Authors

Svetlana Bodrunova¹;  ¹ St.Petersburg State University, Russian Federation

Discussion

We theorize a new conceptualization of deliberation, namely cumulative deliberation. The concept is based on the idea of tug-of-war-like cumulation of opinion, in online discussions and beyond; it aggregates cumulative cases of opinion formation under one umbrella and, i.a., insists that the ‘spiral of silence’ and silent majority theories are individual cases of cumulative deliberation. Our conceptualization allows for closer-to-life interpretations of the dynamics of deliberative online discussions due to a shift in normativity. Instead of demanding a high level of rationality and orientation to consensus from all (or major) discussion participants on social media, the new concept helps add value to micro-acts of deliberation and opinion expression, including likes, comments, and shares, however emotional, aggressive, or trivial they might be. To illustrate and operationalize the concept, we provide a review of the recent findings of our research group in the area of cumulative opinion formation and cumulative deliberative practices. This allows for grouping the results into four major research areas, which are cumulative patterns of discussion, structural impact of cumulation, relations between cumulation and discourse features, and relations between cumulative patterns and discussion context. We argue that cumulative deliberation may be viewed a dominant practice in today’s polarized discussions online.