The Work and Workings of Human Communication

Written in four sections, The Work and Workings of Human Communication identifies the underlying fundamentals of human communication that make it distinctively human. They make us the only creature who can, and has to, reflect on the workings of its own communication, and engage in special efforts to make it work. They are the common ground that ties together the many topics and subject matters covered by the Communication discipline.Researcher and theorist Robert E. Sanders starts by pointing out that communication matters, but that there is much we still have to find out about how it does and why. He moves on to examine its workings as the engine of our human-made environment, and then how greatly the Communication discipline's topics have broadened, and may evolve further, as we try to capture that.Sanders positions communication at the center of the ways of life we create and participate in together, which is the basis of the unique contribution to knowledge that the Communication discipline makes among the other social sciences. This original way of representing our discipline and our subject matter empowers readers to engage in independent thought about:The importance of communication in creating, sustaining, changing and participating in our ways of life on an interpersonal and societal levelHuman communication as inherently collaborative, where people affect situations by interacting with others, not acting on othersThe history, current agendas, and possible future of the social science side of the Communication disciplineA perfect resource for new graduate students in introductory Communication courses who have an interest in the social science side of the discipline, The Work and Workings of Human Communication is also highly valuable for undergraduate Communication and liberal arts students, and for thinkers both within academia and outside it who have become interested in how and why communication plays the central role it does in our lives.