Rhetoric Society Quarterly Aug 2020

Divergence and Diplomacy as a Pluriversal Rhetorical Praxis of Coalitional Politics

Kenneth Walker

Abstract

Coalitional politics have largely been examined across social and cultural differences that serve shared political commitments, and the rhetorical force of situated and material locations remains an open question. To provide a theoretical analytic for these excesses, I offer pluriversal and rhetorical understandings of divergence and diplomacy for coalitional politics. I demonstrate these concepts through a rhetorical analysis of a community organization from San Antonio, Texas, and their coalitional politics, which partially emerge as a response to extreme weather events and urban development. The upshot reveals that rhetorical approaches to divergence and diplomacy can help capture the material obligations and constraints across heterogeneous yet interdependent worlds. Such theoretical tools will be increasingly important for coalitional rhetorics and politics responding to climate breakdown.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2020-08-07
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2020.1748217
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