The Work and Workings of Human Communication - Paperback

by Robert E. Sanders (Author)

Discover the fundamentals of human communication with this comprehensive and insightful resource

Written in four sections, The Work and Workings of Human Communication identifies the underlying fundamentals that make our communication distinctively human. These fundamentals are the common ground that tie together the many topics and subject matters covered by the study and discipline of communication. They are also the basis of the unique contribution of the communication discipline to the social sciences.

Professor, researcher and theorist Robert E. Sanders starts by focusing on what is unique about human communication and moves on to an examination of the complexities of scientific inquiry in the social sciences in general and in the communication discipline specifically. At the heart of the matter is the fact that humans are thinking beings who can make choices and therefore are not entirely predictable. This points towards new topics and questions that are likely to arise as the discipline evolves.

Sanders' approach leads to recognition of the fact that communication is at the center of how humans build our ways of life and participate together. By focusing on the underlying fundamentals that give rise to the discipline's topics and subject areas, The Work and Workings of Human Communication encourages students to engage in independent thought about what they want to contribute by:

• Emphasizing the importance of communication in creating, sustaining or changing--and participating in--our ways of life on an interpersonal level and on a societal level
• Recognizing that human communication is inherently collaborative; people affect situations by interacting with others, not acting on others
• Explaining the history, current agendas and possible future of the social science side of the Communication discipline

A perfect resource for new graduate students in introductory communication courses who have an interest in the social science side of the discipline, The Work and Workings of Human Communication is also highly valuable for undergraduate communication and liberal arts students who don't possess a background in the discipline.

Front Jacket

Written in four sections, The Work and Workings of Human Communication identifies the underlying fundamentals of human communication that make it distinctively human. They make us the only creature who can, and has to, reflect on the workings of its own communication, and engage in special efforts to make it work. They are the common ground that ties together the many topics and subject matters covered by the Communication discipline.

Researcher and theorist Robert E. Sanders starts by pointing out that communication matters, but that there is much we still have to find out about how it does and why. He moves on to examine its workings as the engine of our human-made environment, and then how greatly the Communication discipline's topics have broadened, and may evolve further, as we try to capture that.

Sanders positions communication at the center of the ways of life we create and participate in together, which is the basis of the unique contribution to knowledge that the Communication discipline makes among the other social sciences. This original way of representing our discipline and our subject matter empowers readers to engage in independent thought about:

• The importance of communication in creating, sustaining, changing and participating in our ways of life on an interpersonal and societal level
• Human communication as inherently collaborative, where people affect situations by interacting with others, not acting on others
• The history, current agendas, and possible future of the social science side of the Communication discipline

A perfect resource for new graduate students in introductory Communication courses who have an interest in the social science side of the discipline, The Work and Workings of Human Communication is also highly valuable for undergraduate Communication and liberal arts students, and for thinkers both within academia and outside it who have become interested in how and why communication plays the central role it does in our lives.

Author Biography

Robert E. Sanders, Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Iowa, has focused his research and theoretical work on details of the way people communicate in social interactions to influence others as a microcosm of the work and workings of human communication, and the underlying communicative competence that supports communicating strategically. He wrote the book Cognitive Foundations of Calculated Speech, co-edited Handbook of Language and Social Interaction, and has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on language, social interaction, and communicative competence.