Talk And Social Organisation

This volume contains a collection of original studies in conversation analysis (C.A.) arranged and presented both to introduce the discipline to the newcomer and to reveal some of the expanding range of discoveries which conversation analysts are making in the course of their distinctive enquiries into the order and organisation of natural language. Though sociological in its orientation. C.A. and the papers here represented are of direct methodological and substantive interest to linguists, philosophers, discourse and speech analysts and social anthropologists. Indeed the strict adherence to the methodological principle that analysis can and must be shown to be grounded in data represents a challenge to all those disciplines which set out to use their materials as mere hand-maidens to support preconstructed models, theories and hypotheses. In this series of papers which includes previously unpublished works of the late Harvey Sacks and the last completed joint researches of Sacks, Jefferson and Schegloff ordinary talk is shown as consisting of a variety of previously unnoticed socially organised practices which conversationalists engage in to generate the organisation which talk has. The methods and the analytic mentality of conversation analysts are, and are here shown to be, designed to make conversationalist's methods, structure and modes of orientation available for empirical study. The search for order and organisation reveals it everywhere. Laughter is shown to be concertedly organised and negotiated in the finest detail. The machinery of delicate repair systems is revealed. Conversational completions are shown to be the product of elaborate negotiating machineries. Conversationalists are revealed as subtly orienting-to and invoking the visual contexts of their interaction within the framework of the turn-taking organisation of conversation. This volume also contains examples of conversation analytic work into the talk produced in organisational settings such as courts and Doctor/Patient interviews. Such analyses reveal the contribution that the discipline might make towards the exploration of the kind of social phenomena traditionally researched by sociologists, social psychologists and social anthropologists.

This book offers a rich and detailed empirical account of children's play and interaction in the school playground. Drawing on the approaches of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, 'Talk and Social Interaction in the Playground' examines the organisation of membership and social action in a game created by a group of children. It offers rich insights into the methods and practices used by children to produce play and social order, making a significant and substantial contribution to the study of talk-in-interaction, as well as to studies of children's play, competencies, and social interaction. The book demonstrates the importance of putting aside preconceived assumptions about how children talk and interact in order to reveal the situated methods and practices that children use - not because they are children, but because they are social beings. As well as appealing to scholars of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, ’Talk and Social Interaction in the Playground’ will be of interest to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, including child studies, developmental psychology, education, applied linguistics, and sociology.

Talk is at the heart of everyday existence, yet social scientists have traditionally treated it as peripheral to human affairs and social structure. This collection of original essays offers a new and different perspective that sees talk as the fundamental framework of social interaction and social institutions.

" . . . carefully researched and clearly written . . . Goodwin makes a major step in redefining the enterprise of studying language use in context and across contexts." —American Ethnologist "I recommend the book highly." —John Haviland, American Anthropologist "Goodwin's thoughtful interpretation of these examples [of children's conversation] is replete with wise insights, challenging critical darts, and well-referenced links to a wide literature." —Child Development Abstracts & Bibliography "Intellectual breadth shines through this book." —Barrie Thorne "By combining Goffman's approach to ethnography with in-depth conversational analysis, Goodwin provides important and novel insights into the interactive processes through which culture is created and maintained. The results should be of interest to any social scientist." —John J. Gumperz " . . . required reading for linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, and educators." —Language and Acquisition "This book is clearly a significant addition to the study of the range and power of children's voices at play . . . " —Harvard Educational Review "He-Said-She-Said provides fascinating insight into the importance of social context in the organization of gender." —Signs "A rare and wonderful combination of ethnography and conversational analysis. Goodwin gives both a sensitive account of African American adolescent street talk and a careful approach to the study of language in use." —Ray McDermott "Marjorie Harness Goodwin's study of children's talk provides the best and most comprehensive analysis of gender differences in interaction, situated in the broader context of children's social organization. She didn't set up experiments; she didn't just take field notes. She hung around with the children in her neighborhood until they trusted her, then tape-recorded their natural conversations as they played together. This is Goodwin's long-awaited compilation of years of painstaking analysis of the transcripts of those tapes. It is not only one of the best sources, if not the best source, for anyone interested in how boys and girls use language in their daily lives—indeed, to constitute their daily lives; it is also a model ethnographic study of language in its natural setting." —Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation This groundbreaking study describes in detail the complexities of children's communication. By integrating the analysis of conversation with ethnography, Marjorie Harness Goodwin systematically and empirically reveals how a group of urban black children constitute their social world through talk.

Offers a thorough analysis of the methods and practices used by a group of children to generate and organise a particular game. Offers insight into the interactional resources used by children to produce and make sense of social action. Author from Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

First published in 1998, this book sets out to shed sociological light upon the much under-researched realm of day-to-day child care practice. The text broke new ground when first published in 1987 and there have been few, if any, similar books that adopt an ethnographic approach to statutory child care practice. A second edition would still 'speak' to this rarely analysed occupational world. However, it would enjoy greater resonance when up-dated with practitioner viewpoints on the extent to which the findings remain pertinent today - which is likely to be the case. The book offers no conclusions other than it demonstrates that the 'invisible' world of practice cannot be readily understood or changed unless grasped through an interactionist sociology. The book is aimed at a social work/social welfare market as well as a sociology of profession/organization readership.

Uses the tools of Conversaton analysis to show how the decisions of the ExComm were made during the Cuban Missile Crisis, based on audio tapes made by President Kennedy.