Introduction to the special issue

Abstract

Conceptualizing, theorizing, researching, and practicing argumentation transcends disciplinary boundaries and national borders. As a field, the contemporary study of argumentation emerged through a network of shared objects, questions, journals, conferences, and concerns that coalesced around the ordinary practice of arguing. Although scholarship is global, the embeddedness of all social practices, including research, indicate that the location of these activities matters. When we think of the places of our examples, case studies, and our data sets, where the argument happens has an influence upon how we think of argumentation. Culturally situated practices shape arguers’ behavior, scholars’ study of argumentation, how argumentation is taught, and even what it means for something to count as an argument in the first place. The exchange of ideas between scholars has resulted in expanded theories, nuanced descriptions, and new normative frameworks. The intercultural dialogue gives us more tools to solve complex social, political, environmental, economic, and interpersonal problems. This exchange did not just happen in texts but led to the for-mulation of an entire circuit of major conferences, summer schools, workshops, and exchanges. These include but are not limited to the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, the European Society for Argumentation, European Conference for Argumentation, the Alta Conference on Argumentation, and the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation. These networks and institutions provide important sites for developing and supporting individual scholarship as well as entire schools of thought. They nurtured young scholars, ensured that schools of thought were systematically developed, and facilitated the pollination of ideas across different institutions. In this special issue, we present essays that focus spe-cifically on the traditions, customs, and cultural institutions of the Americas. Opening up new circuitry between places, spaces, and histories presents opportunities for knowledge production and new networked connections. We live in precarious times as we navigate a climate disaster