Microsociology, Systemic Sociology and Argumentation

Abstract

The following paper puts forward a linguistic approach to argumentation on sociological basis. It is based on two assumptions: a) the existence of argumentation follows a requirement of social organization, and b) the sociological basis of argumentation can be analyzed from two different perspectives, the microsociological and the systemic one. This work develops the grounds of both viewpoints. For the former, whose theoretical axis is the notion of subjectivity, contributions of E. Goffman are reintroduced, and, for the latter, whose theoretical axis is the notion of system/environment, N. Luhmann's proposal are taken into account. Once the validity of both perspectives has been theoretically sketched, an analysis of a single case has been made: the speech delivered on March 21^st 2012 by Iván Fuentes, the leader of Movimiento Social por la Región de Aysén. Finally, a summary of the obtained results is presented.