Studying argumentation as social interaction

This chapter addresses the specifics of studying argumentation in and as social interaction. We will lay out different qualitative methodological approaches to this study. They are connected by three assumptions. First, argumentation is not understood as an isolated linguistic phenomenon but as situated locally and temporally and embedded in a broader context. An adequate analysis of argumentation in social interaction needs to take into account the context and might be interested in how participants take up this context in their (argumentative) interaction. Second, argumentation is understood as a process. In some methodological approaches, this understanding is reflected in the focus on the sequential unfolding of the interaction and the argumentation. The fact that an utterance appears where it appears in the interaction is thus meaningful, following one of the central analytic questions in conversation analysis: “Why this now?” Third, argumentation is understood as a practice and this practice is intertwined with other practices. This is why research questions on argumentation as and in social interaction often explore the ways in which argumentation is expressed, taking a strong descriptive rather than a normative stance. In the following section, we will present three methodological strands – interactional analysis (Sarah Bigi), conversation analysis (Alena Vasilyeva), and the ethnography of argumentation (Kati Hannken‑Illjes) – before we discuss what is to be gained by employing these approaches.