Relevance drives our actions and channels our attention; it shapes how we make sense of the world and communicate with each other. Irrelevance spreads a twilight which blurs the line between information we do not want to access and information we cannot access. In disciplines as diverse as philosophy, sociology, the information sciences and linguistics, “relevance” has been proposed as a key concept. This book is the first to bring together the often unrelated traditions. Researchers from different fields discuss relevance and relate it to the challenges of “irrelevance”, which have so far been neglected despite their significance for our chances of making well-informed decisions and understanding others. The contributions focus on theoretical and conceptual questions, on specific factors and fields, and on practical and political implications of relevance and irrelevance as forces which are even stronger when they remain in the background.

• Preface 6
• Contents 10
• Relevance And Irrelevance 12
• New Reflections On The Problem(S) Of Relevance(S). The Return Of The Phenomena 32
• Theories 32
• Finite Provinces Of Meaning: The Expansive Context Of Relevance 62
• Bridging Rhetoric And Pragmatics With Relevance Theory 80
• The Body Relevant 108
• Relevance From And Beyond Propositions. The Case Of Online Identity 130
• Factors 130
• Relevance Before, During, And After Discourse Experiences 152
• Social Distribution Of Knowledge In Action: The Practical Management Of Classification 172
• On Cooling The Relevance Out 198
• The Relevance Of The Irrelevant 220
• Challenges 220