This article develops an updated version of formality as an analytical framework in the comparative study of communicative situations, and especially of meetings. The discussion remakes Judith Irvine’s formality framework by adding to it the explanatory principle of practical rationality as used within Weber’s Interpretive Sociology. This conceptual move provides an efficient and accurate means by which to infer the final causes, reasons, or ends of communicative situations. To illustrate this analytical approach and how it can contribute to qualitative theorization in general, the article conducts an in-depth ethnographic and comparative examination of civic software production meetings in Israel and the United States. The overall argument of the article is that practical rationality can provide a valuable means for deepening explanations of cultural difference in qualitative communication research.

中文翻译：

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实践理性作为交际情境中形式的决定因素：走向定性交际研究中的因果解释程序

本文开发了形式的更新版本，作为对交际情况，尤其是会议的比较研究的分析框架。讨论通过添加韦伯的解释社会学中使用的实践理性的解释性原则，重塑了朱迪思·欧文的形式框架。这种概念性的移动提供了一种有效而准确的方法，通过它可以推断出交流情境的最终原因、原因或目的。为了说明这种分析方法以及它如何有助于一般的定性理论化，本文对以色列和美国的公民软件生产会议进行了深入的民族志和比较研究。