What Is Theory? Puzzles and Maps as Metaphors in Communication Theory

The Constitutive Metamodel: A 16-Year Review

“…Gunaratne () divided the seven traditions, though perhaps a bit too neatly, into three identified with communication science (sociopsychological, cybernetic, and sociocultural) and four identified with communication arts (rhetorical, semiotic, phenomenological, and critical). Noting the intense hybridization among traditions in recent theory, Craig and Muller () also speculated that the field might polarize between two main traditions, which correspond more or less to the distinctions drawn by Gunaratne (); Kirtiklis (), and Nastasia and Rakow (), among others.…”

“…A second line of critique related to epistemology is that the constitutive metamodel's way of defining theoretical traditions according to their characteristic conceptions of communication fails to align the traditions with the main epistemological–methodological positions in the field and in social science generally, thereby disconnecting theory from research, isolating communication from other social sciences, and distracting attention from fundamental assumptions that underlie different approaches (Kirtiklis, ; see also Nastasia & Rakow, ). This critique reveals a limitation of the metamodel and supports the conclusion that other ways of representing the structure of theory in the field are needed, at least for some purposes.…”