These papers deal with the concept of negotiation. Interlocutors engage in negotiations about every aspect of their interaction such as topics, social relationships, emotion and identity, and they use different means such as irony, silence and concessive constructions.

1. Foreword (by Weigand, Edda); 2. Part I: Negotiation, Mediation and Power; 3. Reputation and refutation: Negotiating merit (by Dascal, Marcelo); 4. The mediator as power broker (by Fraser, Bruce); 5. "We are different than the Americans and the Japanese!": A critical discourse analysis of decision-making in European Union meetings about employment policies (by Wodak, Ruth); 6. Games of power (by Weigand, Edda); 7. The grammar of bargaining (by Hundsnurscher, Franz); 8. Negotiation in business meetings (by Dannerer, Monika); 9. Interlocutionary scenarios as negotiation of diatextual power (by Mininni, Giuseppe); 10. Part II: Means of Negotiation; 11. Addresser, addressee and target: Negotiating roles through ironic criticism (by Weizman, Elda); 12. Negotiation of irony in dialogue (by Ghita, Andreea C.); 13. A case of negotiation: The argumentative concession in Latin (by Maraldi, Mirka); 14. Silence as a tool for the negotiation of sense in multi-parties conversations (by Cortini, Michela); 15. Part III: Objects of Negotiation; 16. The negotiation of affect in natural conversation (by Drescher, Martina); 17. Implicit communication in political interviews: Negotiating the agenda (by Lauerbach, Gerda Eva); 18. Negotiation of topics in professional e-mail-communication (by Rothkegel, Annely); 19. Negotiation and identity (by Maier, Robert); 20. The negotiation of relevance (by Liedtke, Frank); 21. Unspoken assertions: Values and the shape of discourse (by Emmel, Barbara A.); 22. Negotiating social relationships: Fontane's gossip: The rhetoric of discreet indiscretion in L'Adultera (by Hess-Luttich, Ernest W.B.); 23. General index; 24. List of contributors