Article published In: Journal of Argumentation in Context
Vol. 6:2 (2017) ► pp.137–166
Strategic maneuvering with presentational choices in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports
Published online: 27 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.6.2.02gat
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.6.2.02gat
Abstract
In the framework of the extended pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting is approached in this study as a particular communicative activity type, which can be reconstructed as part of a critical discussion. CSR reports excerpts are viewed in the analysis as parts of a virtual critical discussion in which a company acts as a protagonist maneuvering strategically to defend the standpoint according to which the business is operated ethically, and to convince the audience about what is mentioned in the standpoint. The reconstructed standpoint of a CSR report, We are doing business responsibly, may be regarded as stereotypical, since it corresponds to the institutional point of this regulated type of communicative activity. In the first part of the study, a brief overview is given of the CSR reporting activity, then the concept of strategic maneuvering is presented, under its three aspects (topical potential, audience demand, and presentational techniques), as well as the notion of communicative activity type, with a highlight on the role of the (macro-)context and of institutional preconditions in analytical studies on argumentation. The analysis in the latter part of the study concerns presentational techniques used by the protagonist in the confrontation and in the argumentation stages in CSR reporting, in order to reconcile rhetorical and dialectical aims by maneuvering strategically. The coordinatively and the subordinatively compound structure of argumentation, the symptomatic argument scheme, as well as reformulations of the standpoint, use of emotionally endowed words, concentration of the arguments in the form of nominal sentences acting as headings are among the most important presentational devices constitutive of argumentative moves aimed at convincing the audience that the company acts ethically, but also at promoting a positive image of its business responsibility, which appears to be the ground for winning the discussion.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.CSR communication and CSR reporting
- 3.Strategic maneuvering in the CSR report communicative activity type
- 3.1Topical choices in CSR reporting
- 3.2Adaptation to audience demands and expectations in CSR reporting
- 3.3Presentational choices, devices, or techniques in CSR reporting
- 4.Strategically maneuvering with presentational choices in CSR reporting
- 4.1Reasonableness and effectiveness in the confrontation stage of the critical discussion
- 4.2Reasonableness and effectiveness in the argumentation stage of the critical discussion
- 4.2.1Argumentation structure
- 4.2.2Linguistic devices in the argumentation stage
- 4.2.3Argument schemes
- 5.Final remarks
- Notes
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