Making Sense of Macro- and Micro-Argumentation in Policy-Deliberation: Visualisation Techniques and Representation Formats

摘要

This paper describes work on the use of argumentation tools and techniques to support the policy-deliberation process. The paper first surveys existing research in this area. As will be shown, most research focusses on either the micro-argumentation or the macro-argumentation aspects of policy-deliberation. However, we claim here that ideally argumentation approaches in policy-deliberation settings should account for both levels together. To this end, this paper introduces a prototype Web-based tool for making sense of both macro-argumentation and micro-argumentation in policy-deliberation, particularly through the use of sophisticated argument visualisation techniques. The paper also describes initial steps towards an RDF specification that combines both macro- and micro-argumentation, which will allow the Web tool to act as an RDF repository for policy-deliberation arguments, with links to the rest of the emerging Linked-Data Web.