Crisis rhetoric: Coercion vs. force
- 1 February 1973
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Quarterly Journal of Speech
- Vol. 59 (1) , 61-73
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00335637309383154
Abstract
Conceiving coercion as a rhetorical strategy requires that it be distinguished from force and identified instead as symbolic action having a persuasive function. Coercion then can be distinguished from noncoercive strategies in its aim, to induce “reasonable” compliance on “unreasonable” grounds chiefly by means of virtual experience of impending disaster. Theories that equate coercion with force implicitly confuse symbols with signals, ignoring the symbolic and creative source of its power and its limitations.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Confrontation at Columbia: A case study in coercive rhetoricQuarterly Journal of Speech, 1969
- Language as Symbolic ActionPublished by University of California Press ,1966