A Study of Political Interaction based on Information Interchange in a Formally Organised Setting

A review of investigations of political interaction confirms that the adherence to positivist methodology and quantitative methods has led to the current disciplinary hegemony by the rational economic model. As_ current government policy, this has resulted in restrictions on some studies and the use of more sensitive methodologies which might undermine that domination. The alternative naturalistic methodology and qualitative methods provide means of accessing important micro-phenomena such as the reflexive production of meaning and action, but only ona local interpersonal basis. A third option, the information-processing approach, indicates that language provides links between micro- (cognitive), local (interactional), and macro- (institutional) phenomena in social systems. On examination, contrasts are drawn between a linguistic, or text-based treatment of natural language understanding and production, and a treatment based on a reflexive generation of meaning in streams of utterances and non-utterances. A hybrid methodology is formulated combining an inductive front-end for data-collection, with a critical use of methods and techniques of analysis and synthesis drawn from artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Reflexivity between the researcher and the research community is treated as integral data.
This methodology is applied to the investigation of organization interaction. Rejecting the turn-based model of conversation analysis, a new model is formulated for the understanding and production of strategic sequences in political interaction. Data are submitted to both issue-profile and intonation analyses, and then to strategic sequence and temporality analyses. The results are synthesized as symbolic expressions and mapped to depict the logical placement of momentary meaning structures identified from the stream of interaction.
It is inferred that a temporal logic manager within the reflexive processes controls the understanding and production of strategic sequences during political interaction. Proposals are made to develop this model into a tool for investigating political interaction.