Due to a lot of requests the Organizational Committee has extended the deadline for abstracts until 23 November 2014.

Rhetoric Society of Europe
Polish Rhetorical Society
and Italian Language Department of the University of Warsaw
look forward to welcoming you to the

Fifth “Rhetoric in Society” Conference (RiS 5)
entitled

Rhetoric in the Knowledge Society

University of Warsaw, Poland
24-27 June, 2015
Call for papers
The ideal of sapere aude (“do dare to know”) has been known since antiquity. However, the conceptualization of the Knowledge Society is relatively recent. Knowledge, as one of the key concepts in modern society, may also be viewed from a rhetorical perspective. Knowledge is created within discourses and articulated in texts. These texts contribute to creating the very concept of knowledge and its internal qualifications such as scientific and non-scientific knowledge. The texts persuade the audience to various knowledge claims and dissuade it from others.

The goal of the conference is to articulate ways in which knowledge is conceptualized and made manifest through different rhetorical practices in various contexts of communication within society. We invite papers that address at least one of the two notions of ‘rhetoric’: rhetoric as an object of analysis and rhetoric as a theoretical and methodological framework. Rhetoric as an object of analysis may include, e.g., texts constitutive of academic discourse, scientific popularization, expert discourse, lay discourse on knowledge and dealing with knowledge, as well as representations of knowledge in literature, advertising, art, or humor. Rhetoric as a theoretical and methodological framework encompasses the conceptual and methodological tools elaborated within the long tradition, from the Aristotelian naturalist model of rhetoric to modern developments and innovative approaches that foster the theoretical progress of the discipline.

Proposals may include, but need not be limited to, such areas as:

rhetorical strategies involved in the creation, transmission, criticism, and evaluation of knowledge in academic and non-academic settings
rhetorical features of texts qualified as conveying scientific knowledge, pop-knowledge, folk-knowledge, common knowledge, pseudo-knowledge
the rhetorical analyses of discourses on and carried out within institutions of knowledge (e.g. universities, schools, museums, think-tanks)
social mobilization of emotions related to knowledge (e.g. concepts of risk society; confidence or diffidence towards experts; appreciation or depreciation of the humanities)
knowledge and power (“disciplinarization” through knowledge vs. empowerment through knowledge; policies of knowledge)
knowledge and knowledge workers as object of cultural representations in literature, art, film, humor, advertising.
The above topics is by no means closed; we are open to further proposals. Please do not hesitate to contact us with other suggestions and ideas that best satisfy your expectations concerning the programme. We welcome also ideas for panels from scholars willing to lead a session.

23 November 2014

Individual paper submission deadline

Thematic panel submission deadline

• Italian language session

  Since the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Warsaw is involved in the organization of the conference, a special Italian langue session will accompany the main event.

  Titolo: La retorica nella società della conoscenza
  Temario:

  L’idea di sapere aude (“osa sapere”) risale all’antichità. La concettualizzazione della Knowledge Society (“la società della conoscenza”), invece, è relativamente recente. La conoscenza, in quanto concetto chiave della società moderna, può essere studiata anche in prospettiva retorica. Essa nasce nel discorso e si articola nei testi. Sono questi a modellare il concetto della conoscenza, sia essa scientifica o non scientifica. Tramite i testi si persuade il pubblico ad accettare alcune affermazioni e rifiutare altre.

  L’obiettivo del convegno è esplorare come il sapere venga concettualizzato e come si manifesti attraverso diverse pratiche retoriche in vari contesti comunicativi nella società. Chiediamo contributi che affrontino almeno una delle due nozioni di “retorica”: la retorica come oggetto di studio e la retorica come quadro teorico e metodologico.

  Le questioni riguardanti la retorica come oggetto di studio possono includere, per esempio, i testi scientifici, i testi divulgativi, i testi degli esperti, gli interventi dei non-specialisti a proposito del sapere, nonché la testualizzazione del sapere non-scientifico. Possono essere oggetto di ricerca anche le rappresentazioni della conoscenza nella letteratura, nella pubblicità, nell’arte o nell’umorismo.

  La retorica intesa come quadro teorico e metodologico comprende strumenti concettuali e metodologici frutto di una lunga tradizione: a partire dal modello aristotelico di retorica naturalista, fino a sviluppi moderni e approcci innovativi che assecondano il progresso teorico della disciplina.

  Le proposte d’intervento possono abbracciare per esempio:

  le strategie retoriche coinvolte nell’ideazione, trasmissione, analisi critica e valutazione del concetto di sapere in ambienti accademici e non accademici
  i mezzi retorici adoperati nei testi per trasmettere il sapere scientifico, il dilettantismo, il sapere popolare, il buonsenso, lo pseudo-sapere
  i discorsi relativi al sapere istituzionalizzato e/o prodotti all’interno delle rispettive istituzioni (quali le università, le scuole, i musei, i gruppi di esperti)
  la mobilitazione sociale delle emozioni legate al sapere (per esempio il concetto della società del rischio; la fiducia o la diffidenza nei confronti degli esperti; l’apprezzamento o il disprezzo delle discipline umanistiche)
  la relazione fra il sapere e il potere (la “disciplinarizzazione”, nel senso di Foucault,attraverso il sapere vs. il potenziamento grazie al sapere; le politiche del sapere)
  le rappresentazioni culturali del sapere e dell’immagine dei professionisti in letteratura, arte, cinema, umorismo, pubblicità.
  Questo elenco non è esaustivo. Invitiamo dunque a proporre anche altri argomenti o suggerimenti pertinenti al tema del convegno, nonché a presentare proposte di sessioni tematiche.

  Lingua: italiano
  Durata di presentazione: 20 minuti + 10 minuti di discussione
  Attenzione: Durante il convegno, si può presentare solo un contributo: nella sezione italiana oppure nella sezione inglese oppure nella sezione polacca.
  Responsabili: Adrianna Siennicka e Maria Załęska

  Si prega di consultare la versione inglese del sito per ulteriori informazioni sulle date, modalità di pagamento,

• Polish language session

  Since Polish Rhetorical Society is involved in the organization of the conference, a Polish language section will accompany the main event.

  Temat: Retoryka w społeczeństwie wiedzy.
  Zakres tematyczny:

  Idea sapere aude („miej odwagę być mądrym”) znana jest od starożytności. Jednak konceptualizacja Społeczeństwa Wiedzy jest stosunkowo nowa. Wiedza, jedno z kluczowych pojęć w nowoczesnym społeczeństwie, może być postrzegana także z perspektywy retorycznej. Wiedza jest tworzona w dyskursie i realizowana w poszczególnych tekstach. Teksty te przyczyniają się do kreowania rozmaitych modeli wiedzy i rozróżniania jej typów, na przykład wiedzy naukowej i nienaukowej. Za pomocą tekstów można przekonywać odbiorców do własnych koncepcji naukowych i krytykować inne.

  Celem konferencji jest analiza i interpretacja sposobów rozumienia wiedzy, jej przejawów w różnych praktykach retorycznych oraz w różnych kontekstach komunikacji. Oczekujemy na zgłoszenia, które dotyczą przynajmniej jednego z dwóch ujęć retoryki: retoryki jako przedmiotu analizy i/lub retoryki jako podejścia teoretyczno-metodologicznego.

  Zagadnienia retoryki jako przedmiotu analizy mogą obejmować, na przykład, teksty naukowe, popularyzatorskie, eksperckie, wypowiedzi niespecjalistów na temat wiedzy naukowej lub teksty przekazujące wiedzę praktyczną. Przedmiotem analizy mogą być również perswazyjne sposoby przedstawiania wiedzy w literaturze, reklamie, sztuce lub twórczości humorystycznej.

  Retoryka rozumiana jako specyficzne podejście teoretyczno-metodologiczne dostarcza wypracowanych w ciągu swej długiej historii pojęć i narzędzi do analizy sposobów komunikowania wiedzy: od proponowanej przez Arystotelesa naturalistycznej koncepcji retoryki do współczesnych, innowacyjnych modeli, dzięki którym rozwija się teoria retoryki.

  Propozycje wystąpień mogą dotyczyć przykładowo następujących zagadnień:

  retoryczne strategie tworzenia, przekazywania, krytyki i ewaluacji wiedzy w komunikacji naukowej i nienaukowej
  retoryczne cechy tekstów, które przekazują wiedzę naukową, amatorską, popularną, zdroworozsądkową czy pseudo-wiedzę
  retoryczne analizy dyskursów dotyczących instytucji wiedzy i tworzonych w ramach tych instytucji (takich jak uniwersytety, szkoły, muzea, centra eksperckie)
  emocje społeczne dotyczące wiedzy (np. koncepcja społeczeństwa ryzyka; społeczne zaufanie lub nieufność wobec ekspertów; dowartościowanie lub deprecjacja nauk humanistycznych)
  relacja wiedzy i władzy (Foucaultowskie „dyscyplinowanie” i kontrolowanie poprzez wiedzę a zdobywanie władzy dzięki wiedzy; polityka wiedzy)
  kulturowy obraz wiedzy i wizerunek profesjonalistów w literaturze, sztuce, filmie, humorze, reklamie.
  Powyższy wykaz nie stanowi zamkniętej listy. Zapraszamy zatem do zgłaszania także innych zagadnień i propozycji ujęcia tematu konferencji, jak również do przedstawiania projektów sesji panelowych.

  Język: polski
  Długość wystąpienia: 20 minut + 10 minut dyskusji
  Uwaga: Podczas konferencji można wygłosić tylko jedno wystąpienie (w języku polskim, angielskim lub włoskim)
  Zgłoszenie propozycji wystąpienia: poprzez formularz
  Obowiązują te same terminy i forma zgłoszenia, co na główną sesję w języku angielskim. Prosimy o lekturę informacji podanych po angielsku (zwłaszcza Submission, Registration).
  Odpowiedzialna: Agnieszka Budzyńska-Daca

Prof. Christian Plantin (University of Lyon, France)

• Argumentation as an intellectual tool in the Knowledge Society

  Knowledge society can be characterized as a society where the classical instruments of rhetoric, doxa-based substantial knowledge and topical inference rules, are constantly thwarted by scientific knowledge, calculus and method. In such a context, argument cannot be restricted to a purely linguistic inference nor to as an “artistic” rhetorical prowess. A strong research community nowadays focuses on argumentation as a tool for knowledge acquisition and knowledge-based social decision making (ex. : “Bees exposed to high levels of pesticides suspected in colony collapse”). A concept of argument is needed which could be used to build bridge between the „two cultures”.

  To take a step in that direction, the form and substance of the argumentative dialog have to be reconsidered. First, the kind of dialogue appropriate to knowledge building is not formal dialog but substantial dialog, the “default-reasoning dialog” ; Toulmin’s scheme can be read as such a reasoning dialog. Second, a core set of „knowledge-based” arguments (arguments connecting objects) can be delimited, in relation with causality, analogy, categorization and definition. A distinction will be made between arguments establishing a causal link and argument using a causal link (id. for analogy, definition, categorization). Specific methodological considerations are involved in the case of arguments establishing an analogical, a causal link, a category membership or a definition. In other words, disputes (stasis) involving connections between objects necessarily refer to methodological rules and principles. In other words, in a knowledge society, method has to reintegrate dialogue.

Christian Plantin, formerly a Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) (section 34, Language sciences), is now Professor Emeritus at Lyon 2 University. He is a member of the Research Unit ICAR Interactions, Corpus, Apprentissages, Représentations, (Interactions, Corpora, Learning, Representations)

His fields of research are argumentation in language, discourse and interaction; the linguistic expression-communication of emotions.

• He has recently published

  Les bonnes raisons des émotions. Principes et méthodes pour l’étude du discours émotionné. Berne, Peter Lang, 2011. (Translated into Spanish)[Good reasons for emotion : Method and principles for the study of emotional discourse]

  To be published in 2015: Emotion and Affect, in Tracy, Karen (ed.). International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, Chichester, Wiley.

  L’argumentation – Histoire, théories, perspectives. Paris, PUF (Que sais-je?), 2005. (Translated into Spanish and Portuguese)[Argumentation – History, Theories, Perspectives]

  To be published in 2015: Dictionnaire de l’argumentation — Une introduction conceptuelle aux études d’argumentation. Lyon, ENS Éditions. [Dictionary of Argumentation — A Concept-Based Introduction to Argumentation Studies]

  He has co-edited:

  L’argumentation en classe de sciences: du débat à l’apprentissage. Co-éditeur avec Christian Buty. Lyon, ENS / CNDP éditions, 2009.[Arguing in science classroom : from debate to learning]

  Sousa do Nascimento Silvania, Plantin Chr. (orgs) 2009. Argumentação e ensino de ciências. Curitiba: Editora CRV.

  More information and texts available online

Prof. Maria Freddi (University of Pavia, Italy)

Retoric of Science: fixed and changing modes of scientific and technical discourse

Maria Freddi’s research on rhetoric has focused on scientific discourse with a view to deepening understanding of the role of language in scientific argumentation and in the transfer of scientific knowledge. Her analysis has been aimed at identifying rhetorical and linguistic features of scientific discourse that are common to a variety of disciplines and genres within the sciences (e.g. physics and biology), while also being concerned with the divide between the sciences and the humanities. Parallel to this, she has been interested in the methodological question of integrating rhetorical and linguistic approaches to discourse and specialised communication in an effort to devise a pedagogically viable analytical framework.

• Publications that are relevant to the conference theme

  Freddi, M. (forthcoming July 2015) Text and corpus: mixing paradigms in EAP syllabus design. In: G. Diani, P. Thompson (eds.) English for Academic Purposes: Approaches and Implications. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

  Freddi, M. (2014) Linguistica dei corpora. Roma: Carocci.

  Freddi, M., Korte, B., Schmied, J. (eds.) (2013) Special Issue on „The Rhetoric of Science”, European Journal of English Studies, vol. 17, 3.

  Freddi, M., Korte, B., Schmied, J. (2013) Developments and trends in the rhetoric of science: science, rhetoric, culture, European Journal of English Studies, vol. 17, 3, 221-233.

  Freddi, M. (2013) Choice and language variation: some theoretical reflections. In: L. Fontaine, T. Bartlett and G. O’Grady (eds.) Systemic Functional Linguistics: Exploring Choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 56-71.

  Freddi, M. (2011) Analogical reasoning in the teaching of science: the case of Richard Feynman’s physics. In: J. T. Gage (ed.) The Promise of Reason: Studies in The New Rhetoric. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 206-222.

  Freddi, M. (2009) A linguistic mapping of science popularisation: Feynman’s lectures on physics and what corpus methods can tell us. In: M. Mahlberg, V. González-Díaz, C. Smith (eds.) Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics 2009 Conference, Liverpool, July 2009. Lancaster University: UCREL

  Freddi, M. (2007) The Origin of Species a The Descent of Man: Darwin e il primitivo. In: G. Golinelli (ed.) Il primitivismo e le sue metamorfosi. Archeologia di un discorso culturale. Bologna: CLUEB, 413-428.

  Freddi, M. (2007) Ideology and ethics in the discourse of Designers: a corpus study. In: G. Garzone, S. Sarangi (eds.) Discourse, Ideology and Specialized Communication. (Vol. 33 Linguistic Insights. Studies in Language and Communication). Bern/Berlin: Peter Lang, 335-354.

  Freddi, M. (2005) Arguing linguistics: corpus investigation of one functional variety of academic discourse. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, vol. 4, 5-26.

Prof. Izabela Wagner (University of Warsaw, Poland)

Sociology of excellence in the knowledge society

Izabela Wagner was born in 1964 in Poland into a family of musicians. She graduated from the University of Music in Poznan in 1987 and emigrated to France where she was a music teacher (theory, solfège, piano). In 1996, Wagner enrolled in the sociology doctoral program jointly offered by the Ecole Normale Superieur, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), and University of Paris 8, and began her ethnographic fieldwork in the world of violinists. In 2006 she defended her PhD thesis “La production sociale des violonistes virtuoses”. Since 2003 she started a new fieldwork in the scientific laboratories. Her work focuses on the international mobility of life scientists (in 2010-2011 was a visiting scholar in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University). In 2012 Wagner was visiting profesor at Fudan University in Shanghai (China). Since 2008, Wagner has been an associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology at Warsaw University in the Center for Sociology of Work and Organization.

• Chosen publications related to the production of excellence

  Producing Excellence – Making of a Virtuoso. (2015) Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NY, USA. (book 250 p.)

  Becoming a Transnational Professional – The Mobility and Career of the Young Elite of Polish Science (2011) (in Polish – Scholar)

  ”Works and Career Aspects of Ghetto Laboratories” in Careers in Science, eds. Katarina Pripic, Inge van deer Weijden, Nadia Ashuelova, special issue of Social Studies of Science by Russian Academy of Science and ESA RN STS. (145-170)

  „What is „genius” in arts and „brain drain” in life-science. The relevance of Chicago School heritage in the studies of professional elite-worlds.” in: The Chicago School Diaspora – Epistemology and Substance. (2013) eds. Jacqueline Low & Gary Bowden; MacGill and Queens University Press, – Canada. (pp. 272-286)

  „Transnational Careers in the Virtuoso World“ in Careers in Creative Industries, eds. Christopher Martin,Routledge, Management & Business Series. London, New York.978-0-415-80826-2 (December 2012 – pp. 185-209)

  „Selektywna analiza problemu publikacji humanistów i przedstawicieli nauk społecznych w języku angielskim“ w Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej / Qualitative Sociology Review in Polish, luty 2012 [Selective analysis of the obligation of communication in English language – Polish social and humanities researchers]

  „Geniusz czy businessman? Sprzężenie karier drogą sukcesu w nauce.“ in Stan Rzeczy, Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Human and Social Sciences Journal in Polish – peer review.[Genius or businessman? Career Coupling as a success strategy in sciences]; pp. 12-76, October, 2011.