경합적 다원주의와 온라인 사회,정치토론: '양심적 병역거부'찬반담론의 분석

In spite of many expectations of the deliberative potential of cyberspace, some empirical studies on the nature of virtual interaction show that cyberspace does not necessarily bring to fruition the democratic potential of the public sphere in the sense that online discussions hardly resolve disagreements or build consensus and they end up with flaming so easily. Yet it may be far-fetched to delimitate the democratic implications of online discussion. Whereas the formation of consensus is conceived of as a crucial element of democratic processes in the Habermasian deliberative model of democracy, it is often emphasized that ‘differences’ or ‘disagreement’, rather than ‘consensus’, play more critical roles in the democratic processes. Based on the agonistic model of democracy that underscores the significance of political antagonisms and conflicts in the expansion of the democratic process, this study explores the way both dominant and resistant discourses are organized in the unfolding of and in the dealing with differences within an online discussion group. Forms of dominant discursive strategies are analyzed: ‘argumentation’, ‘reversal’, ‘predication’, ‘apparent denial’, and ‘setting of agendas’. This paper also identifies several forms of resistant discursive strategies including ‘disruption of the certainties’, ‘recognition of ambiguities’, and ‘acknowledgement of differences’.