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Voicing Relationships
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Voicing Relationships
A Dialogic Perspective



January 2010 | 224 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Extending on her 1996 seminal and award-winning book on relational dialectics theory, Relating Dialogues and Dialectics (co-authored with Barbara Montgomery), author Leslie Baxter presents the 'next generation' of the theory: relational dialogics theory.

This theory, and book, explores a greater nuanced understanding of the unity of opposites concept, presenting a more theoretically complex treatment of this and other key dialogic concepts. The text develops a rich palette of dialogic concepts useful in the study of communication and relationships and is centered around the following concepts: (1) relationships are profoundly situated process - voices are always embodied in a specific space and time; (2) relationships are constituted in communication - they are voiced through verbal and nonverbal communicative practices; (3) relationships come to mean through the interplay of multiple, differing discourses.

 
Preface
 
1. Introduction
Evaluation of RDT as a Theory

 
Reworkings: Alternative Framings of Interpersonal Communication

 
Overview of the Chapters

 
 
2. Mikhail Bakhtin, Dialogism, and RDT
Bakhtin’s Life and Selected Key Works

 
Bakhtin’s Dialogism 1919-1924

 
Bakhtin’s Dialogism Post-1924

 
Locating Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogism in Communication Research

 
Locating RDT in Bakhtin’s Dialogism

 
 
3. Discursive Struggles of Culture
The Utterance Chain

 
Distal Already-Spokens of Culture

 
The Discursive Struggle of Integration

 
The Discursive Struggle of Expression

 
Conclusion

 
 
4. Discursive Struggles of Relational History, Otherness, and Normative Evaluation
The Proximal Already-Spoken: Discursive Struggles of Relational History

 
The Proximal Not-Yet-Spoken: Discursive Struggles of Otherness

 
The Distal Not-Yet-Spoken: Discursive Struggles of Normative Evaluation

 
Conclusion

 
 
5. Centripetal-Centrifugal Struggle
Foregrounding Power in Centripetal-Centrifugal Struggle

 
The Interplay of Discourses

 
Communication Genres of Discursive Struggle

 
Conclusion

 
 
6. Doing Contrapuntal Analysis
Selecting Texts in Contrapuntal Analysis

 
Identifying Competing Discourses

 
Identifying the Interplay of Competing Discourses

 
A Sample Contrapuntal Analysis: A “Dear Birth Mother” Letter

 
Conclusion

 
 
References
 
Index
 
About the Author

Whilst this text provides a comprehensive overview of relational dialogical concepts, it is too in depth for an introductory education studies course. Discussions around the role of social constructivism are particularly interesting and would be useful for students studying at post-graduate level.

Ms Lorraine Anne Loveland-Armour
Department of Education, Newman University
November 4, 2016

The author is using Bahtim's ideas to show the ways communication and relationship is established between people. A great read for anyone who is using symbolic interactionism theoretical framework

Ms Irena Loveikaite
Department of Applied Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology
April 14, 2016

Fantastic book however is not relevant for the course, but excellent for students to understand the wider aspects of the voicing relationships.

Mr Amer Shehzad
Lancashire Business School, University of Central Lancashire
October 15, 2014

too advanced for my undergraduate class

Dr Molly Reynolds
Communication Dept, University Of Kentucky
March 3, 2014

The scope of the text is too specific.

Miss Joquina Reed
Language Literature Arts Dept, Texas A & M International University
June 10, 2012

Leslie A. Baxter

Leslie A. Baxter is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa, where she has taught for 15 years. She has published over 130 books, book chapters, and articles on interpersonal and family communication. She is the recipient of many awards, including, from the National Communication Association, the Distinguished Scholar Award, the Bernard Brommel Family Communication Award, the Charles Woolbert Research Award, the Franklin Knower Article Award, and the Gerald Miller Book Award; the Berscheid-Hatfield Award from the International Association for Relationship Research (formerly INPR); and... More About Author

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