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POLITICAL TALK: THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF A POLICY ARGUMENT *
Author(s) -
Agar Michael H.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1983.tb00791.x
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , commission , politics , ethnography , thematic analysis , policy analysis , thematic map , argument map , law and economics , political science , sociology , epistemology , positive economics , public administration , economics , law , social science , philosophy , qualitative research , geography , cartography , argumentation theory , anthropology , biochemistry , chemistry
Policy and the processes that go into i t s formulation and implementation are constituted by language. In this article, a linguistic and ethnographic approach to the study of “themes” is applied to the transcripts of some oral arguments by independent truckers at the Interstate Commerce Commission. The results show a portion of the underlying logic of the argument, a logic whose structure was minimally affected by the eventual policy decision.