(2022) The Pandemic of Argumentation, Steve Oswald, Marcin Lewiński, Sara Greco, Serena Villata (eds.)
This open access book addresses communicative aspects of the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as the epidemic of misinformation from the perspective of argumentation theory. Argumentation theory is uniquely placed to understand and account for the challenges of public reason as expressed through argumentative discourse. The book thus focuses on the extent to which the forms, norms and functions of public argumentation have changed in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This question is investigated along the three main research lines of the COST Action project CA 17132: European network for Argumentation and Public PoLicY analysis (APPLY): descriptive, normative, and prescriptive.
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WG1 Report on existing datasets
The present report is a state-of-the-art discussion of existing datasets on argumentative discourse and policy making available within APPLY at an initial stage of the project; the collection of datasets upon which this report
is based has been launched in December 2018 and updated several times until April 2019.
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WG2 Position Paper: Goals and functions of public argumentation
Drawing on a variety of disciplines, the paper introduces basic distinctions and charts out options. It is meant to guide reflection on the conceptual basis for the Action’s subsequent research regarding the analysis, evaluation, and design of public argumentation.
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WG3 Report: Basic resources and methods for designing public argumentation
This report reflects in its structure the basic rationale of WG3 approach: it starts by listing some key challenges and prospects for argumentation in public debate, to set the background against which resources and methods for designing public argumentation need to be tested; the rest of the report provides brief but comprehensive reviews of the three key elements required to tackle such challenges – a critical understanding on the notion of “stakeholders”, in-depth mastery of the most promising technologies aimed at supporting public argumentation, with an emphasis on open issues and critical vulnerabilities, and a design perspective on argumentation. The last section summarizes the main findings of this preliminary survey.
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