Cogency v2 n2

COGENCY Vol. 2, N0. 2 (149-153), Spring 2010 ISSN 0718-8285
Frans H. van Eemeren (ed.). Examining Argumentation in
Context: Fifteen studies on strategic maneuvering. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins Publishing, 2009, 305 pp., (hb.), ISBN 9789027211187,
EUR 95.00.
Janice Schuetz
Department of Communication and Journalism,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
jschuetz@unm.edu
Received: 4-5-2010 Accepted: 7-10-2010
Argumentation theorists will welcome Frans H. van Eemeren’s collection of
fifteen essays on strategic maneuvering, dedicated to Peter Houtlosser with
whom the editor worked for a decade to develop the theory as an extension
of pragma dialectics. This collection brings together European and North
American scholars whose work on strategic maneuvering enhances both its
breadth of applications and its depth potential for argumentation analysis.
The contents of this edited volume certify that the evolving theory of strategic
maneuvering evokes interest from scholars of informal logic, rhetoric,
linguistics, politics, law, and marketing. My review highlights the content of
a few of these essays in order to identify promising new directions for this
theory.
Chapter 1 explicates the main concepts and principles of strategic maneuvering
drawn from several previously published essays by van Eemeren
and Houtlosser. The essay evolves sequentially showing how the elements
of this theory developed over time. (1) Grounded in pragma dialectics, the
goal of the theory is to integrate the “artful effectiveness” of rhetoric with
the “critical reasonableness” of dialectics. (2) The chapter explains how the
topical potential, audience directed adjustments, and rhetorical stylistics
intersect within an argumentative discourse during the confrontation, open-
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