New England Town Meeting and the Cultivation of Deliberative Play

Bibliographic Data

ID3757394
AuthorsRobert M Townsend (0000-0002-7992-6775, University of Hartford, corresponding author), Rebecca M Townsend (University of Hartford), Trudy Milburn (0000-0003-0079-291X, Academic Affairs, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT, USA)
Year2023
Volume67
Issue8
Pages1001-1019
Publication date2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00027642221093588
OpenAlexW4280586062
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

Participants of New England town meeting must follow protocols to participate in this direct democratic process. Over the past 200 years, the protocols have been enacted and adapted by participants in small towns across the region. Within annual meetings, one can find small breaches that could be interpreted as playful acts. In this paper, we use the comic frame as a theoretical lens to interpret instances of such play within the rhetorical deliberation of one New England town meeting. We analyze two instances where speakers playfully use recognized parts of town meeting to achieve their rhetorical ends. We conclude with a discussion of the way play can help accomplish identification in public discourse

Art · Comics · Deliberation · Deliberative democracy · Democracy · Identification (biology) · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Tools

Open DOI