6 Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) of W. Barnett Pearce & Vernon Cronen

Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Slide 2 Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Stories from the Field as a Practical Theory CMM as an Interpretive Theory – Picturing Persons in Conversation CMM as an Interpretive Theory: Stories Told and Stories Lived Cosmopolitan Communication: Disagree, Yet Coordinate Ethical Reflection: Martin Buber’s Dialogic Ethics Critique: Three Theories, Three Appraisals

Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Slide 3 Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Persons-in-conversation co- construct their own social realities and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create Every conversation has an afterlife

CMM in Action—Stories from the Field Slide 4 CMM in Action—Stories from the Field Pearce and Cronen believe practical communication theory should offer a variety of tools to help understand flawed patterns of interaction Family Therapy Strange loop – description of unwanted repetitive communication pattern

CMM in Action—Stories from the Field Slide 5 CMM in Action—Stories from the Field Mediation Cupertino Community Project Dialogic communication – conversations in which people speak in a manner that makes others want to listen, and listen in a way that makes others want to speak

Figure 6-1: A Strange Loop of Diagnosis and Behavior Slide 6 Figure 6-1: A Strange Loop of Diagnosis and Behavior

CMM as an Interpretive Theory – Persons-in-Conversation Slide 7 CMM as an Interpretive Theory – Persons-in-Conversation Social constructionists – Persons-in-conversation co-construct their own social realities and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create Experience of persons-in-conversation is the primary social process of human life

Persons-in-Conversation: Creating Bonds of Union Slide 8 Persons-in-Conversation: Creating Bonds of Union Social constructionists (continued) The way people communicate is often more important than what they say Logical force – moral pressure or sense of obligation a person feels to respond in a given way to what someone else said or did

Persons-in-Conversation: Creating Bonds of Union Slide 9 Persons-in-Conversation: Creating Bonds of Union Social constructionists (continued) Actions of persons-in-conversation are reflexively reproduced as the interaction continues Reflexivity – process by which the effects of our words and actions on others bounce back and affect us CMM researchers see themselves as curious participants in a pluralistic world

Stories Told and Stories Lived Slide 10 Stories Told and Stories Lived Stories lived – co-constructed actions that we perform with others Stories told – narratives used to make sense of stories lived

Stories Told and Stories Lived Slide 11 Stories Told and Stories Lived Managing Meaning through Stories Told Storytelling, central act of communication Hierarchy of meaning – rank-order of relative significance of contexts that encompass a story as aid to interpretation Speech act – any verbal or nonverbal message as part of an interaction; basic building block of social universe people create

Stories Told and Stories Lived Slide 12 Stories Told and Stories Lived Managing Meaning (continued) Episode – “nounable” sequence of speech acts with a beginning and end that are held together by a story Relationship – emerge from dynamic dance of coordinated actions and managed meanings

Stories Told and Stories Lived Slide 13 Stories Told and Stories Lived Managing Meaning (continued) Identity: identities continually crafted through the process of communication Self-images become context for how we manage meaning Culture: webs of shared meaning and values People who come from different cultures won’t interpret messages the same way

Stories Told and Stories Lived Slide 14 Stories Told and Stories Lived Coordination—The Meshing of Stories Lived Coordination – process by which persons collaborate in an attempt to bring into being their vision of what is necessary, noble, and good, and to preclude the enactment of what they fear, hate, or despise Communication can create social universe of community, tolerance, and generosity

Figure 6.3: Hierarchical-Serpentine Model Slide 15 Figure 6.3: Hierarchical-Serpentine Model

Cosmopolitan Communication: Disagree, Yet Coordinate Slide 16 Cosmopolitan Communication: Disagree, Yet Coordinate Cosmopolitan communication – coordination of meaning with others who have different backgrounds, values and beliefs without trying to change them Pearce used the dialogue the same way that Martin Buber does to describe the optimum form of interaction

Ethical Reflection: Martin Buber’s Dialogic Ethics Slide 17 Ethical Reflection: Martin Buber’s Dialogic Ethics Buber focuses on relationships between people rather than moral codes and conduct I-It relationships – we treat the other person as a thing to be used I-Thou relationships – we regard our partner as the very one we are

Ethical Reflection: Martin Buber’s Dialogic Ethics Slide 18 Ethical Reflection: Martin Buber’s Dialogic Ethics Buber (continued) Dialogue is synonym for ethical communication; creates the between Narrow ridge – metaphor of I-Thou living in the dialogic tension between ethical relativism and rigid absolutism

Critique: Three Theories, Three Appraisals Slide 19 Critique: Three Theories, Three Appraisals Interpretive Theory Pearce and Cronen value curiosity, participation, and appreciation of diversity Lack of clarity limits CMM’s aesthetic appeal Critical Theory Most critical scholars do not consider CMM a critical theory Does make clear value judgments

Critique: Three Theories, Three Appraisals Slide 20 Critique: Three Theories, Three Appraisals Practical Theory Pearce, Cronen, and their followers need to show how the experience of practitioners has informed the theory Pearce: he can train people to use CMM concepts but not by asking them to read