better address the topic: first, to move from research that emphasizes voice to the practices associated with listening; second, to turn from disruptive conflict toward identifying the potential for integrative conflict; and third, by moving from modes of argumentation to research that examines the “self-transcendent emotions” that fuel constructive interaction with individuals across social divides. Wessler suggests that focusing on constructive engagement can link long-standing concerns articulated by theorists like Habermas focused on rational-critical deliberation with efforts made by social theorists like Georg Simmel, Lewis Coser, and Helmut Dubiel to highlight the integrative and constructive potential of robust but contained conflicts.

Keywords

constructive engagementdeliberationlisteningintegrative conflictemotion
Type
Chapter
Information
Rethinking Media Research for Changing Societies , pp. 139 - 152
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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