7 - Conversation and interaction

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of approaches to conversation, and outlines key themes and methods of research. It briefly sketches out three approaches to conversational discourse in the Goffmanian tradition: conversation analysis, the ethnography of communication, and interactional sociolinguistics. The chapter presents major research themes in the field: the exploration of conversation as a structured and emergent phenomenon, as a collaborative endeavor, as an interpersonal and social ritual, as a cultural phenomenon, and as a locus of action. Conversation analysis (CA) investigates conversational structure and takes an interest in exploring how unfolding conversational structure (re)creates social organization. Researchers of conversational discourse must make fundamental choices at every step of the data collection and analysis processes. CA has developed a very detailed transcription system as a means of exploring how interlocutors create discourse and their social worlds turn-by-turn in talk.