Rethinking Communicative Interaction: New Interdisciplinary Horizons (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Rethinking communicative interaction: New interdisciplinary horizons ed. by Colin B. Grant Francisco Yus Rethinking communicative interaction: New interdisciplinary horizons. Ed. by Colin B. Grant. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003. Pp. 325. ISBN 9027253587. $138 (Hb). In this book edited by Colin Grant, several analysts present research on how ‘from government eavesdropping to internet, reality TV to computer-mediated communication and mobile telephones the face of communication has fundamentally changed’, noting that ‘the contingencies and complexities of communication can be witnessed in old and new media, in changing patterns of face-to-face interactions and the pluralization of the self and blurring of the distinction between the real and virtual’ (1). Grant introduces the book with a historical account of influences on communication science (1–26). He then moves on to social communication theory, in which he underlines the Jürgen Habermas-Niklas Luhmann debate and the importance of constructivism. In the next heading he provides a general analysis of what ‘communicating the self’ means, together with some paragraphs on constructing communication, and communication contexts. He concludes that ‘to rethink communicative interaction involves a programme which problematizes stable categories at the level of social theory. Communication Science is therefore the embodiment at the interface of social [End Page 947] and human science. Its very pluridisciplinarity renders it institutionally complex but also plausible … This book seeks to establish an interdisciplinary programme designed to rethink interaction and open up new horizons’ (21). The book is divided into three sections. Section 1, ‘Communicating the self’, contains articles on dialogicality related to humanity (by Ivana Marková), the subject as dialogical fiction (by Nicholas Davey), the self related to language and communication (by Renato Proietti), Habermas and Judith Butler on dialogue and the self (by Henderikus J. Stam), and on complexities of the self (by Colin B. Grant). Section 2, ‘Constructing communication’, contains articles on histories and discourses as part of an integrated approach to communication science (by Siegfried J. Schmidt), the self within computational neuroscience (by Bernd Porr and Florentin Wörgötter), Luhmann’s sociology of communication (by Loet Leydesdorff), and pragmatic interactions in a second language (by Beatriz Mariz Maia de Paiva). Finally, the third section, ‘Communication environments’, contains articles on language games (by Brian Torode), a dialogical analysis of the transition of a Scottish Young Person’s Centre (by Kesi Ma-hendran), conversational action as an ergonomic approach to interaction (by Mario Cesar Vidal and Renato José Bonfatti), computer-mediated interactions (by Anthi Avgerinakou), and on US news reporting on the anthrax attack of Fall 2001 (by Aus-tin Babrow and Mohan Dutta-Bergman). Although the nature of the articles in this book is very heterogeneous, combining, on the one hand, general introductions to certain approaches to communicative interaction, and, on the other hand, very specific accounts of communicative environments and types of interaction, the reader will no doubt find interesting insights on what communicative interaction is and on the different research areas that researchers have suggested in order to analyze this typically human activity. Francisco Yus University of Alicante, Spain Copyright © 2006 Linguistic Society of America