New England Town Meeting and the Cultivation of Deliberative Play. (July 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Townsend, Rebecca M.; Milburn, Trudy
• Other Names: Craig Robert T. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 67:Number 8(2023)
• Page Start: 1001
• Page End: 1019
• Publication Date: 2023-07
• Subjects: comic frame -- deliberative play -- rhetoric -- town meeting -- democracy; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/00027642221093588
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

Participants of New England town meeting must follow protocols to participate in this direct democratic process. Over the past 200 years, the protocols have been enacted and adapted by participants in small towns across the region. Within annual meetings, one can find small breaches that could be interpreted as playful acts. In this paper, we use the comic frame as a theoretical lens to interpret instances of such play within the rhetorical deliberation of one New England town meeting. We analyze two instances where speakers playfully use recognized parts of town meeting to achieve their rhetorical ends. We conclude with a discussion of the way play can help accomplish identification in public discourse.