Antonio Bova – författare

This book provides a detailed examination of argumentative interactions in families with young children during mealtimes. It explores both the restrictions and the opportunities family mealtimes present and the types of issues addressed through argumentative discussions. Antonio Bova puts forward an in depth analysis of how both parents and children contribute to the inception and development of an argumentative discussion, and the categories of argument adopted most often by the two groups. Drawing upon a wealth of qualitative data from the recorded mealtime conversations of Italian and Swiss-Italian middle-class families, the author examines the crucial importance of argumentative interactions between parents and children during mealtimes. This book builds on recent advances in the study of the psychology of social interaction and sheds new light on the importance of argumentation at all stages of life.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of empirical studies based on various approaches devoted to examining the interpersonal argumentative processes involved in different contexts. It also identifies context-dependent similarities and differences in the ways in which argumentative interactions are managed by individuals in a range of educational and professional settings.How can some forms of negotiation, change and debate result from engaging in interpersonal processes during argumentation? How do interpersonal dimensions affect the interdependencies between argumentative exchanges and construction of knowledge and skills? The book clarifies these open questions by providing a discussion of theoretical and empirical issues at the forefront of research, in order to provide a view of how interpersonal argumentation in educational and professional contexts is actually questioned and investigated.It offers readers an opportunity to discover the crucial importance of an in-depth understanding of the role and functions played by the interpersonal dynamics within argumentative interactions occurring in a wide range of educational and professional contexts.