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Cultures of Argument and the Democratic Imaginary: Notes from Bulgaria

Cultures of Argument and the Democratic Imaginary: Notes from Bulgaria ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY 46 (Fall 2009): 116-119 CULTURES OF ARGUMENT AND THE DEMOCRATIC IMAGINARY: NOTES FROM BULGARIA Zornitsa Keremidchieva Just beneath the roar of traffic and the sound of euro-dance and local chalga music escaping from sidewalk cafes, there is a steady buzz across Bulgarian cities and towns. It is the sound of conversations, animated discussions, and endless commentary. This culture of argument long preceded the label "transitional democracy" which Bulgaria received with the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Under that label, a society in which talking politics, complaining about the fallacies of government, and carping at the behavior of public figures have long been national pastimes, does not amount to a civil society capable of maintaining the structures of democracy, at least as we understand these concepts here in the West. At the heart of this definitional divergence lies an intellectual problem that argumentation scholars are well aware of; it is the problem of determining what "range of human commu­ nicative interactions will be covered by the term 'argument"' (Gilbert, 1997, p. 28). The semantic figurations of the word argument, however, are not the primary point of interest emanating from the Bulgarian example. Rather, Bulgaria presents http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Argumentation and Advocacy Taylor & Francis

Cultures of Argument and the Democratic Imaginary: Notes from Bulgaria

Keremidchieva, Zornitsa
Argumentation and Advocacy , Volume 46 (2): 4 – Sep 1, 2009
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Cultures of Argument and the Democratic Imaginary: Notes from Bulgaria

Abstract

ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY 46 (Fall 2009): 116-119 CULTURES OF ARGUMENT AND THE DEMOCRATIC IMAGINARY: NOTES FROM BULGARIA Zornitsa Keremidchieva Just beneath the roar of traffic and the sound of euro-dance and local chalga music escaping from sidewalk cafes, there is a steady buzz across Bulgarian cities and towns. It is the sound of conversations, animated discussions, and endless commentary. This culture of argument long preceded the label "transitional democracy" which Bulgaria...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2009 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
2576-8476
eISSN
1051-1431
DOI
10.1080/00028533.2009.11821721
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY 46 (Fall 2009): 116-119 CULTURES OF ARGUMENT AND THE DEMOCRATIC IMAGINARY: NOTES FROM BULGARIA Zornitsa Keremidchieva Just beneath the roar of traffic and the sound of euro-dance and local chalga music escaping from sidewalk cafes, there is a steady buzz across Bulgarian cities and towns. It is the sound of conversations, animated discussions, and endless commentary. This culture of argument long preceded the label "transitional democracy" which Bulgaria received with the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Under that label, a society in which talking politics, complaining about the fallacies of government, and carping at the behavior of public figures have long been national pastimes, does not amount to a civil society capable of maintaining the structures of democracy, at least as we understand these concepts here in the West. At the heart of this definitional divergence lies an intellectual problem that argumentation scholars are well aware of; it is the problem of determining what "range of human commu­ nicative interactions will be covered by the term 'argument"' (Gilbert, 1997, p. 28). The semantic figurations of the word argument, however, are not the primary point of interest emanating from the Bulgarian example. Rather, Bulgaria presents

Journal

Argumentation and Advocacy – Taylor & Francis

Published: Sep 1, 2009

References

  • Pluralism, disagreement, and the status of argument in the public sphere
  • Нуждестраннн инвеститори искат да строят завод за изГаряне на отпадъци в Пазарджиж [Foreign investors want to build a waste-incinerating plant in Pazardjik]
  • Town halls by invitation
  • On cultures of democracy
  • Meet the new Europeans: EU accession and the branding of post-communist Bulgaria
  • Пазарджиж [The development of argumentation skills through Bulgarian language instruction]
  • Cultures of democracy and citizen efficacy