This volume examines socially-based theory and research, pedagogy and practice in professional communication. The contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the social perspective which emphasizes the context of communication, and then distinguish it from positivistic, cognitive and other competing approaches. After establishing a broad framework for situating developments in professional communication research, the book then moves on to: explore more particular topics, issues and problems within the perspective; examine the historical and theoretical traditions in rhetoric, semiotics,...

Bringing together prominent scholars from a variety of disciplines, "Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations" offers readers an engaging set of essays on the complicated relationship between discourse and the many institutions within which people act. Each author brings a unique theoretical perspective to conceptualizing how discourse is regulated and how it regulates when human activity is organized for such purposes as work or belonging to a profession. Together, the contributors to this collection...