Social Accountability in Communication

Richard Buttny is Associate Professor in the speech communication department at Syracuse University

Foreword - Marvin Scott Introduction and Preview Social Accountability and the Practical Necessity for Accounts A Reading of the Accounts Literature A Conversation Analytic Constructionist Perspective on Accounts Accounts Analysis Methods and Methodological Issues Blame-Accounts Sequences in Couple Therapy Accountability for Relational Problems Discursive Affect in Situations of Social Accountability The Social Accountability of Zen Understanding - with Thomas L Isbell Teacher-Student Interviews in a North American Zen Monastery Social Accountability Practices during a Welfare Interview Diverging Accounts, Repeated Problems, and Ascriptions of Responsibility Accounts and Accountability Practices in News Interviews Conclusion Social Accountability Practices in Contexts

`Accounts are a pervasive form of communication behavior, and, while they have not been ignored, accounts deserve more study than they have enjoyed thus far. Thus, Buttny's book comes as a welcome contribution to the literature... Together, the essays offer an important contribution to our understanding of accounts. Buttny provides a thoughtful review of the literature, articulates his philosophical and methodological choices, and offers several rich analyses of situated accounting practices. As such, this book enhances our appreciation for an important and pervasive form of communicative activity' - Communication Theory `Includes some valuable insights about accounting practices and interpersonal communication... Most notably, the book represents an important initial effort to disrupt traditional and ossified variable analytic approaches to understanding communicative practices, including accounting practices. In this regard... Buttny has engendered a process of "baby-stepping" toward richer, more productive understandings of human communication and how to study it... by no means a trivial accomplishment' - Theory & Psychology `Concepts like "accounts", "accounting practices" and "accountability" are among the most important in recent social science... the book contains many interesting observations and ideas' - Discourse & Society