Social Accountability in Communication

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

`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

• Foreword - Marvin ScottIntroduction and PreviewSocial Accountability and the Practical Necessity for AccountsA Reading of the Accounts LiteratureA Conversation Analytic Constructionist Perspective on AccountsAccounts AnalysisMethods and Methodological IssuesBlame-Accounts Sequences in Couple TherapyAccountability for Relational ProblemsDiscursive Affect in Situations of Social AccountabilityThe Social Accountability of Zen Understanding - with Thomas L IsbellTeacher-Student Interviews in a North American Zen MonasterySocial Accountability Practices during a Welfare InterviewDiverging Accounts, Repeated Problems, and Ascriptions of ResponsibilityAccounts and Accountability Practices in News InterviewsConclusionSocial Accountability Practices in Contexts