Public Dialogue in the Socio-Cultural Environment and its Management Perspectives in the Communication Theory of W. Barnett Pearce and Vernon E. Cronen

Abstract

In the research of the past decade, Russian sociologists are increasingly turning to communication theories in the discourse of constructing social reality and actualizing the meanings of the modern socio-cultural environment. According to the author, one of the most promising, although not devoid of internal contradictions, is the “Theory of coordinated control of meaning” by W.B. Peirce and V.E. Kronen. Appearing in American science in the second quarter of the twentieth century as a philosophical project, it quickly became the methodological basis for many empirical experiments. The purpose of this study is to present the management perspectives of this theory in the context of Public Dialogue as a project implemented in the late 90’s of the XX century in Cupertino (California). The corresponding range of tasks is also outlined here, namely, to show how ontological theory becomes the basis for building a social technology for managing interaction processes in the urban environment and what management resources were used to achieve the final goal of the project. In the conclusions, the significance of communication as a primary social process is formulated, which determines the expansion of six concepts as the basis of the “grammar” of the theory of coordinated meaning management.