Public Argument Action Research and the Learning Curve of New Social Movements

Abstract

Alain Touraine's method of social movement action research holds promise as a theoretical exemplar for public argument scholarship motivated by the “activist” or “ideological” turn in rhetorical criticism. Touraine's sociological approach generates analytical insight and political traction from the synergistic coupling of academic critique with intervention into fields of public argument. Efforts to hitch Touraine's method of action research to public argument scholarship stand to enrich study of “new social movements,” which exhibit a similar tendency to learn by cycling iteratively between grass roots consciousness raising and public sphere argumentation.