ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that networking argument studies can foster interdisciplinary inquiry by highlighting the normative commitments of argumentation theory to reciprocal relationships among arguers, which in turn informs the critical reading protocols of network theorists. It considers the contributions of one of the most prominent network theorists of public communication: Bruno Latour. Latour has taken center stage in the discipline of communication studies and in the humanities writ large over the past two decades, centering on his provocative claim that objects have agency and his exhortation to focus on a Parliament of Things as a new model for democracy. The chapter explores by marking the ways that argumentation scholars can read Latour’s project as an impetus for pushing a productive agenda for new research forward. Tending to the meaning and function of the term “network” in Latour’s thinking draws out his methodological and epistemological concerns and helps to make sense of his criticism of dialectic.
