- Dept of Communication
University of Macau
Macau (SAR)
China
Richard Fitzgerald
University of Macau, Dept of Communication, Faculty Member
In his PhD proposal, now published as Seeing Sociological, Garfinkel [2006] formulated action in terms of a mutually constitutive structure—the Noesis-Noema Structures. This structure can be traced to Aaron Gurwitsch’s gestalt psychology... more
In his PhD proposal, now published as Seeing Sociological, Garfinkel [2006] formulated action in terms of a mutually constitutive structure—the Noesis-Noema Structures. This structure can be traced to Aaron Gurwitsch’s gestalt psychology and Law of Good Gestalt which theorises how participants prioritise functional Gestalts over other possible meanings of what is perceivable in their surroundings. While Gurwitsch illustrated his theory using images, in this paper we revisit Gurwitsch’s theory in light of the advances in recording real-time interaction to consider Gestalt in spatio-temporality of real-time interaction. We consider the Law of Good Gestalt in terms of the dimensions of time and space, and postulate two analytical principles—the Principle of Good Momentary Gestalt and the Principle of Good Temporal Gestalt—for analysing a multi-angle video segment of a monologue taken from a training event. The analysis examines how the monologue was embedded in a multi-layer projection structure, so that during the time of the monologue, the trainer and trainees can be seen as achieving a transition between one activity to another while sustaining the frame of the training event. Through this, the analysis highlights the multi-layered structure of participants’ field of perception that constitutes their experience of the social activity, and explores a “method” to reconstruct such a structured field of perception through re-coupling meanings to the assemblages of multimodal resources recoverable on video.
Research Interests:
Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover... more
Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover social orders through examining the temporal sequence in practical activity. However, Garfinkel and Sacks took different paths from this initial proposal in their separate development of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Conversation Analysis. Focusing on different forms of data, the two programmes adopted different approaches to time and action in constructing the time structures in their sociological description of activity. However, the difference has seldom been subjected to discussion and much less attempt to explore a possible synthesis of the two programmes from there. This article attempts to address this gap by proposing a perspective of multi-layered temporality in social interaction. The analysis examines three extracts from a university communication workshop for students and explicates different modes of how simultaneous sequences can constitute participants' action in situ: (1) simultaneous sequences by different actors; (2) simultaneous sequences by the same actor; (3) simultaneous sequences within a participatory framework. Contending the social actors' phenomenological potential to perceive simultaneous sequences in different time frames, we conclude that the 'situational time' in EM and 'conversational time' in CA can be commensurable. Interweaving different layers of temporality into an ethnomethodological description, practitioners can better reconstruct a 'reasonable total picture' of social activity to manifest its complex, seen-but-unnoticed endogenous social order. Beyond ethnomethodology, the multi-layered perspective of time provides the basis for a holistic approach to time, allowing the enquiry of broader social time through studying social life in vivo.
Research Interests: Qualitative Methods (Sociology), Conversation Analysis, Qualitative methodology, Qualitative Methods, Discursive Psychology, and 8 moreEthnomethodology, Multimodality, Qualitative Research Methods, Qualitative Methodology (Sociology), Membership Categorisation Analysis, Sociology of Time, Qualitative Methodologies, and Harold Garfinkel
The article examines the various ways in which 'solidarity' is invoked and signified through narrative and categorial devices in a political debate following the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016. Analysing a floor debate in the European... more
The article examines the various ways in which 'solidarity' is invoked and signified through narrative and categorial devices in a political debate following the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016. Analysing a floor debate in the European Parliament concerning a white paper released by the European Commission on the future of the EU held in March 2017, we investigate how politicians deploy references to 'solidarity' in service of different political agendas. Our research highlights the strategic use of 'core' values in political debate through the way different speakers appeal to 'solidarity' as a selfevident positive value within the EU, but which is then mobilised through different relevant actors and scenarios to argue contrastive political positions. Our analysis demonstrates how narrative positioning and categorybound normative expectations are harnessed to serve the aims of political persuasion by "populating" a shared principle of governance with purposeful sets of identities and interrelations.
Research Interests:
This book is devoted to the re-introduction of the remarkably original approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. We intend the volume as an incitement to experts to return to the original lectures of Sacks with fresh... more
This book is devoted to the re-introduction of the remarkably original approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. We intend the volume as an incitement to experts to return to the original lectures of Sacks with fresh eyes, and a provocation for those unfamiliar to read Sacks for the first time. Sacks’ remarkable analyses offer a means of doing sociology that provides for highly technical, detailed, and yet stunningly simple solutions to some of the most trenchant troubles for the social sciences relating to language, culture, meaning, knowledge, action, and social organisation. The influence of Sacks’ work has not been widespread: something we aim to address with this collection. Yet certain areas of sociology, human geography, communication and media studies, psychology, and linguistics have been re-oriented to the sorts of analyses that are possible by starting with the lived detail of action and language-in-interaction; details that are discoverable, rather than contrived or modelled in and through social scientific theory, as they are actually produced, used, and accomplished by members engaged in actual activities. In this collection, scholars working in a range of different fields and with ranging interests, outline the ways in which their work has been inspired and influenced shaped by Sacks’ approach, and how their current research is taking those insights forward in new directions. As such, it provides both an introduction to, and an exploration of, the work and influence of Harvey Sacks.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Language and Social Interaction, Pragmatics, Conversation Analysis, Qualitative methodology, and 9 moreDiscursive Social Psychology, Discursive Psychology, Conversation Analysis (Research Methodology), Qualitative Research, Ethnomethodology, Qualitative Research Methods, Qualitative Methodology (Sociology), Membership Categorisation Analysis, and Conversation Analysis (Languages And Linguistics)
In a series of lectures during spring 1966, Sacks examines an introduction sequence from a group therapy session where a new member is introduced (Sacks 1995, pp. 268–312). The lectures follow on from Sacks’s analysis of the beginning of... more
In a series of lectures during spring 1966, Sacks examines an introduction sequence from a group therapy session where a new member is introduced (Sacks 1995, pp. 268–312). The lectures follow on from Sacks’s analysis of the beginning of a child’s story, ‘The baby cried. The mommy picked it up’ (Sacks 1995, pp. 236–259), where he first introduces the main elements of his membership categorisation apparatus (see Housley, this volume), before then introducing a section of transcript from a group therapy session and switching to examine how category and sequential work are mutually entwined. Over the course of these lectures, Sacks builds up a multilayered analysis starting from examining the introduction sequence as a sequential action before combining this with membership category work in order to demonstrate how the sequential action and category work are mutually entwined and made relevant to the overall context of the therapy session. In this chapter, I trace Sacks’s analysis over the course of the lectures to high- light the way that Sacks artfully demonstrates the analysis of sequence and category work as mutually entwined. Moreover, the discussion also emphasises the import ance of examining the way Sacks develops his analysis over the course of the lectures, highlighting an approach to reading the lectures as a series of interrelated analyses that build on each other.
Research Interests:
Moving to a different country has become an established part of a globalised economy, and such transnational movement has engendered a rich genre of writing describing this phenomenon. The internet has provided a new means of making sense... more
Moving to a different country has become an established part of a globalised economy, and such transnational movement has engendered a rich genre of writing describing this phenomenon. The internet has provided a new means of making sense of this experience through 'expatriate' blogging. In these blogs the experience of dislocation and relocation, of moving from the taken for granted to uncertainty, is described from the position of being an 'expat', a 'non-local', or a 'stranger' (Schuetz 1944). Relocation provides a point of reflection as once familiar routines are questioned and initially unfamiliar ones are becoming more established. Whilst this transition is often experienced as a personal one, in the genre of expatriate blogging individuals relate their experience through personal and public self-reflection. Afforded by the chronological nature of these blogs, individuals draw on time as a resource to document their transition, highlighting an evolving identity. In this paper we use Membership Categorisation Analysis to examine expatriate blogging as a discursive practice, and we explore analytically how to approach social identity as fluid and evolving where transnational relocation is framed as categorial transition.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis, Media Discourse, Language and Identity, Transnational migration, and 3 moreBlogging, Membership Categorisation Analysis, and Identity Transnationalism Cosmopolitanism Migration and aesthetics Integration Ethnic minorities Discrimination Urban ethnography Comparative research
Contrary to its typical presentation in scientific publications as a certain and linear process, in reality the experimental method, not least the design aspect of it, requires a great deal of trial-and-error and ad hoc decision-making on... more
Contrary to its typical presentation in scientific publications as a certain and linear process, in reality the experimental method, not least the design aspect of it, requires a great deal of trial-and-error and ad hoc decision-making on the part of the researchers. This uncertain and contingent aspect of research, although little known outside of the circle of experts, has important implications for our understanding of the nature of science and scientific findings. This paper offers a backstage perspective to experiment design, where the uncertain and contingent nature of experimental research is at its starkest. It draws on insights from the sociological perspective of ethnomethodology through the auto-ethnographic first-hand experience of one of the author's own social psychology experiment (Ting, 2018). Based on detailed lab notes and planning documents on how and why design changes were made, the analysis focuses on the evolution of the experiment design, particularly the researcher's in situ practical reasoning for how to make the experiment work. From this we show how ethno-methods shape experiment results and highlight the inseparability of social science experimentation from in situ practical reasoning Keywords: behavioral experiment, lab ethnography, ethnomethodology, social life of methods 2
Research Interests:
Membership categorisation analysis (MCA) is a qualitative sociological approach which studies membership categorisation practices—how social members achieve, use, and orient to membership categories in the process of performing some... more
Membership categorisation analysis (MCA) is a qualitative sociological approach which studies membership categorisation practices—how social members achieve, use, and orient to membership categories in the process of performing some social action. Using a range of data including texts, talk-in-interaction, and video recordings, the approach focuses on unpacking members’ routine categorisation practices in everyday and institutional contexts. The approach provides qualitative researchers with a rigorous and data-led perspective to examine the way membership categorisation practices are used to achieve social actions in the contexts of their use. Through its commitment to naturalistic data, grounded observations, and flexibility in scope, MCA is able to also contribute to other disciplines, such as linguistics, sociology, psychology, management studies, communication, cultural studies, politics and political media, gender studies, and social ...
Research Interests:
Abstract On December 2, 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On December 4, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the... more
Abstract
On December 2, 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On December 4, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the landlord. The ensuing news scrum entering the house was broadcast live to air, with reporters in the house identifying objects. In this paper we use Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) and particularly categorial inferencing to examine the way journalists, on being granted access to the house for the first time, and under pressure to produce news live on air,
resorted to various forms of speculation and assumptions to generate news within the liminal zone. In particular, we examine how objects found in the home were used to
occasion newsworthy discourses through categorial reasoning around why and how these objects were used and what they might indicate about the people and events. It is through these routine social categorial reasoning practices that is possible to examine journalists’ routine work as displaying a ‘news-culture-in-action’ whereby individuals and their actions are rendered as news relevant categories and articulated through categorial inferred reasoning practices.
Key words. Live News Broadcasting, Liminal Zone, Membership Categorisation Analysis, Categorial Inferencing, Occasioned Objects, News-Culture-in-Action.
On December 2, 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On December 4, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the landlord. The ensuing news scrum entering the house was broadcast live to air, with reporters in the house identifying objects. In this paper we use Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) and particularly categorial inferencing to examine the way journalists, on being granted access to the house for the first time, and under pressure to produce news live on air,
resorted to various forms of speculation and assumptions to generate news within the liminal zone. In particular, we examine how objects found in the home were used to
occasion newsworthy discourses through categorial reasoning around why and how these objects were used and what they might indicate about the people and events. It is through these routine social categorial reasoning practices that is possible to examine journalists’ routine work as displaying a ‘news-culture-in-action’ whereby individuals and their actions are rendered as news relevant categories and articulated through categorial inferred reasoning practices.
Key words. Live News Broadcasting, Liminal Zone, Membership Categorisation Analysis, Categorial Inferencing, Occasioned Objects, News-Culture-in-Action.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis, Conversation Analysis (Research Methodology), Ethnomethodology, Media Discourse, and 7 moreLanguage and Media Discourses, Membership Categorisation Analysis, Conversation Analysis (Languages And Linguistics), Journalism Studies, Broadcast Journalism, Journalism And Mass communication, and News Analysis
Despite Harvey Sacks' death over 40 years ago, his work continues to be a major influence gaining ever more attention across the social sciences. Although he published relatively few papers during his lifetime, Sacks' work was central to... more
Despite Harvey Sacks' death over 40 years ago, his work continues to be a major influence gaining ever more attention across the social sciences. Although he published relatively few papers during his lifetime, Sacks' work was central to the establishment and continued development of a number of major research approaches. While his published work continues to provide a rich resource for contemporary research there remains much within his published lectures which has not received attention, even less attention has been given to his archive. However, Sacks' published lectures and archive provide, not only a fascinating window into the early development of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, they also provide a valuable point of reflection for contemporary research and disciplinary debates. While the lectures and archive remain of historical interest the focus of this paper is not so much on these as historical artifacts but in how these resources provide a timely contribution to contemporary methodological challenges in the face of new forms of data and phenomena across the social sciences. In drawing on his lectures and archive the discussion focuses on Sacks as an imaginative, innovative and wide-ranging methodologist-inaction interested in the study of social life, wherever that could be captured.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Language and Social Interaction, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Conversation Analysis, and 10 moreQualitative methodology, Qualitative Methods, Social Interaction, Discursive Psychology, Qualitative Research, Ethnomethodology, Interactional Sociolinguistics, Qualitative Research Methods, Membership Categorisation Analysis, and Harvey Sacks
Abstract In this paper we seek to contribute to methodological discussions within ethnomethodology and conversation analysis related to the integration of sequential and categorial orders of organization within analysis. We suggest that... more
Abstract
In this paper we seek to contribute to methodological discussions within ethnomethodology and conversation analysis related to the integration of sequential and categorial orders of organization within analysis. We suggest that while video has facilitated the expansion of the analytic frame to include embodied conduct and the material environment as features of sequential order, there has been less systematic engagement with the categorial order as part of a multilayered flow of action formation. In this paper we use video data to explore social action within a multi-layered categorial and sequential flow in which multiple ‘layers’ of categorization become relevant as coordinated action unfolds sequentially. In doing this we seek to extend the analysis of categorial and sequential work to incorporate both embodied conduct and the material structure of the environment into empirical analyses. The analysis, based on video data recorded during basketball training sessions, describes the reflexive sequential and categorial organization of embodied activities in basketball coaching sessions, focusing on the organization of talk and conduct between the coach and players during correction activities. Specifically, we examine in detail the coach's use of ‘embodied mapping’ through spatial categorization devices in the process of correcting players’ conduct. In exploring the actions of the coach the paper highlights the contribution of membership categorization analysis for analyzing the systematic and situated organization of sense-making in instructed activities. We conclude by suggesting that further understanding of the organization of embodied activities may be gained by attending to the ways in which categorization devices may be invoked, maintained, and replaced not only through participants’ talk-in-interaction, but also through their bodily movements and employment of material structure in the environment.
Keywords
Membership categorization analysis; Conversation analysis; Multimodality; Embodied mapping; Multi-layered sequential flow; Sports coaching
In this paper we seek to contribute to methodological discussions within ethnomethodology and conversation analysis related to the integration of sequential and categorial orders of organization within analysis. We suggest that while video has facilitated the expansion of the analytic frame to include embodied conduct and the material environment as features of sequential order, there has been less systematic engagement with the categorial order as part of a multilayered flow of action formation. In this paper we use video data to explore social action within a multi-layered categorial and sequential flow in which multiple ‘layers’ of categorization become relevant as coordinated action unfolds sequentially. In doing this we seek to extend the analysis of categorial and sequential work to incorporate both embodied conduct and the material structure of the environment into empirical analyses. The analysis, based on video data recorded during basketball training sessions, describes the reflexive sequential and categorial organization of embodied activities in basketball coaching sessions, focusing on the organization of talk and conduct between the coach and players during correction activities. Specifically, we examine in detail the coach's use of ‘embodied mapping’ through spatial categorization devices in the process of correcting players’ conduct. In exploring the actions of the coach the paper highlights the contribution of membership categorization analysis for analyzing the systematic and situated organization of sense-making in instructed activities. We conclude by suggesting that further understanding of the organization of embodied activities may be gained by attending to the ways in which categorization devices may be invoked, maintained, and replaced not only through participants’ talk-in-interaction, but also through their bodily movements and employment of material structure in the environment.
Keywords
Membership categorization analysis; Conversation analysis; Multimodality; Embodied mapping; Multi-layered sequential flow; Sports coaching
Research Interests:
Despite the emergence of newer forms of web-based political engagement, radio phone-ins continue to have a significant role in the enactment of the democratic process, providing a live forum for direct encounters between members of the... more
Despite the emergence of newer forms of web-based political engagement, radio phone-ins continue to have a significant role in the enactment of the democratic process, providing a live forum for direct encounters between members of the public and politicians, beyond the professional forms of mediated encounters between studio journalists and politicians. In this paper, drawing on data from the BBC’s 2015 phone-in Election Call, we use Membership Categorisation Analysis to examine the ways in which political engagement is configured within this forum in the run up to the UK General Election in 2015. In particular, we examine how callers and politicians engage in live political debate through transforming personal experiences into politicised social categories. What emerges most significantly here is that, whereas in previous Election Call series participants configured political categories through personal social identities, in 2015 there is a particular emphasis on callers’ geographical locations as political categories.
Research Interests:
Abstract Developing novices’ proficiency in skilful activities is central to the reproduction of human societies. The interactional practices through which instruction is accomplished have provided a rich focus for ethnomethodological and... more
Abstract Developing novices’ proficiency in skilful activities is central to the reproduction of human societies. The interactional practices through which instruction is accomplished have provided a rich focus for ethnomethodological and conversation analytic studies examining classroom settings, and, more recently, non-classroom environments of instruction in practical and manual skills. This paper examines the work of instruction in basketball training and in particular the correction of player performances, which are a ubiquitous and central feature of instruction in basketball training sessions. A central part of this instructional action relies on the coach observing training activities to determine players’ competencies and to extract relevant correctables from the players’ embodied displays, which are in turn embedded within complex arrangements of rapidly moving bodies situated in material environments. In this paper we examine the visual-analytic work involved in both organizing and observing a basketball training activity, demonstrating the sequential layering of multiple membership categorization devices drawn upon in producing and recognizing actions in this setting. We argue that the coach deploys spatial orientations which function analogously to membership categorization devices, with players’ bodily positions relative to one another and the material structure of the surround generating category-like sets of rights, responsibilities, and sequential relevancies. As we demonstrate, these orientations provide crucial resources for the identification of players’ errors and thereby for the organization of instruction in interaction in this setting.
Keywords Ethnomethodology Conversationanalysis Membershipcategorization
analysis Multimodal interaction Visual perception Instruction Correction
Keywords Ethnomethodology Conversationanalysis Membershipcategorization
analysis Multimodal interaction Visual perception Instruction Correction
Research Interests:
In this talk I sketch out my academic career in Ethnomethodology and reflect on the development of ethnomethodology (EM), Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA). My interest is not so much in describing... more
In this talk I sketch out my academic career in Ethnomethodology and reflect on the development of ethnomethodology (EM), Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA).
My interest is not so much in describing my own intellectual biography/career in much personal detail but rather use my biography in two ways. The first way will be to give an idea of the satisfactions and trials, the rewards and risks of taking on a career in EM/CA/MCA, and the second will be to illustrate how those approaches themselves developed over time.
Consequently, I hope to offer a view of what the major themes and methodological choices in those approaches were and how and why they emerged in their historical context, and how choices and ways of working in those approaches often changed accordingly. Included in this will be scattered recollections of major figures such as Harold Garfinkel, Harvey Sacks and and Emanuel Schegloff in the late 1960’s as well as discussing the contributions of lesser-known contributors to those approaches whose work is important and when undertaking research.
I hope that this will cast some (new) light on how these approaches came to be practiced as they currently are. Overall, I hope to furnish a historical view of the history and rationale of these approaches rather than a history and rationale of myself, providing a context for current work and future directions
My interest is not so much in describing my own intellectual biography/career in much personal detail but rather use my biography in two ways. The first way will be to give an idea of the satisfactions and trials, the rewards and risks of taking on a career in EM/CA/MCA, and the second will be to illustrate how those approaches themselves developed over time.
Consequently, I hope to offer a view of what the major themes and methodological choices in those approaches were and how and why they emerged in their historical context, and how choices and ways of working in those approaches often changed accordingly. Included in this will be scattered recollections of major figures such as Harold Garfinkel, Harvey Sacks and and Emanuel Schegloff in the late 1960’s as well as discussing the contributions of lesser-known contributors to those approaches whose work is important and when undertaking research.
I hope that this will cast some (new) light on how these approaches came to be practiced as they currently are. Overall, I hope to furnish a historical view of the history and rationale of these approaches rather than a history and rationale of myself, providing a context for current work and future directions
Research Interests:
Stephen Hester died in 2014 having been an influential figure in the field of Eth-nomethodology (EM) and particularly in the development of the approach of membership categorization analysis (MCA). During his lifetime, he published... more
Stephen Hester died in 2014 having been an influential figure in the field of Eth-nomethodology (EM) and particularly in the development of the approach of membership categorization analysis (MCA). During his lifetime, he published prolifically in MCA and, at the time of his death was working on this manuscript. The work of finishing the book was undertaken by two of Stephen's closest collaborators Peter Eglin and Dave Francis. In doing this, they had to make a number of decisions in respect to Stephen's wishes. One of these, as discussed in the introduction, was whether to work up some of the analysis that had not been thoroughly examined by Stephen or tidy up what was there and so allowing his style to come through as it was. Deciding to tidy up what was there means early analytic work sits alongside more fully worked up analysis and also that the book could be made freely available rather than through a commercial publisher. The decision means that the analysis remains at different stages and through this provides the reader with a valuable insight into the way Stephen approached his data and analysis from the early observations to the rich complexity of his more developed and more integrated analysis. Overall, the work comprises a number of interrelated intellectual threads that interested him throughout his career. His interests in educational psychology and the sociology of deviance are combined with his interest in EM and Sacks' work on category analysis and which evolved into MCA. The organization of the book begins with an Editors' introduction followed by ten chapters. This begins with two chapters discussing EM and MCA, seven chapters of analysis, and a final summary chapter where he also addresses some contemporary critiques of MCA. While the discussions of EM and the sociology of deviance provide a broad background and the discussion of MCA has a level of clarity and accessibility that is a hallmark of Stephen's writing.
Research Interests:
In this paper we examine how physical and verbal actions are constituted as morally accountable within an institutional context. Through the detailed examination of a video recording of the aftermath of an on-court altercation between... more
In this paper we examine how physical and verbal actions are constituted as morally accountable within an institutional context. Through the detailed examination of a video recording of the aftermath of an on-court altercation between players in a basketball training session, we explore how the members work to establish a locally organized institutional context for an action within which in situ moral reasoning practices are then brought to bear to make sense of the players’ actions and render them as morally accountable or not. In examining the moral organization of institutional accountability in an instance of basketball training activity, the paper develops a further level of detail to understand the reflexive organization of membership categories and the institutional moral order.
Research Interests:
Edwards’ paper, ‘Categories are for talking’ (1991), is a critical dissection of the static role of categories as conceived in traditional Cognitive Psychology and the then-recent work of Lakoff’s Women, Fire and Dangerous Things (1987)... more
Edwards’ paper, ‘Categories are for talking’ (1991), is a critical dissection of the static role of categories as conceived in traditional Cognitive Psychology and the then-recent work of Lakoff’s Women, Fire and Dangerous Things (1987) through the use of Harvey Sacks’ (1974; 1992) work on membership categorisation. Edwards uses Sacks to take aim at the prominent theoretical and methodological trends at the time, seeking to liberate members’ category work from ironically external conceptions of a shrouded realm located inside the head. However, while the focus for Edwards was on psychology, his detailed under- standing of Sacks’ work served to open a conceptual space for those working in discursive psychology to engage with members categorisation work as fundamental to the epistemological and methodological repertoires of Discursive Psychology (DP) in ways that ally with the emergence of Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA: Eglin and Hester, 1992; Watson,1994; Hester and Francis, 1994).
In this discussion we focus on how the paper shows three areas of intersection in the emergence of DP and MCA. First, we outline how the initial use of Sacks’ category work in the paper was directed towards psychological topics at a time when his ideas were largely confined to the sociological fields of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Second, we trace Edwards’ work to embed Sacks’ categorial work as an analytic method for DP while running parallel to the emergence and development of MCA. Finally, we situate the contemporary influence of Edwards’ paper and use of Sacks’ work in the creation of a rich confluence and openness to ideas that have become a hallmark of the contemporary DP approach – an approach that not only incorporates a deep understanding of Sacks’ categorisation work but, in turn, contributes significantly to the further development of MCA.
In this discussion we focus on how the paper shows three areas of intersection in the emergence of DP and MCA. First, we outline how the initial use of Sacks’ category work in the paper was directed towards psychological topics at a time when his ideas were largely confined to the sociological fields of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Second, we trace Edwards’ work to embed Sacks’ categorial work as an analytic method for DP while running parallel to the emergence and development of MCA. Finally, we situate the contemporary influence of Edwards’ paper and use of Sacks’ work in the creation of a rich confluence and openness to ideas that have become a hallmark of the contemporary DP approach – an approach that not only incorporates a deep understanding of Sacks’ categorisation work but, in turn, contributes significantly to the further development of MCA.
Research Interests:
The Gail Jefferson archive have now been completed and is available at UCLA. The archive consists of 36 Boxes, the Title of the archive is Gail Jefferson Papers (Collection 2319). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research... more
The Gail Jefferson archive have now been completed and is available at UCLA.
The archive consists of 36 Boxes, the Title of the archive is
Gail Jefferson Papers (Collection 2319). Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
While it looks as though the actual list of 'boxes' has not yet been
uploaded to the UCLA site as yet (and so not searchable online) pdfs of
the catalogue are available. There are two pdfs - the second, smaller one, documents boxes 30 to 36 as these are audio visual material and needed to be re boxed and so expanded from the original archive list.
The archive consists of 36 Boxes, the Title of the archive is
Gail Jefferson Papers (Collection 2319). Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
While it looks as though the actual list of 'boxes' has not yet been
uploaded to the UCLA site as yet (and so not searchable online) pdfs of
the catalogue are available. There are two pdfs - the second, smaller one, documents boxes 30 to 36 as these are audio visual material and needed to be re boxed and so expanded from the original archive list.
Research Interests:
Introduction This book is about an ethnomethodological approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that is gaining wider popularity and interest from across the social sciences. Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) refers to the... more
Introduction
This book is about an ethnomethodological approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that is gaining wider popularity and interest from across the social sciences. Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) refers to the study of the range of prac- tices that members of a given speech community deploy alongside complementary and aligned ethnomethods in the routine accomplishment of everyday social interaction. A core principle here is the anthropological notion of membership and its relationship to the categories of culture and society that form the stock in trade for the routine accom- plishment and co-ordination of social life. Categories are central to social life and experience and an empirical understanding of their actual use in real-time at the situ- ated and granular level can generate insights into a wide spectrum of social behaviours and problems. This book draws from the pioneering work of Harvey Sacks and his concern with membership categorisation (in addition to other aligned forms of conver- sational practice) and the wide range of rich and fecund studies that have followed. Many of these studies have explored the relationship between membership categorisa- tion practices, language and identity in a variety of settings and through the study of a diverse set of activities. Of course membership categorisation practices are more than the study of identities and identity work-in-action but this is a convenient place to begin our journey. Identity matters have been and continue to be an important site for sociological and related inquiry; not least because they represent a field through which individual and collective life intersect.
This book is about an ethnomethodological approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that is gaining wider popularity and interest from across the social sciences. Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) refers to the study of the range of prac- tices that members of a given speech community deploy alongside complementary and aligned ethnomethods in the routine accomplishment of everyday social interaction. A core principle here is the anthropological notion of membership and its relationship to the categories of culture and society that form the stock in trade for the routine accom- plishment and co-ordination of social life. Categories are central to social life and experience and an empirical understanding of their actual use in real-time at the situ- ated and granular level can generate insights into a wide spectrum of social behaviours and problems. This book draws from the pioneering work of Harvey Sacks and his concern with membership categorisation (in addition to other aligned forms of conver- sational practice) and the wide range of rich and fecund studies that have followed. Many of these studies have explored the relationship between membership categorisa- tion practices, language and identity in a variety of settings and through the study of a diverse set of activities. Of course membership categorisation practices are more than the study of identities and identity work-in-action but this is a convenient place to begin our journey. Identity matters have been and continue to be an important site for sociological and related inquiry; not least because they represent a field through which individual and collective life intersect.
Research Interests:
Research in Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) has illustrated a wide and varied use of activities, rights and obligations, variously related to categories and mem- bership devices (Hester and Eglin, 1992b; Jayyusi, 1984). As... more
Research in Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) has illustrated a wide and varied use of activities, rights and obligations, variously related to categories and mem- bership devices (Hester and Eglin, 1992b; Jayyusi, 1984). As discussed in the Introduction to this volume, while these were initially described by Sacks (1974) as ‘category bound activities’ and later developed by Watson (1983) as ‘category bound predicates’, little recent attention has been paid to the subtle differences in the ways cat- egory features (rights, knowledge, activities, etc.) are deployed. While the term ‘category bound predicate’ has proven immensely useful it has also tended to serve as a catch-all term for all relationships between category features and categories, obscuring the action involved in the use of this category resource. In this chapter we touch off from Sacks’s initial discussion of predicates introduced in the Introduction to this volume and subsequent discussions to explore this relationship further by developing levels of sophistication to understanding the relationship between membership categories and locally invoked associated features. In this instance we examine the way in which par- ticipants engaged in a number of public arguments orient to three distinct differences in the types of relationship between categories and category features.
Research Interests:
Abstract: International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction LASI-0018.R2 Entry n/a Fitzgerald, Richard; University of Queensland, communication research methods, identity, interpersonal communication, language and... more
Abstract:
International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction
LASI-0018.R2
Entry
n/a
Fitzgerald, Richard; University of Queensland,
communication research methods, identity, interpersonal communication, language and social interaction, qualitative methods
Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) is a qualitative approach to the study of social knowledge in action. The approach, originating from the work of Harvey Sacks, examines the ways in which descriptions of, and orientations to, social categories and their associated activities are used in everyday contexts and through which cultural reasoning practices are made visible. This entry identifies key figures in MCA’s development, describes the methodological principles underpinning the approach, and discusses some major methodological themes of the approach.
International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction
LASI-0018.R2
Entry
n/a
Fitzgerald, Richard; University of Queensland,
communication research methods, identity, interpersonal communication, language and social interaction, qualitative methods
Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) is a qualitative approach to the study of social knowledge in action. The approach, originating from the work of Harvey Sacks, examines the ways in which descriptions of, and orientations to, social categories and their associated activities are used in everyday contexts and through which cultural reasoning practices are made visible. This entry identifies key figures in MCA’s development, describes the methodological principles underpinning the approach, and discusses some major methodological themes of the approach.
Research Interests:
This paper concerns a single case of story telling between a long-distance couple via video chat. Our interest is on how a character’s relevance to the story is rendered uncertain by the teller, but how this uncertainty provides an avenue... more
This paper concerns a single case of story telling between a long-distance couple via video chat. Our interest is on how a character’s relevance to the story is rendered uncertain by the teller, but how this uncertainty provides an avenue for the relevance of the character to be recast by the recipient. Using Membership Category Analysis and Sacks’ work on story telling and omnirelevance we examine the evolution of the character in the story while also tracing the way the character is treated by the recipient. Our analysis highlights both the way categories can be withheld from devices for effect and also the way unfixed categories can become ‘promiscuous’ in the sense that they are free roaming and available to be allocated to other devices. In doing this we respecify the ‘problem of promiscuous category analysis’ as a members phenomena.
Research Interests:
This paper examines the way the host of a UK day time television talk show, The JeremyKyleShow, generates entertainment through framing guests’ stories using membership categories and category-based moral evaluations. The analysis draws... more
This paper examines the way the host of a UK day time television talk show, The JeremyKyleShow, generates entertainment through framing guests’ stories using membership categories and category-based moral evaluations. The analysis draws upon Membership Categorisation Analysis, and in particular Sacks’s(1995) discussion of categorial inferencing and category norms,to examine the way the host overlays individuals with membership categories and category-based actions. Moreover, this category work then provides for subsequent normative reasoning and moral judgements to be made for the overhearing audience. In summary the analysis demonstrates the way the show operates through making individuals and their actions morally accountable for the overhearing audience through routine categorisation work and related norms of behaviour.
Research Interests:
The recent resurgence of Sacks’ work on membership categorization has highlighted the growing analytic interest in how members’ social category orientations operate at multiple levels of interactional work. One of the outcomes of this,... more
The recent resurgence of Sacks’ work on membership categorization has highlighted the growing analytic interest in how members’ social category orientations operate at multiple levels of interactional work. One of the outcomes of this, highlighted in Stokoe’s discussion, is the re-emergence of the question of whether membership categorization analysis (MCA) has been, is, or can be an approach in its own right. In this brief discussion I consider the emergence of ‘MCA’ as an approach to the study of social-knowledge-in-action, the relationship between MCA and contemporary directions in conversation analysis (CA), and finally the future of MCA as it continues to develop.
Research Interests:
This paper examines instances of swearing in live television broadcasts. While some cable television shows routinely involve swearing without censorship and recorded shows may include swearing “bleeped out,” our interest is in instances... more
This paper examines instances of swearing in live television broadcasts. While some cable television shows routinely involve swearing without censorship and recorded shows may include swearing “bleeped out,” our interest is in instances of swearing in contexts where swearing is prohibited. We look at live interviews and panel debates where swearing is clearly noticed and reacted to strongly—and in all cases retracted or apologized for in some way. The examples we examine thus involve a participant visibly moving outside the normative limits of the interaction, and as such reveal the boundaries that serve as organizational structures for the interactions. Drawing on Goffman's work on gaffes and slips and ethnomethodological conversation analysis, the paper explores how swearing is treated by the participants as a practical concern, and how swearing and its management implicates the identities and relationships of the participants and the specific context of the interaction. We discuss how swearing in live broadcasts reveals the limits of authenticity within informal, conversational interviews and debates.
Keywords: news interviews; live broadcast; expletives; ethnomethodology; conversation analysis; Goffman."
Keywords: news interviews; live broadcast; expletives; ethnomethodology; conversation analysis; Goffman."
Research Interests:
One challenge for conversation analytic research on identity is to demonstrate that and how identities are made relevant and consequential for the participants of an interaction. Drawing on Harvey Sacks's work on membership categorization... more
One challenge for conversation analytic research on identity is to demonstrate that and how identities are made relevant and consequential for the participants of an interaction. Drawing on Harvey Sacks's work on membership categorization and conversation analytic methods, the aim of this paper is to explore the ‘reflexive codetermination’ (Schegloff, 2007a) of membership and social action—how participants make sense of particular actions through an orientation to locally relevant membership categories, and how category membership is invoked in the enactment of particular social actions. Using video-recordings of a meal shared by a young child, his parents, and his grandparents, the paper examines how identities are made operative in and through the moment-by-moment organization of specific sequences of action. The analysis examines how participants oriented to membership within stage-of-life and family categories, and as guests and hosts, and shows how the relevance of these memberships was enacted through, and consequential for, phenomena such as turn design, turn-taking organization and embodied action. In demonstrating how the relevance and consequentiality of a particular identity can shift over the course of a sequence the paper engages with analytic problems involved in research on identity—particularly with respect to the operation of social structural identities (such as child) when contextually bound identities (such as guest) are also potentially relevant and consequential.
Research Interests:
In this article, we examine the extent to which membership categorization analysis (MCA) can inform an understanding of reasoning within the public domain where morality, policy and cultural politics are visible (Smith and Tatalovich,... more
In this article, we examine the extent to which membership categorization analysis (MCA) can inform an understanding of reasoning within the public domain where morality, policy and cultural politics are visible (Smith and Tatalovich, 2003). Through the examination of three examples, we demonstrate how specific types of category device(s) are a ubiquitous feature of accountable practice in the public domain where morality matters and public policy intersect. Furthermore, we argue that MCA provides a method for analysing the mundane mechanics associated with everyday cultural politics and democratic accountability assembled and presented within news media and broadcast settings
Research Interests:
The chapters in this collection represent an examination of the discursive relationship between the public and policy articulated in and through mediated forms of public space. In a general sense the analyses that follow explore the... more
The chapters in this collection represent an examination of the discursive relationship between the public and policy articulated in and through mediated forms of public space. In a general sense the analyses that follow explore the organization and presentation of policy in the public sphere and in particular the language, interaction and discourse practices of policy makers, politicians and other ‘public agents’ when engaged in explanation, defence or promotion of ‘public matters’ within and through the media. In this the collection represents a departure from treating the analysis of public policy at the level of government programs by focusing on the situated practices of policy presentation and discussion as part of a mediated public sphere. The focus, then, is on examining the lived negotiated detail of policy work within a communicative domain which increasingly makes use of a range of ‘access’ technologies (e.g. open letters, interactive TV debates, phone-ins, e-mail, blogs and social networking sites) in constituting public debate in relation to policy and news management.
Research Interests:
"ABSTRACT: Within conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, the warrant for any instance of analytic interest is always the demonstrable relevance and consequentiality of the phenomena to the interactants.... more
"ABSTRACT: Within conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, the warrant for any instance of analytic interest is always the demonstrable relevance and consequentiality of the phenomena to the interactants. Demonstrating participants’ orientations to social structural contexts poses methodological difficulties, as such orientations are often fragmentary, which weakens the possibility of exploring social structural features as omnipresent and influencing the
understandings and actions of participants. In this paper, we revisit Sacks’s (1995) discussion of omnirelevance, in order to explore the possibility of approaching context within a multilayering of categorical relevances. We argue that, within the layering of membership devices in an episode of interaction, there is an analytically observable orientation to an omnirelevant device. This omnirelevant device operates as background to the occasioned topic devices as a kind of ‘default’ orientation that organises the participation context. The analysis draws upon a transcript of an (ordinary) conversation in which various touched-off topics generate interactional and membership devices. While these devices are seen to organise the topic at hand, there are occasions where topic talk is suspended and a different membership device is oriented to. The omnirelevant device reveals itself through the cracks, joints, and articulation of touched off-topic devices, suggesting a layering and hierarchy of membership devices. By exploring the notion of omnirelevant devices within interaction as part of a layering of topical membership devices, this paper argues for the possibility of exploring a wider participant orientation within interaction and the warrant to analytically invoke a backgrounded organisational device."
understandings and actions of participants. In this paper, we revisit Sacks’s (1995) discussion of omnirelevance, in order to explore the possibility of approaching context within a multilayering of categorical relevances. We argue that, within the layering of membership devices in an episode of interaction, there is an analytically observable orientation to an omnirelevant device. This omnirelevant device operates as background to the occasioned topic devices as a kind of ‘default’ orientation that organises the participation context. The analysis draws upon a transcript of an (ordinary) conversation in which various touched-off topics generate interactional and membership devices. While these devices are seen to organise the topic at hand, there are occasions where topic talk is suspended and a different membership device is oriented to. The omnirelevant device reveals itself through the cracks, joints, and articulation of touched off-topic devices, suggesting a layering and hierarchy of membership devices. By exploring the notion of omnirelevant devices within interaction as part of a layering of topical membership devices, this paper argues for the possibility of exploring a wider participant orientation within interaction and the warrant to analytically invoke a backgrounded organisational device."
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT: The 1974 paper ‘Simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking in conversation’, by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, is widely regarded as groundbreaking for its detailed and methodical understanding of the routine... more
ABSTRACT: The 1974 paper ‘Simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking in conversation’, by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, is widely regarded as groundbreaking for its detailed and methodical understanding of the routine methods of turn taking in conversation. However, these findings also raise questions of what role, if any, a broader sociocultural context of the talk may play in organising social behaviour, and whether different kinds of orderliness, or even a different turntaking machinery, may be managed and attended to according to different social or cultural conventions. In this paper, we provide examples from a range of Australianface-to-face conversations that show that, even in talk involving extended overlap or extended gaps, the same foundational principles of order in turn-taking apply. From this evidence, we suggest that variations in length and proliferation of gaps and overlaps are not symptomatic of different turn-taking machinery, but rather are contingent on contextual and situational factors.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
"ABSTRACT During the course of this paper we explore the sociological tradition of analysing motives and accounts. In doing so we contrast this with more recent methodological developments that have analysed similar phenomenon as part of... more
"ABSTRACT
During the course of this paper we explore the sociological tradition of analysing motives and accounts. In doing so we contrast this with more recent methodological developments that have analysed similar phenomenon as part of a strategy of respecifying psychological theories of cognition. Through the use of analytic examples we demonstrate how accounts and the invocation of ‘inner’ or ‘underlying’ states must be understood not only in terms of situated action but also in terms of the situated accomplishment of social organisation. In this way the theoretical amnesia enveloping the analysis of accounts and motives can be confronted and their status as empirical sociological phenomena sustained within future avenues of qualitative research."
During the course of this paper we explore the sociological tradition of analysing motives and accounts. In doing so we contrast this with more recent methodological developments that have analysed similar phenomenon as part of a strategy of respecifying psychological theories of cognition. Through the use of analytic examples we demonstrate how accounts and the invocation of ‘inner’ or ‘underlying’ states must be understood not only in terms of situated action but also in terms of the situated accomplishment of social organisation. In this way the theoretical amnesia enveloping the analysis of accounts and motives can be confronted and their status as empirical sociological phenomena sustained within future avenues of qualitative research."
Research Interests:
"INTRODUCTION The news broadcast is a highly familiar institutional event in which the latest ‘news’ is presented through routine discursive structures that provide a newsworthy framework for events to be reported into (Clayman and... more
"INTRODUCTION
The news broadcast is a highly familiar institutional event in which the latest ‘news’ is presented through routine discursive structures that provide a newsworthy framework for events to be reported into (Clayman and Heritage, 2002). However, as has been emphasised
by many authors, news is not only concerned with reporting ‘events’. Rather, media organisations are in the business of news production. ‘They construct it, they construct facts, they construct statements and they construct context in which these facts make sense. They
construct “a” reality’ (Vasterman, 1995, quoted in Harcup and O’Neill, 2001 : 265 ; see also Tuchman, 1978). Or, as Schudson puts it : ‘To ask “Is this news ?” is not to ask only “Did it just happen ?” It is to ask “Does this mean something ?”’ (Schudson, 1987 : 84). Thus,
while ‘breaking’ news, i.e. reporting on unanticipated major events, may still be the top priority among newsmakers, the work of new journalists has been likened to the work on the assembly line with
news being searched for, gathered, selected, and eventually turned into stories in a routinized process of news-making (e.g. Gans, 1980 ; Cook, 1998).
Reporting and presenting stories gathered by a programme, however, creates a possible site of tension where usual editorial values may be passed over in favour of carrying a story the programme has
sourced through its own investigative journalism. We explore this blurring by focusing upon the discursive placement of news and the creation of a news agenda through an examination of two examples taken from the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Using the ethnomethodological approach of membership category analysis, we suggest that the presenters are seen to engage in complex categorial work in the process of creating a topical context for an issue to appear in the news programme as well as the subsequent development of the issue as a relevant news agenda during the programme."
The news broadcast is a highly familiar institutional event in which the latest ‘news’ is presented through routine discursive structures that provide a newsworthy framework for events to be reported into (Clayman and Heritage, 2002). However, as has been emphasised
by many authors, news is not only concerned with reporting ‘events’. Rather, media organisations are in the business of news production. ‘They construct it, they construct facts, they construct statements and they construct context in which these facts make sense. They
construct “a” reality’ (Vasterman, 1995, quoted in Harcup and O’Neill, 2001 : 265 ; see also Tuchman, 1978). Or, as Schudson puts it : ‘To ask “Is this news ?” is not to ask only “Did it just happen ?” It is to ask “Does this mean something ?”’ (Schudson, 1987 : 84). Thus,
while ‘breaking’ news, i.e. reporting on unanticipated major events, may still be the top priority among newsmakers, the work of new journalists has been likened to the work on the assembly line with
news being searched for, gathered, selected, and eventually turned into stories in a routinized process of news-making (e.g. Gans, 1980 ; Cook, 1998).
Reporting and presenting stories gathered by a programme, however, creates a possible site of tension where usual editorial values may be passed over in favour of carrying a story the programme has
sourced through its own investigative journalism. We explore this blurring by focusing upon the discursive placement of news and the creation of a news agenda through an examination of two examples taken from the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Using the ethnomethodological approach of membership category analysis, we suggest that the presenters are seen to engage in complex categorial work in the process of creating a topical context for an issue to appear in the news programme as well as the subsequent development of the issue as a relevant news agenda during the programme."
Research Interests:
Abstract: The notion of ‘guilt’ has been subject of examination through the methods of Membership Categorisation Analysis as a part of the work of formal institutions such as courts, police, and schools where the consequences of decisions... more
Abstract: The notion of ‘guilt’ has been subject of examination through the methods of Membership Categorisation Analysis as a part of the work of formal institutions such as courts, police, and schools where the consequences of decisions made may have direct effects on the person being judged. However whilst this research has provided access to the process of ‘negotiating’ guilt in these highly ritualized and formal contexts the ascription, negotiation and resistance of
guilt is not restricted to these institutions. Rather deciding someone’s ‘guilt’ or resisting such a categorisation can be seen as part of the routine everyday work of social life. In this paper we use the method of Membership Categorisation Analysis
to examine two instances where “guilt” is a matter of local negotiation between parties and where the consequences are purely a matter for the participants at hand: a narrative therapy counseling session and a conversation between friends. In the first site the negotiation is around a participant ‘feeling guilty’ whilst in the second, guilt is attributed to absent third party. Through our analysis we highlight that the interactional work of ascribing and resisting ‘guilt’ is both a routine feature of social interaction and that this routine feature is organised through members’ methodical use of descriptions and accounts embedded in a common sense relationship between individual and categorial actions.
guilt is not restricted to these institutions. Rather deciding someone’s ‘guilt’ or resisting such a categorisation can be seen as part of the routine everyday work of social life. In this paper we use the method of Membership Categorisation Analysis
to examine two instances where “guilt” is a matter of local negotiation between parties and where the consequences are purely a matter for the participants at hand: a narrative therapy counseling session and a conversation between friends. In the first site the negotiation is around a participant ‘feeling guilty’ whilst in the second, guilt is attributed to absent third party. Through our analysis we highlight that the interactional work of ascribing and resisting ‘guilt’ is both a routine feature of social interaction and that this routine feature is organised through members’ methodical use of descriptions and accounts embedded in a common sense relationship between individual and categorial actions.
Research Interests:
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of... more
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of identity categories, pre- dicates, and configurations as a means of accomplishing policy debate in participatory frameworks such as radio phone-ins and the accountable frames of political interviews. This paper respecifies and explores the situated character of media settings as a means of documenting, describing, and illustrating the interactional methods associated with policy debate, public participation/representation, and democracy-in-action.
Research Interests:
William Housley & Richard Fitzgerald CATEGORIZATION, INTERACTION, POLICY, AND DEBATE During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In... more
William Housley & Richard Fitzgerald
CATEGORIZATION, INTERACTION, POLICY, AND DEBATE
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of identity categories, pre- dicates, and configurations as a means of accomplishing policy debate in participatory frameworks such as radio phone-ins and the accountable frames of political interviews. This paper respecifies and explores the situated character of media settings as a means of documenting, describing, and illustrating the interactional methods associated with policy debate, public participation/representation, and democracy-in-action.
CATEGORIZATION, INTERACTION, POLICY, AND DEBATE
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of identity categories, pre- dicates, and configurations as a means of accomplishing policy debate in participatory frameworks such as radio phone-ins and the accountable frames of political interviews. This paper respecifies and explores the situated character of media settings as a means of documenting, describing, and illustrating the interactional methods associated with policy debate, public participation/representation, and democracy-in-action.
Research Interests:
This paper explores the relationship between the audience of commercial talkback radio and the actual existing democratic public sphere in Australia. Drawing upon Anderson’s (1987) notion of an imagined community and Warner’s (2002)... more
This paper explores the relationship between the audience of commercial talkback radio and the actual existing democratic public sphere in Australia. Drawing upon Anderson’s (1987) notion of an imagined community and Warner’s (2002) discussion of publics, the paper suggests that two different but entwined modes of address operate around the talkback audience. The first centres on the active creation of an imagined community brought into being and maintained through host and caller interaction, whilst the second, which is dependent on this prior formation, involves the audience being treated as a political public within the public sphere.
Research Interests:
In this paper we use Membership Category Analysis to examine the way an interviewee utilizes category work in order to resist the possible accusation of being a bad mother and instead posit her mothering as ordinary. Through our analysis... more
In this paper we use Membership Category Analysis to examine the way an interviewee utilizes category work in order to resist the possible accusation of being a bad mother and instead posit her mothering as ordinary. Through our analysis we explore the interactional work of ascribing and resisting categorization organised through claims and counter-claims, making procedures routinely grounded in descriptions and accounts, and embedded in shifts between individual and categorial actions.
Research Interests:
Categorisation, narrative and devolution in Wales William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald ABSTRACT Within this chapter we examine the use of extended story turns, within the accomplished context of a radio news debate, that... more
Categorisation, narrative and devolution in Wales
William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT
Within this chapter we examine the use of extended story turns, within the accomplished context of a radio news debate, that display various accounts of national identity in relation to a proposal for devolved democratic institutions within the United Kingdom. In this sense, they display a ‘world view’. These various positions are displayed through the use of various categories, inferences and connections in order to lend support to and promote positions of For and Against the proposal of the establishment of a devolved democratic assembly for Wales. In this sense the topics of national identity and political re-organisation are omni-relevant topics (Sacks 1992). However, our particular focus and interest is upon the various detailed ways such positions routinely rely on methods of categorisation and moral assessment in their construction, configuration and promotion of arguments. Furthermore, the analysis of such category work contributes to our understanding of the moral organisation of Welsh identity in relation to devolved forms of political organisation and representation.
William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT
Within this chapter we examine the use of extended story turns, within the accomplished context of a radio news debate, that display various accounts of national identity in relation to a proposal for devolved democratic institutions within the United Kingdom. In this sense, they display a ‘world view’. These various positions are displayed through the use of various categories, inferences and connections in order to lend support to and promote positions of For and Against the proposal of the establishment of a devolved democratic assembly for Wales. In this sense the topics of national identity and political re-organisation are omni-relevant topics (Sacks 1992). However, our particular focus and interest is upon the various detailed ways such positions routinely rely on methods of categorisation and moral assessment in their construction, configuration and promotion of arguments. Furthermore, the analysis of such category work contributes to our understanding of the moral organisation of Welsh identity in relation to devolved forms of political organisation and representation.
Research Interests:
Abstract From a sociolinguistic and discourse analytic perspective, news stories have often been considered as operating within a similar structural framework to oral narratives (Labov, 1972), sharing formal elements with narratives... more
Abstract
From a sociolinguistic and discourse analytic perspective, news stories have often been considered as operating within a similar structural framework to oral narratives (Labov, 1972), sharing formal elements with narratives produced in other contexts (although as Bell (1991) has demonstrated in relation to print news, these elements occur in temporal disorganisation). In this paper, in line with other recent treatments of news stories, we suggest that news does not conform to this kind of ‘narrative’ structure as such. Examining data taken from print and live broadcast TV news through a Sacksian (1995) lens, we argue that it is possible to simplify the analysis of news structure by approaching the news as ‘stories’, where the story elements are organised around the notions of category, action and reason rather than as a series of narrative clauses involving orientation, complicating actions, evaluation and resolution (Bell, 1991; van Dijk, 1988).
From a sociolinguistic and discourse analytic perspective, news stories have often been considered as operating within a similar structural framework to oral narratives (Labov, 1972), sharing formal elements with narratives produced in other contexts (although as Bell (1991) has demonstrated in relation to print news, these elements occur in temporal disorganisation). In this paper, in line with other recent treatments of news stories, we suggest that news does not conform to this kind of ‘narrative’ structure as such. Examining data taken from print and live broadcast TV news through a Sacksian (1995) lens, we argue that it is possible to simplify the analysis of news structure by approaching the news as ‘stories’, where the story elements are organised around the notions of category, action and reason rather than as a series of narrative clauses involving orientation, complicating actions, evaluation and resolution (Bell, 1991; van Dijk, 1988).
Research Interests:
"Abstract During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the... more
"Abstract
During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the publication of the Phillips Report in the UK. More specifically, we wish to develop the concept of moral discrepancy and it's use in politically accountable settings, in this case the political interview. The paper, through the use of membership categorisation analysis, explores issues surrounding the social organisation of interview settings, the discursive management of policy decisions and 'bureaucratic mistakes' and the allocation of blame in situated media/political formats. The paper then relates these issues to notions of democracy-in-action, public ethics and the respecification of structure and agency as a members phenomenon."
During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the publication of the Phillips Report in the UK. More specifically, we wish to develop the concept of moral discrepancy and it's use in politically accountable settings, in this case the political interview. The paper, through the use of membership categorisation analysis, explores issues surrounding the social organisation of interview settings, the discursive management of policy decisions and 'bureaucratic mistakes' and the allocation of blame in situated media/political formats. The paper then relates these issues to notions of democracy-in-action, public ethics and the respecification of structure and agency as a members phenomenon."
Research Interests:
"ABSTRACT This article briefly investigates the role that ethnomethodology has played in sociological analyses of language and interaction. The work of Harvey Sacks is investigated in relation to membership categorization and the analysis... more
"ABSTRACT This article briefly investigates the role that ethnomethodology has played in sociological analyses of language and interaction. The work of Harvey Sacks is investigated in relation to membership categorization and the analysis of talk-in-interaction. More specifically, the authors focus on how this strand of work has been developed in recent years and now represents a powerful
apparatus for conducting sociological analyses of interaction in a diverse range of settings in a way that is sensitive to issues related to social organization, normativity, identity, macro–micro synthesis, knowledge and developments in social theory."
apparatus for conducting sociological analyses of interaction in a diverse range of settings in a way that is sensitive to issues related to social organization, normativity, identity, macro–micro synthesis, knowledge and developments in social theory."
Research Interests:
"Abstract Radio phone-in programmes have been the subject of a number of studies using the methodology of conversation analysis. Whilst this has been successful in making apparent the sequential organisation of this type of interaction... more
"Abstract
Radio phone-in programmes have been the subject of a number of studies using the methodology of conversation analysis. Whilst this has been successful in making apparent the sequential organisation of this type of interaction little has been said about its categorial organisation. Adopting an ethnomethodological approach, it is demonstrated in this paper that interaction on public access radio can be seen to rely upon categorial and sequential identities built up and developed upon over the course of interaction. By paying attention to the categorial features within media interaction together with the sequential organisation it is possible to examine the way identities are reflexively developed in conjunction with the sequential flow of interaction. This in turn allows an analysis able to address the multi-layered organisational methods used by members as part of the on-going flow of interaction."
Radio phone-in programmes have been the subject of a number of studies using the methodology of conversation analysis. Whilst this has been successful in making apparent the sequential organisation of this type of interaction little has been said about its categorial organisation. Adopting an ethnomethodological approach, it is demonstrated in this paper that interaction on public access radio can be seen to rely upon categorial and sequential identities built up and developed upon over the course of interaction. By paying attention to the categorial features within media interaction together with the sequential organisation it is possible to examine the way identities are reflexively developed in conjunction with the sequential flow of interaction. This in turn allows an analysis able to address the multi-layered organisational methods used by members as part of the on-going flow of interaction."
Research Interests:
In this paper we investigate the new phenomenon of e-mailed questions to a radio phone-in programme, BBC Radio 4's 'Election Call'. Our interest in this phenomenon arose for several reasons. Firstly, as a new form, e-mails were singled... more
In this paper we investigate the new phenomenon of e-mailed questions to a radio phone-in programme, BBC Radio 4's 'Election Call'. Our interest in this phenomenon arose for several reasons. Firstly, as a new form, e-mails were singled out at the beginning of each broadcast for special instructions to listeners, although there was evidence that as the series progressed, dealing with e-mail became more of a routine event in each subsequent programme. Secondly, on listening to the Election Call broadcasts, the sequential introduction of an e-mail question appeared to be problematic for the host (Peter Sissons). First mentions of e-mailed questions were often subject to a noticeable amount of disfluency and repair work, in contrast to the well-rehearsed and highly routine introduction of callers’ questions. Thirdly, we are interested in the function of e-mail questions in terms of how they are handled by the host and guest. Are they given the same status as a 'call', and if not, where do the differences lie? In our analysis we show how the introduction of this new media form into a well-established context opens up new structural possibilities for both host as interviewer, and politician as interviewee, in terms of how questions get framed, and how they get responded to.
Research Interests:
Abstract During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talk- in-interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002)... more
Abstract
During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talk- in-interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002) issues relating to context and understanding within the local production of interactional order are discussed. The paper argues that the use of omni-relevant devices and associated ‘recognition work’ provide a means of empirically documenting how ‘extra-textual understanding’ and ‘background expectancies’ are made retrospectively apparent within the contours of membership work and alignment in story telling practices. To this extent we argue that an understanding of omni-relevance and membership categorization practices is central to debates concerning category, sequence and context within empirical studies of talk-in-interaction.
During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talk- in-interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002) issues relating to context and understanding within the local production of interactional order are discussed. The paper argues that the use of omni-relevant devices and associated ‘recognition work’ provide a means of empirically documenting how ‘extra-textual understanding’ and ‘background expectancies’ are made retrospectively apparent within the contours of membership work and alignment in story telling practices. To this extent we argue that an understanding of omni-relevance and membership categorization practices is central to debates concerning category, sequence and context within empirical studies of talk-in-interaction.
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1 ABSTRACT During the course of this paper we intend to explore some possibilities that relate to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, reflexive practice and practitioner based research. We intend to explore the way in which... more
1
ABSTRACT
During the course of this paper we intend to explore some possibilities that relate to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, reflexive practice and practitioner based research. We intend to explore the way in which conversation analysis may facilitate some objectives and goals of reflexive practice and practitioner based research within professional practice. In order to fulfil this objective, this paper will discuss and describe the methodological approach of conversation analysis, explore the principles of reflexive practice and practitioner based research and consider the extent to which conversation analysis may be used as a means of fulfilling the aims of these inter-related projects within professional settings.
ABSTRACT
During the course of this paper we intend to explore some possibilities that relate to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, reflexive practice and practitioner based research. We intend to explore the way in which conversation analysis may facilitate some objectives and goals of reflexive practice and practitioner based research within professional practice. In order to fulfil this objective, this paper will discuss and describe the methodological approach of conversation analysis, explore the principles of reflexive practice and practitioner based research and consider the extent to which conversation analysis may be used as a means of fulfilling the aims of these inter-related projects within professional settings.