1. 6
Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) of W. Barnett Pearce & Vernon Cronen

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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