Strategic Maneuvering: A Synthetic Recapitulation

As an introduction to the special issue on Perspectives on Strategic Maneuvering, this article provides a synthetic recapitulation of the various steps that were taken in developing the pragma-dialectical theory of strategic maneuvering. First, the concept of strategic maneuvering is described as a means to reconcile the simultaneous pursuit of dialectical and rhetorical aims. Second, strategic maneuvering is related to the various kinds of argumentative activity types in which it takes place. Third, the concept of dialectical profiles is discussed and the parameters that are pertinent to distinguishing between different types of strategic maneuvering. Fourth, the fallacies are viewed as derailment of strategic maneuvering. Fifth, as a case in point, strategic maneuvering with inconsistency is examined. This contribution brings together insights that earlier were put forward in a number of separate publications.     

Metaphor as Argument: Rhetorical and Epistemic Advantages of Extended Metaphors

This paper examines from a cognitive perspective the rhetorical and epistemic advantages that can be gained from the use of (extended) metaphors in political discourse. We defend the assumption that extended metaphors can be argumentatively exploited, and provide two arguments in support of the claim. First, considering that each instantiation of the metaphorical mapping in the text may function as a confirmation of the overall relevance of the main core mapping, we argue that extended metaphors carry self-validating claims that increase the chances of their content being accepted. Second, we show how the recognition of an extended metaphor’s sophistication and relevance (on behalf of the addressee) can benefit the speaker’s perceived competence (ethos). We then assess whether these two arguments measure against the dual epistemic monitoring postulated in the notion of epistemic vigilance (i.e., assessment of the source of a message and assessment of the message) and conclude that extended metaphors may fulfil the requirements of epistemic vigilance and lead to the stabilisation of a belief. We illustrate our account with an analysis of the extended metaphor of the USA as an empire found in a political pamphlet written by the Swiss politician Oskar Freysinger.     

Strategic Maneuvering in Direct to Consumer Drug Advertising: A Study in Argumentation Theory and New Institutional Theory

New Institutional Theory is used to explain the context for argumentation in modern practice. The illustration of Direct to Consumer Drug advertising is deployed to show how communicative argument between a doctor and patient is influenced by force exogenous to the practice of medicine. The essay shows how strategic maneuvering shifts the burden of proof within institutional relations.     

Strategic Maneuvering in Treatment Decision-Making Discussions: Two Cases in Point

Over the past decade, the ideal model of shared decision-making has been increasingly promoted as the preferred standard of doctor-patient communication in medical consultation. The model advocates a treatment decision-making process in which the doctor and his patient are considered coequal partners that carefully negotiate the treatment options available in order to ultimately reach a treatment decision that is mutually shared. Thereby, the model notably leaves room for—and stimulates—argumentative discussions to arise in the context of medical consultation. A paradigm example of a discussion that often emerges between doctors and their patients concerns antibiotics as a method of treatment for what is presumed to be a viral infection. Whereas the doctor will generally not encourage treatment with antibiotics, patients oftentimes prefer the medicine to other methods of treatment. In this paper, two cases of such antibiotic-related discussions in consultation are studied using insights gained in the extended pragma-dialectical theory to argumentation. It is examined how patient and physician maneuver strategically in order to maintain a balance between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness, as well as an equilibrium between patient participation and evidence-based medication, while arguing a case for and against antibiotics respectively.     

Individual Multimodal Therapy for Weight Loss: A Case Example

Individual multimodal therapy provides a comprehensive approach to the treatment of overeating. The multimodal treatment plan helps to target social and emotional issues related to eating disorders as well as the eating behaviors themselves. The authors present a case study highlighting a treatment model based on a multimodal conceptualization.     

The Use of Strategic Family Therapy in the School Setting: A Case Study

The authors describe a school counselor's shift from a traditional, individualized counseling approach to the use of strategic family therapy as a way of helping a young man succeed in school and leave home.     

Strategic Revenue Management under Uncertainty: A Case Study on Real Estate Projects in India

This paper proposes an approach for strategic revenue management under uncertainty for real estate projects. It integrates three modelling techniques: first, artificial neural network integrated support vector machines for forecasting the profit and loss‐making real estate residential projects; second, analytical network process approach using decision making trials and evaluation laboratory methodology for establishing interrelationships among factors; and third, multiobjective genetic algorithm approach for obtaining optimal numbers and types of apartments in a real estate project. We compare the respective revenues generated with the new number of apartments and price from the suggested revenue maximization model and that of the old practiced one through a case study of India. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Business Model for Managing System Change Through Strategic Financing and Performance Indicators: A Case Study

This article describes how a system of care operated by a county government agency used a fiscal crisis as the opportunity to reform its children's system. A cross-system response to the crisis is outlined that includes a system of care framework coupled with a business model, inter-departmental collaboration and leadership, the use of strategic reinvestment strategies, and a quality improvement system that focuses on key indicators. Implementation of the system change is described with a specific focus on cross-system entry points, financing strategies that re-allocate funds from deep-end programs to community-based services, and management oversight through the use of performance indicators to monitor and support effectiveness. This article examines the results of the system change, including the diversion of youth from system penetration, the reduction in residential treatment bed days, the re-allocation of these savings to community-based services, and the outcomes of children who were diverted from residential care and served in the community. The article offers a number of recommendations for other communities contemplating system change.     

St. Anselm's Ontological Argument as Expressive: A Wittgensteinian Reconstruction

We offer a reading of Anselm's Ontological Argument inspired by Wittgenstein which focuses on the fact that the “argument” occurs in a prayer addressed to God, making it a strange argument since as a prayer it seems to presuppose its conclusion. We reconstruct the argument as expressive. Within the religious perspective, the issues are to be focused on the right object not to present an argument for the existence of God. While this sort of reading lets us understand much about the argument, it also opens new avenues of criticism, one of which is the problem of worship.     

The Role of Public Argument in Emerging Democracies: A Case Study of the 12 December 1993 Elections in the Russian Federation

The authors argue that in the 1993 Duma elections it was the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, led by Gennady Zyuganov, that incorporated rhetorical values and audience adaptation into its campaign strategy. Finding its discursive ground limited by history, the CPRF gradually shifted its rhetorical posture and argumentative strategies, redefining itself in the process. This evolution allowed the CPRF to employ the ideographs of democracy, will of the people, citizen, and other key terms of Western-style democracy, while retaining, albeit in transformed meaning, traditional communist ideographs such as justice and spirituality. In addition, the CPRF was able to borrow selectively from the history of the USSR between 1917 and 1989, thereby imbuing their political appeals with historical force and cultural memory.     

Depression as a Creative Illness: A South African Case Study

This case study presents a cultural perspective to supporting health and wellbeing in a young South African adult with depression and unresolved paternity issues. Issues around cultural identity appeared to influence the experience of depression and addressing the identifying aspects was helpful to recovery and wellbeing. Therapy facilitated the discovery of the client’s biological father and necessary ritual to reunite him with his African ancestry.     

The Near-Death Experience as a Shamanic Initiation: A Case Study

The field of near-death studies shares a number of interesting, often compelling, similarities with the ancient spiritual tradition known as shamanism. Not least among these similarities is the fact that a near-death experience (NDE) is a time-honored form of shamanic initiation. I present a case example illustrating how a deep NDE can propel a person who had no prior knowledge or interest in shamanism into spontaneous, often classic, shamanic experiences, while living an apparently normal life in the midst of modern Western society.     

Television Commercials as a Lagging Social Indicator: Gender Role Stereotypes in Korean Television Advertising

Previous studies of mass media in many countries have confirmed that images of women are stereotypical and unrealistic, particularly in television advertising. This study was designed to analyze the representation of gender roles in Korean television advertising and to compare the results with previous studies conducted in other countries. A sample of 878 Korean television advertisements from the MBC network in 2001 was content analyzed. Findings indicate that women in Korean television advertising were portrayed as young (48.2%), as dependent (37.5%), and as nurturing children (12.1%); they were often depicted in the home (37.2%). These stereotypical images of women have been found in television advertising in many countries. Korean society has changed a great deal in recent decades, but the images we analyzed do not reflect the current situation. Therefore, television commercials are a lagging social indicator of role changes.     

A metaphor analysis in treatments of depression: Metaphor as a marker of change

This paper examines the use of ‘burden' metaphors relating to the experience of depression in one good and one poor outcome process-experiential short-term psychotherapy dyad. Burden-metaphors are meaningful as they appear to characterize the way these clients experience the course of their depressions (e.g. Korman & Angus, 1995). Understanding how these experiences are dealt with in productive therapies, as compared to less-productive treatments, can aid in therapist training and in developing therapeutic programmes for depressed clients. The Experiencing Scale (Klein et al., 1970) and the Narrative Process Coding System (Angus et al., 1996) are used to examine the processes at play when burden-metaphors are used in the good and the poor therapy. Results indicate that, in the good outcome dyad, metaphors of ‘being burdened' were transformed into metaphors of ‘unloading the burden' over the course of the therapy, while there was no transformation evident in the poor-outcome dyad. The good outcome therapy tended to have a higher level of experiencing when discussing burden-metaphors, in comparison with the poor-outcome therapy. Furthermore, the successful dyad tended to more often use internal narrative sequences (as identified by the NPCS) in the exploraiton of metaphoric expression.     

Conservatism in Metaethics: A Case Study

Metaethicists typically develop and assess their theories—in part—on the basis of the consistency of those theories with “ordinary” first‐order normative judgment. They are, in this sense, “methodologically conservative.” This article shows that this methodologically conservative approach obstructs a proper assessment of the debate between internalists and externalists. Specifically, it obstructs one of the most promising readings of internalism. This is a reading—owed to Bernard Williams—in which internalism is part of a practically and politically motivated revision of the assessment of action. The article uses this case study to highlight the role of methodological conservatism in contemporary metaethics more generally.