Relational Dialectics Theory

Abstract

This article first provides an overview and brief history of relational dialectics theory (RDT) before turning to a presentation of RDT's basic tenets and theoretical utility. In addition, it also examines how RDT has been applied in studying family contexts and offers suggestions for future directions of RDT-based research. Relational dialectics theory (RDT) addresses the meaning-making process. As the word "dialectics" suggests, the theory's key premise is that the meaning of some phenomenon emerges in the moment through the interplay or struggle of competing possibilities of meaning. Early on, RDT referred to these opposing meaning possibilities as "contradictions" (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996), but the term "contradiction" can carry a pejorative meaning, in addition to the presumption that meaning-making is a binary between only two alternative meanings. Because of these misunderstandings, the newer iteration of RDT refers to the interplay of competing meaning systems, which are labeled

The meaning of misinformation and those who correct it: An extension of relational dialectics theory

“…Each utterance was analyzed to identify how it was situated with respect to both dominant discours (es) and marginalized ideologies that might resist more centered discours (es). This analysis included an interrogation of the text for diachronic separation, synchronic interplay, and dialogic transformation (Baxter, 2011; Baxter et al, 2021).…”

“…Attention to this discursive power struggle and the emphasis on emergent, as opposed to a priori-defined ideologies, constitute RDT as a dialogic theory. To date, scholars who use RDT have focused on one particular semantic object by attending to how surrounding discourses interplay (Baxter et al, 2021). In the present study, we advance RDT both theoretically and its corresponding method, contrapuntal analysis, by examining simultaneously the meaning of misinformation and the meaning of misinformation corrector.…”

“…The primary premise of RDT pertains not only to the identification of discourses, but also their interplay (Baxter et al, 2021). Baxter (2011) argues that the focus on discursive competition is where meaning is made.…”

“…Existing research acknowledges that multiple meanings can animate a given text (Baxter et al, 2021). For example, from the same data corpus, Suter et al (2014) focused on the meaning of family whereas Baxter et al (2015) focused on the meaning of adoption in online narratives of foster adoptive parents.…”

“…When interested in meaning in flux, communication scholars often turn to relational dialectics theory (RDT; Baxter, 2011; Baxter et al, 2021). RDT is a dialogic theory that illuminates the ways discourses compete to animate the meaning of a semantic object.…”