ABSTRACT
Argumentation is central to the organisation of social life, including ‘doing politics’ and ‘doing democracy’. In this chapter, we show how qualitative analysis of argumentative discourse could be used to understand argumentation as part of social and communicative practices, and to explore and evaluate important political processes: political campaigning, public policy making, and political protest. We demonstrate the application of two methodological approaches to interpreting political discourse and argumentation: critical discourse studies and the ethnography of communication.
