The context of mediation immediately highlights the importance of argumentation as a means to reasonably handle conflict. "Argumentation in dispute mediation" tackles this topic providing both theoretical insights and detailed empirical argumentative analysis. Its goal is twofold: to explore mediation as a real-life context of argumentation and to show how an increased argumentative awareness could improve conflict resolution.Particular emphasis is accorded to mapping mediation through an interdisciplinary reasoned review of existing accounts. The outline of a conceptual framework of mediation constitutes a solid basis for the study of argumentation in mediation. The argumentative analysis of a corpus of mediation cases, based on the pragma-dialectical account and the Argumentum Model of Topics, shows the mediator s moves which actually help conflicting parties discuss reasonably. The mediator s topical potential plays a crucial role in this relation at the levels of issue selection, evoking of cultural-contextual premises and choice of argument schemes."

Communications scholars from the University of Amsterdam and of Arizona analyze argumentation in ordinary disputes. They present an ideal model, and show how it works in an ideal situation, such as a dispute about the merits of two opposing cases. Then they start looking at the real world: ordinary conversation, third- party mediation, religious confrontations, cases in which at least one of the participants is not looking for resolution, and so on. Accessible to nonspecialists. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Research into computational models of argument is a rich interdisciplinary field involving the study of natural, artificial and theoretical argumentation and requiring openness to interactions with a variety of disciplines, ranging from philosophy and cognitive science to formal logic and graph theory. The ultimate aim is to support the development of computer-based systems able to engage in argumentation-related activities, either with human users or among themselves. This book presents the proceedings of the sixth biennial International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA 2016), held in Potsdam, Germany, on 12- 16 September. The aim of the COMMA conferences is to bring together researchers interested in computational models of argument and the representation of argumentation structures in natural language texts, with special attention to contributions concerning emerging trends and the development of new connections with other areas. The book contains the 25 full papers, 17 short papers and 10 demonstration abstracts presented at the conference, together with 3 invited talks. Subjects covered include abstract, bipolar and structured argumentation, quantitative approaches and their connections with formalisms like Bayesian networks and fuzzy logic, multi-agent scenarios, algorithms and solvers, and mining arguments in text, dialogue, and social media. The book provides an overview of current research and developments in the field of computational models of argument, and will be essential reading for all those with an interest in the field.

This book investigates the role of inference in argumentation, considering how arguments support standpoints on the basis of different loci. The authors propose and illustrate a model for the analysis of the standpoint-argument connection, called Argumentum Model of Topics (AMT). A prominent feature of the AMT is that it distinguishes, within each and every single argumentation, between an inferential-procedural component, on which the reasoning process is based; and a material-contextual component, which anchors the argument in the interlocutors’ cultural and factual common ground. The AMT explains how these components differ and how they are intertwined within each single argument. This model is introduced in Part II of the book, following a careful reconstruction of the enormously rich tradition of studies on inference in argumentation, from the antiquity to contemporary authors, without neglecting medieval and post-medieval contributions. The AMT is a contemporary model grounded in a dialogue with such tradition, whose crucial aspects are illuminated in this book.

An original study of the language of mediation, which uses excerpts from real mediation sessions to illustrate how mediation works and how mediators can best help disputants make claims, present evidence and propose solutions. It will interest researchers and students of sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, and the sociology of law.