Structures of Social Action: (Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction)

Bringing together thirteen original papers by leading American and British researchers, this volume reflects fresh developments in the increasingly influential field of conversation analysis. It begins by outlining the theoretical and methodological foundations of the field and goes on to develop some of the main themes that have emerged from topical empirical research. These include the organisation of preference, topic, non-vocal activities, and apparently spontaneous responses such as laughter and applause. The collection represents the most comprehensive statement yet to be published on this type of research.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Transcript notation; 1. Introduction John Heritage and J. Maxwell Atkinson; Part I. Orientations: 2. Notes on methodology Harvey Sacks; 3. On some questions and ambiguities in conversation Emanuel A. Schegloff; Part II. Preference Organization: 4. Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes Anita Pomerantz; 5. Subsequent versions of invitations, offers, requests, and proposals, dealing with potential or actual rejection Judy Davidson; 6. Speakers' reportings in invitation sequences Paul Drew; 7. Pursuing a response Anita Pomerantz; Part III. Topic Organization: 8. Generating topic: the use of topic initial elicitors Graham Button and Neil Casey; 9. On stepwise transition from talk about a trouble to inappropriately next-positioned matters Gail Jefferson; Part IV. The Integration of Talk With Nonvocal Activities: 10. Notes on story structure and the organization of participation Charles Goodwin; 11. Talk and recipiency: sequential organization in speech and body movement Christian Health; 12. On some gestures' relation to talk Emanuel A. Schegloff; Part V. Aspects of Response: 13. A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement John Heritage; 14. On the organization of laughter in talk about troubles Gail Jefferson; 15. Public speaking and audience responses: some techniques for inviting applause J. Maxwell Atkinson; Part VI. Everyday Activities as Sociological Phenomena: 16. On doing 'being ordinary' Harvey Sacks; References; Subject index; Index of names.

Review :
' ... an excellent contribution to a rapidly growing field, which is extremely important to a very wide range of disciplines.' Steven Levinson, University of Cambridge 'This will become the standard work on conversation analysis. No one reading it will be able to doubt the basic importance of the research reported therein to sociology and linguistics.' Anthony Giddens, University of Cambridge 'This excellent summary of conversation analysts' theoretical accomplishments lays bare the interactive, and therefore incontrovertibly social, nature of understanding in face-to-face encounters. It is the clearest and most explicit statement yet of the context-bound, sequentially ordered inferential processes that both constrain and make possible human understanding.' John Gumperz, University of California, Berkeley