Theorizing disenfranchisement as a communicative process

ABSTRACT This essay lays initial groundwork for a theory of communicative disenfranchisement (TCD), which explores what occurs when individuals’ experiences, identities, and relationships are discredited (i.e., not treated as “real”) by others and how such talk disempowers them and alters their perceptions of future interactions. Five key assumptions of TCD advocate: (1) attending to power; (2) considering discursive and material conditions and their histories; (3) viewing communication as constitutive of reality; (4) adopting a process view; and (5) acknowledging interactions as having multiple meanings. This framework offers two central benefits: (a) aligning critical interpersonal and family communication scholarship with critical research occurring within other communication subfields; and (b) further spurring the critical reconsideration of traditional programs of interpersonal and family communication research. TCD is particularly useful for understanding the roles of power and discourse in communicative contestations as well as the outcomes of such talk.