Table Of Content“Leudar and Nekvapil provide both a comprehensive discussion of dialog-
ical networks and a historical examination of how the notion developed.
An authoritative text on how social interactions and events get publicly re-
ported, and hence transformed, across space and time”.
Ray Wilkinson, Professor of Human Communication,
University of Sheffeld, UK
“This impressive and broad-ranging book illuminates the importance of
historical contextualizations of research in social sciences. Central to this
project is the concept of dialogical networks showing how identity, stereo-
type, and prejudice are reported in interactions of everyday talk, and how
continuities, changes and disruptions take place over time”.
Ivana Markova, University of Stirling, UK
“This is a must read for anyone interested in dialogical networks. Ivan Leu-
dar and Jiri Nekvapil apply their innovative theoretically and methodologi-
cally expansive approach to unpack how we – as everyday historians – bring
the past into our present and make this consequential. This is not done as
an end in its own right but to address controversial social issues such as
how social identities are managed, attempts to change these identities and
the real consequences of these practices (e.g. restricting Roma’s freedom of
abode and movement)”.
Rose McCabe, City, University of London, UK
“This very innovative book presents both a collection of master pieces on
the concept of dialogical networks, and a refexive history of an aspect of the
social sciences in the making. As such, it is a major resource for senior and
junior scholars who will fnd substantial information as well as epistemolog-
ical thoughts regarding the practice of research”.
Baudouin Dupret, CNRS, France/UCLouvain,
Belgium
Dialogical Networks
This book brings together two decades of work by the authors on dialogi-
cal networks, showing how the concept of the dialogical network developed
through series of connected case studies and clarifying the concept through
historical analysis. Identifying the key characteristics of dialogical networks
and showing that knowledge of them, though formulated in the abstract, is
affected by historical contingencies, it demonstrates that work on dialogical
networks required the work of a practical historian, connecting contempo-
rary work to foregoing studies. As such, this volume represents an original
study of how doing history is a part of research and sheds light on the ways
in which people use the past in their social activities.
Ivan Leudar is Emeritus Professor of Historical Psychology in the School of
Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of
Voices of Reason, Voices of Insanity and co-editor of Against Theory of Mind
and Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy.
Jiří Nekvapil is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Faculty of
Arts at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. His research has been
infuenced by poststructuralist linguistics and ethnomethodology.
Philosophy and Method in the Social Sciences
Series Editor Phil Hutchinson, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Engaging with the recent resurgence of interest in methodological and phil-
osophical issues in the human and social sciences, this series provides an
outlet for work that demonstrates both the intellectual import of philosoph-
ical and methodological debates within the social sciences and their direct
relevance to questions of politics, ethics or policy. Philosophy and Method
in the Social Sciences welcomes work from sociologists, geographers, phi-
losophers, anthropologists, criminologists and political scientists with
broad interest across academic disciplines, that scrutinises contemporary
perspectives within the human and social sciences and explores their import
for today’s social questions.
Titles in this series
The Constitution of Social Practices
Kevin McMillan
Action at a Distance
Studies in the Practicalities of Executive Management
R.J. Anderson and W.W. Sharrock
The Problem of the State
Michael Mair
Dialogical Networks
Using the Past in Contemporary Research
Ivan Leudar and Jiří Nekvapil
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Philosophy-and-Method-in-the-Social-Sciences/book-series/ASHSER1373
Dialogical Networks
Using the Past in Contemporary Research
Ivan Leudar and Jiří Nekvapil
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Ivan Leudar and Jiří Nekvapil
The right of Ivan Leudar and Jiří Nekvapil to be identifed as authors
of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-13705-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15096-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24250-5 (ebk)
DOI:10.4324/9781003242505
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Reporting political arguments 9
3 Refection 1: the frst steps – from “context selection” to
dialogical networks 24
4 On the emergence of political identity in Czech mass
media: the case of Democratic Party of Sudetenland 37
5 On dialogical networks: arguments about the migration
law in Czech mass media in 1993 54
6 On Membership Categorisation: “us”, “them” and
“doing violence” in political discourse 89
7 Refection 2: on historical contextualisations in
dialogical networks project 114
8 The war on terror and Muslim Britons’ safety: a week
in the life of a dialogical network 139
9 Refection 3: continuities, novelties and dissociations 167
10 Practical historians and adversaries: 9/11 revisited 191
viii Contents
11 A day in the life of a dialogical network – the case of
Czech currency devaluation 211
12 Refection 4: multiplication and emergent meanings 257
13 Conclusion 292
References 297
Index 309
Acknowledgments
We thank Stephanie Aldred, Philippa Browning, Rachel Duffy and Dave
Randall for proof-reading parts of this book. We also thank Alan Costall,
Baudouin Dupret, Petr Kaderka, Wes Sharrock, and Ray Wilkinson for
comments on the drafts of this work. It is likely that this book would not
have been fnished without the Covid pandemic.
Permissions
Six of the chapters are modifed reprints of our previously published papers
or pre-submission versions.
Chapter 2: Leudar, I. (1995) Reporting political arguments. In F. H. van
Eemeren, R. Grootendorst, J. A. Blair and C. A. Willard (Eds.), Reconstruc-
tion and Application. Proceedings of the Third Conference on Argumentation.
Vol. III. Amsterdam: Sic Sat, pp. 42–59.
Chapter 4, Leudar, I. and Nekvapil, J. (1998) On the emergence of politi-
cal identity in Czech mass media: The case of Democratic Party of Sudeten-
land. Czech Sociological Review, 6, 43–58.
Chapter 5: Nekvapil, J. and Leudar, I. (2002a) On dialogical networks:
Arguments about the migration law in Czech mass media in 1993. In S.
Hester and W. Housley (Eds.), Language, Interaction and National Identity.
A ldershot: Ashgate, pp. 60–101.
Chapter 6: Leudar, I., Marsland, V. and Nekvapil, J. (2004) On member-
ship categorisation: ‘Us’, ‘them’ and ‘doing violence’ in political discourse.
Discourse and Society, 15, 243–266.
Chapter 8: Leudar, I. and Nekvapil, J. (2007) The war on terror and Mus-
lim Britons’ safety: A week in the life of a dialogical network. Ethnographic
Studies, 9, 44–62.
Chapter 10: Leudar, I. and Nekvapil, J. (2011) Practical historians and
adversaries: 9/11 revisited. Discourse and Society, 22, 66–85.
We thank the original publishers for permissions to use these materials.
