The politics of town meetings proposes that town hall meetings are institutions of representative democracy that present an opportunity for constituents to hold their elected representatives accountable in a public setting. Constituent relations-in-interaction glosses a complex set of interactional practices and procedures through which ensembles of participants bring town hall meetings, as structures of social interaction, into being. This study uses conversation analysis, the study of talk-in-interaction, to show that the politics of town hall meetings orients to three types of accountability: Interactional accountability, political accountability, and public accountability. The articulation of these accountability types provides a sense of overall-structural organization to the structure and activities giving shape to town hall meetings.
","abstract_html":"<p>The <em>politics of town meetings</em> proposes that town hall meetings are institutions of representative democracy that present an opportunity for constituents to hold their elected representatives accountable in a public setting. <em>Constituent relations-in-interaction</em> glosses a complex set of interactional practices and procedures through which ensembles of participants bring town hall meetings, as structures of social interaction, into being. This study uses conversation analysis, the study of talk-in-interaction, to show that the politics of town hall meetings orients to three types of accountability: Interactional accountability, political accountability, and public accountability. The articulation of these accountability types provides a sense of overall-structural organization to the structure and activities giving shape to town hall meetings.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Green, Robert J"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Communication","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Felicia D. Roberts","Joshua E. Boyd","Thomas J. Rickert","Joshua M. Scacco"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:53:55Z","subjects":["Social sciences","Communication and the arts","Accountability","Conversation analysis","Politics","Public participation","Town hall meetings","Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics","Communication","Political Science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/764","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Felicia D. Roberts","Joshua E. Boyd","Thomas J. Rickert","Joshua M. Scacco"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Green, Robert J"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communication"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Social sciences","Communication and the arts","Accountability","Conversation analysis","Politics","Public participation","Town hall meetings","Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics","Communication","Political Science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/764"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The politics of town meetings proposes that town hall meetings are institutions of representative democracy that present an opportunity for constituents to hold their elected representatives accountable in a public setting. Constituent relations-in-interaction glosses a complex set of interactional practices and procedures through which ensembles of participants bring town hall meetings, as structures of social interaction, into being. This study uses conversation analysis, the study of talk-in-interaction, to show that the politics of town hall meetings orients to three types of accountability: Interactional accountability, political accountability, and public accountability. The articulation of these accountability types provides a sense of overall-structural organization to the structure and activities giving shape to town hall meetings.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Politics of Town Hall Meetings: Analyzing Constituent Relations-in-Interaction"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Felicia D. Roberts","Joshua E. Boyd","Thomas J. Rickert","Joshua M. Scacco"],"dc:creator":["Green, Robert J"],"dc:description.abstract":["The politics of town meetings proposes that town hall meetings are institutions of representative democracy that present an opportunity for constituents to hold their elected representatives accountable in a public setting. Constituent relations-in-interaction glosses a complex set of interactional practices and procedures through which ensembles of participants bring town hall meetings, as structures of social interaction, into being. This study uses conversation analysis, the study of talk-in-interaction, to show that the politics of town hall meetings orients to three types of accountability: Interactional accountability, political accountability, and public accountability. The articulation of these accountability types provides a sense of overall-structural organization to the structure and activities giving shape to town hall meetings.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/764"],"dc:subject":["Social sciences","Communication and the arts","Accountability","Conversation analysis","Politics","Public participation","Town hall meetings","Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics","Communication","Political Science"],"dc:title":["The Politics of Town Hall Meetings: Analyzing Constituent Relations-in-Interaction"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Communication"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:53:55Z"}