Contemporary Rhetorical Citizenship

Being a citizen is not just about holding a passport or being allowed to vote. It is also about how we communicate with each other about common societal issues. Rhetorical citizenship is about how we as citizens participate in society by means of discourse. How do we talk and write about civic issues? How are we addressed? How do we listen?

This book presents studies from different academic fields of theoretical issues raised by public discourse, focusing on understanding and evaluating how its many manifestations both reflect, shape, and challenge the society it is a part of. The book also presents analyses of examples from around the world of civic communication, ranging from public hearings about same-sex marriage over polemical letters to the editor to public displays of knitting as a protest form.

Christian Kock is Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Copenhagen.

Lisa Villadsen is Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Head of the Section of Rhetoric and Head of Studies in the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication at the University of Copenhagen.

"The volume emphasizes the language-oriented rhetorical notion of citizenship and shifts us away from formal, legal-oriented, state-centric definitions. It makes a strong case for why attention to rhetoric is useful in understanding and addressing contemporary public controversies. This is a major collection of works within the space of rhetoric and communication inquiry." - G. Thomas Goodnight, Professor at the Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

"It provides a great selection of actual research on rhetoric and communication from very different traditions, departments, methodologies and angles. Rhetorical Citizenship as a conceptual frame brings thematic cohesion and possibilities for comparison and synergy. The dual focus on the receptive and the participatory aspects of civic interaction is a strong point." - Jaap de Jong, Professor of Journalism, New Media and Modern Rhetoric, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.