Everyday Conversation in the Deliberative Process: An Analysis of Communicative Exchanges in Discussion Groups and Their Contributions to Civic and Political Socialization

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the forms of interaction and communicative exchanges in discussion groups composed of beneficiaries of a Brazilian income transfer program (Bolsa-Família Program) and how these forms contribute to the deliberative process. Discussion groups are used as a method for showing how everyday conversation and political discussion are interrelated. Thus, this article is an empirical investigation that—within the theoretical deliberative democracy framework—helps to make explicit concrete situations within which fluid and disperse conversations change toward attitudes that include taking the risk of expressing dissonant opinions, explaining background assumptions, and producing counternarratives. We contend that informal conversation is part of the dynamics that prepare citizens for more demanding and formal deliberations.