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Disrupting Deliberative Discourse: Strategic Political Incivility at the Local Level
Author(s) -
Emerson Kirk,
Joosse Alexandra P.,
Dukes Frank,
Willis Wendy,
Cowgill Kim Hodge
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
conflict resolution quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.323
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1541-1508
pISSN - 1536-5581
DOI - 10.1002/crq.21114
Subject(s) - incivility , deliberation , politics , public relations , subject (documents) , democracy , exploratory research , political science , sociology , social psychology , psychology , law , social science , library science , computer science
This article focuses on strategic political incivility intended to shut down or disrupt local arenas for public discourse. Professional facilitators who design and manage public discourse and democratic deliberation are the subject of this survey research. Survey questions elicited specific incidences of strategic political incivility and facilitators’ responses to these events. The results from this exploratory study suggest that strategic political incivility at the local level may not be as unmanageable a problem for professional facilitators as media reports purport. Recommendations for improving practice emerge from this study, along with promising avenues for future research on uncivil discourse.