Scholars have long understood that linkages between the identities of
actors and the design of their actions in interaction constitute one of
the central mechanisms by which social patterns are produced. Although a
range of empirical approaches has successfully grounded claims regarding
the significance of various forms or types of identity (gender, sex, race,
ethnicity, class, familial status, etc.) in almost every form of social
organization, these analyses have mostly focused on aggregated
populations, aggregated interactions, or historical periods that have been
(in different ways) abstracted from the particulars of singular episodes
of interaction. By contrast, establishing the mechanisms by which a
specific identity is made relevant and consequential in any particular
episode of interaction has remained much more elusive. This article
develops a range of general analytic resources for explicating how
participants in an interaction can make relevant and consequential
specific identities in particular courses of action. It then illustrates
the use of these analytic resources by examining a phone call between two
friends, one of whom relevantly embodies “grandparent” as an
identity. The conclusion offers observations prompted by this analysis
regarding basic contingencies that characterize self-other relationships,
and the role of generic grammatical resources in establishing specific
identities and intimate relationships.