Argumentation, Decision, Action (ADA)

“Argumentation, Decision, Action” (ADA). This sequence might seem to reflect a self-evident element of daily life. But it raises a set of questions which form the core of the project presented here: How are arguments constructed? What does it mean to convince or persuade? What are the historical and cultural forms which argumentation takes? How do the uses of argumentation influence power relationships? The originality of the ADA project lies in two characteristics that are already at the centre of the functioning of Maison européenne des sciences de l’homme et de la société de Lille (MESHS) responsible for coordinating the project. One is the ambition to develop a theoretical framework that will encourage and enable interaction between disciplines. The other is the desire to federate the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) around their main contributions to public life: informed debate, lucid decision-making and action based on reflection. Starting from the theme of argumentation, the ADA LAbex, involving 19 research laboratories in the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions, aims to create a project that will be common to all the disciplines in the HSS in response to challenges that are both intellectual and social.
Intellectual in that the ambition of the ADA Labex is to fully comprehend argumentation, a familiar concept to all the humanities and social science subjects, from its basic principles to its practical applications. These questions are particularly important as research in the HSS cannot be conceived without recourse to argumentation whether addressed to peers or to the rest of society.
Social because of the transformations that have given rise to societies in which less centralized and hierarchical forms of governance are is proclaimed as the new mode of government, in which argumentation and communication aim to replace the discourse of authority, where the questioning of traditional modes of regulation would seem to require both participation and argumentation.
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