Is CMM Theory Useful for Me?
Instructor: Vernon Cronen, Communications Studies Department, 240 Leutze hall. cronenv@uncw.edu
A Little Background:
CMM is based on ideas from theses principle sources: Philosophical Pragmatism (especially John Dewey
and George Herbert Mead), Human Systems (especially Gregory Bateson and the Milan Associates).
Wittgenstein's later philosophy.
It was developed by W. Barnett Pearce and Vernon Cronen during their time together at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. Many others have contributed to its further development. We acknowledge the
continuing contributions of coauthors' students and colleagues. As students working with CMM, you are
invited to join in its development. Special gratitude must be expressed for our long collaboration with
Peter Lang, Susan Lang, John Burnham and the staff and students of KCC International London (1982 _
2010).
What is CMM is supposed to do: CMM is a practical theory. It is meant to provide tools for joining with others so
we can create new and productive ways of living together.
Some Points of Orientation:
CMM posits these basic questions: What are we making? How are we making it? Who are we becoming? What
futures are we creating?
Communication is the primary social process. Society continues to exist not by communication, but In
communication (John Dewey, 1917).
Meaning is co-created as we act into the actions of others, creating constraints and affordances for others'
response. By implication, we do not express meanings in our heads, we make and manage meaning together
(Wittgenstein, 1953; Dewey, 1925).
The smallest meaningful unit for understanding social life is the episode of joint action (not the single act, not the
individual).
Life is one thing after another, so to inquire into what people do together we must understand action in time.
Inside the primary process we create, develop and change ways of thinking, ways of feeling, identities,
relationships, organizations, traditions, and cultures. Important implications of this include: Individuality is a social
achievement, ways of thinking and feeling are social/cultural, not universal,
Experience is co-created inside communication. We act out of experience and into experience.
The goal of CMM based inquiry is to join with others in order to create new possibilities for creative joint action.
Rigor without imagination is paralysis; imagination without rigor is insanity (Gregory Batson, 1979)
Applying CMM to the World Around Us
A sample of CMM- based questions about selecting a Graduate Course.
Suppose you choose a great course for next semester. At the end of Spring semester what would you
like to be able to tell a friend with similar interests about the course?
What do you hope will be different if you participate in this course?
What important learning do you hope will come from taking the course? What will you
I your instructor
I other members of the class need to do achieve this?
What new areas of study/application would you like to see open for you after the course?
Who would be the first person to notice your new learning?
In what situation(s) would she/he notice this?
Think of a concrete situation in which you might use what you learn in the course you choose. How
would the episode go? Who would be participating in the conversation?
How will it feel to be using that new learning? What would you call that feeling?
As you use your new learning, how might your relationship with ___ be different than it is now?
What will be possible in the new relationship?
What changes in your organization do you hope will come from what you learn about communication?
How would you hope _ _ _ _ would respond to you differently as a consequence of taking the
course?
How might your story about who you are be different? What will be best about that?