Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research / Edition 1

by Donal Carbaugh, Patrice M. Buzzanell

Overview

This timely volume provides an in-depth look at why the field of communication is so central in initiatives for social impact around the world. In Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research, editors Donal Carbaugh and Patrice M. Buzzanell bring together scholars with varied and productive approaches to communication to address the question of what distinguishes communication research from similar studies in other disciplines. Each contributor responds to the question: "What makes your research communication research? How does your program of inquiry treat communication not simply as data, but as its primary theoretical concern?" Their responses are the heart of this book.

The questions addressed and answered herein define the qualities that set research in communication apart from work in related fields, such as social psychology, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. The book begins and ends by looking across these studies generally, bringing into view not only the specific possibilities in the study of communication today, but also what'such study contributes generally to understanding human problems, social relations, and communities.

This volume provides an invaluable resource for graduate students beginning their study in communication; academics needing to define the distinctive contributions that communication research makes; and administrators who want to understand the scope and breadth of work in communication. It provides an invaluable resource for defining the role of communication research in the academic community and the contributions it makes to the study of human interaction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415990257
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/21/2009
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Donal Carbaugh is Professor of Communication and Chair of the International Studies Council (2004-present) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His most recent book, Cultures in Conversation, was designated the Outstanding Book of the Year by the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Focusing on indigenous, environmental, and cultural issues, he has served as Fulbright’s Distinguished Professor and Bicentennial Chair at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and has enjoyed lecturing about the distinctive qualities of communication research around the world.

Patrice M. Buzzanell is professor in the Department of Communication at Purdue University where she earned her Ph.D. in organizational communication. Her research interests center on feminist organizational communication theorizing and the construction of gendered workplace identities, interactions, and structures, particularly as they relate to career processes and outcomes. For her edited book, Rethinking Organizational and Managerial Communication from Feminist Perspectives (Sage, 2000), she received the Central States Communication Association’s Theory Book Award in 2002. She also earned the W. Charles Redding Dissertation Award from the International Communication Association in 1988. She has been highly involved in ICA and NCA, as well as the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender. She will become president of ICA in 2010.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

Robert Craig

CHAPTER ONE

An Introduction to Some Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research

Patrice Buzzanell & Donal Carbaugh

CHAPTER TWO

Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research: A Dialogic Approach to Interpersonal/Family Communication

Leslie A. Baxter

CHAPTER THREE

The Promise of Communication in Large-Scale, Community-Based Research

Michael Hecht

CHAPTER FOUR

Politically Attentive Relational Constructionism (PARC): Making a Difference in a Pluralistic, Interdependent World

Stanley Deetz

CHAPTER FIVE

The Importance of Communication Science in Addressing Core Problems in Public Health

Joseph N. Cappella and Robert Hornik

CHAPTER SIX

Researching Culture in Contexts of Social Interaction: An Ethnographic Approach, a Network of Scholars, and Illustrative Moves

Gerry Philipsen

CHAPTER SEVEN

Reflections on Distinctive Qualities in Communication Research

Donal Carbaugh and Patrice Buzzanell

Editorial Reviews

Robert Craig, Colorado: "This volume brings together several of the top people in the field of communication, along with several administrator and funding agency commentators, to reflect on the field’s distinctive qualities. The description suggests a well organized volume, and the uniformly high stature of the authors suggests it will be a substantive volume at a general level (given its relatively short length). It is certainly relevant to the discipline, offering several ways of answering the endlessly repeated "What is communication (studies)?" question. The idea of a short, high quality book that we could recommend to administrators as well as colleagues and students curious about the field is attractive."

From the Publisher