Arguing on Unlevelled Playing Fields: Local Management of Reasonableness in a Special Place for Managing Disagreement About Health

Abstract

Within the argumentative polylogue framework of Lewiński and Aakhus (2023), the places where arguments develop are recognized as potential targets for design. In the UK, an important place for arguing about health is a process for creating clinical care guidelines. A review of the design of this place exposes both its vulnerabilities (e.g., unexamined presumptions) and its resources for overcoming these vulnerabilities (openness to both systemic redesign and to local management by participants).