The study of institutional interaction explicates the verbal activities and interactional arrangements through which institutional practices are realized. I demonstrate that to analyse these practices sensitively, the analyst must possess sufficient knowledge of the context. In institutional settings an agent may orient to expert knowledge or organizational procedures taken for granted for the practice in question, but not known to outsiders.
Understanding the context-sensitive meaning of the activities may depend on access to these particulars. Methodologically, the procedural relevancy of context is a crucial criterion against arbitrary invocation of a countless number of extrinsic, potential aspects of context. I will show that the analyst's ability to use procedural consequentiality as an analytical criterion depends on the analyst's sufficient knowledge of the context in question. By characterizing the ways `generic' interactional patterns are used in institutional settings, we can also address larger sociological questions about institutional identities and the exercise of institutional power.
Anonymous (1986 [1952]) Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.
2.
Arminen, Ilkka (1996) `On the Moral and Interactional Relevancy of Self-repairs for Life-stories of Alcoholics Anonymous', Text16(4): 449-480.
3.
Arminen, Ilkka (1999) `Conversation Analysis - A Quest for Order in Social Interaction and Language Use', Acta Sociologica42(3): 251-257.
4.
Atkinson, J.M. and Drew, P. (1979) Order in Court: The Organisation of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London: Macmillan Press and Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
5.
Atkinson, J.M. and Heritage, J., eds (1984) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
Billig, Michael (1999) `Whose Terms? Whose Ordinariness? Rhetoric and Ideology in Conversation Analysis', Discourse & Society10(4): 543-558.
7.
Boden, Deirdre and Zimmerman, Don (1991) `Introduction', in D. Boden and D. Zimmerman (eds) Talk and Social Structure. Cambridge: Polity Press.
8.
Button, Graham (1992) `Answers as Interactional Products', in P. Drew and J. Heritage (eds) Talk at Work - Interaction in Institutional Settings, pp. 212-234. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9.
Drew, Paul (1997) `An “Open” Class of Repair Initiation in Conversation: Sequential Sources of Troubles in Understanding', Journal of Pragmatics28: 69-102.
10.
Drew, Paul (1998) `Complaints about Transgressions and Misconduct', Research on Language and Social Interaction31(3-4).
11.
Drew, Paul and Heritage, John (1992) `Introduction', in P. Drew and J. Heritage (eds) Talk at Work-Interaction in Institutional Settings, pp. 3-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
Drew, Paul and Sorjonen, Marja-Leena (1997) `Institutional Dialogue', in Teun A. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol 2: Discourse as Social Interaction in Society. London: Sage.
13.
Garfinkel, Harold (1963) `A Conception of, and Experiments with, Trust as a Condition for Concerted Stable Actions', in O.J. Harvey (ed.) Motivation and Social Interaction. New York: Ronald Press.
14.
Goodwin, C. and Goodwin M.H. (1996) `Seeing as Situated Activity: Formulating Planes', in Y. Engeström and D. Middleton (eds) Cognition and Communication at Work, pp. 61-95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Heritage, John (1984) Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Oxford: Polity.
16.
Heritage, John (1988) Current Developments in Conversation Analysis', in D. Roger and P. Bull (eds) Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
17.
Heritage, John (1990/1991) `Intention, Meaning and Strategy: Observations on Constraints on Interaction Analysis', Research on Language and Social Interaction24: 311-332.
18.
Heritage, John (1997) `Conversation Analysis and Institutional Talk: Analysing Data', in D. Silverman (ed.) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, pp. 161-182. London: Sage.
19.
Heritage, John and Greatbatch, David (1991) `On the Institutional Character of Institutional Talk', in Deirdre Boden and Don Zimmerman (eds) Talk and Social Structure. Cambridge: Polity Press.
20.
Heritage, John and Sefi, Sue (1992) `Dilemmas of Advice: Aspects of the Delivery and Reception of Advice in Interactions between Heath Visitors and First-time Mothers', in P. Drew and J. Heritage (eds) Talk at Work - Interaction in Institutional Settings, pp. 359-417. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Hutchby, I. (1996) `Power in Discourse: The Case of Arguments on a British Talk Radio Show', Discourse & Society7: 481-497.
22.
Hutchby, I. (1999) `Beyond Agnosticism?: Conversation Analysis and the Sociological Agenda', Research on Language and Social Interaction32(1/2): 85-94.
23.
Jefferson, Gail (1987) `On Exposed and Embedded Correction in Conversation', in G. Button and J.R.E. Lee (eds) Talk and Social Organisation, pp. 86-100. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
24.
Jefferson, Gail (1993) `Remarks on “Non-Correction” in Conversation', Text13 unpublished manuscript.
25.
Levinson, S.C. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
26.
Levinson, S.C. (1992) `Activity Types and Language', in P. Drew and J. Heritage (eds) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, pp. 66-100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27.
Lynch, M. (1985) Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
28.
Maynard, D.W. (1989) `Perspective Display Sequences in Ordinary Talk', Western Journal of Speech Communication53(2): 91-113.
29.
Maynard, D.W. (1992) `On Clinicians Co-implicating Recipients' Perspective in the Delivery of Diagnostic News', in P. Drew and J. Heritage (eds) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, pp. 331-358. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
30.
Moerman, M. (1988) Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
31.
Peräkylä, Anssi (1995) AIDS Counselling - Institutional Interaction and Clinical Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32.
Peräkylä, Anssi (1997) `Institutionaalinen keskustelu' [Institutional Conversation], in L. Tainio (ed.) Keskustelunanalyysin perusteet, pp. 177-203. Tampere: Vastapaino.
33.
Peräkylä, Anssi and Vehviläinen, Sanna (1999) `Vuorovaikutustutkimus ja vuorovaikutusideologiat' [Interaction Research and Interaction Ideologies], Psykologia34(5-6): 329-342.
34.
Pomerantz, Anita (1998) `Multiple Interpretations of Context: How are they Useful?', Research on Language and Social Interaction31(1): 123-132.
35.
Pomerantz, Anita and Fehr, B.J. (1997) `Conversation Analysis: An Approach to the Study of Social Action as Sense Making Practices', in T.A. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. London: Sage.
36.
Psathas, G. (1995) “Talk and Social Structure' and `Studies of Work', Human Studies18: 139-155.
37.
Raudaskoski, Pirkko (1999) The Use of Communicative Resources in Language Technology Environments, academic dissertation, University of Oulu.
38.
Rawls, J. (1955) `Two Concepts of Rules', Philosophical Review64: 3-32.
39.
reprinted in Jim Schenkein (ed.) (1978) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction. New York: Academic Press.
40.
Schegloff, Emanuel (1987) `Between Macro and Micro: Contexts and other Connections', in J. Alexanderet al. (eds) The Micro-Macro Link. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
41.
Schegloff, Emanuel (1991) `Reflections on Talk and Social Structure', in D. Boden and D. Zimmerman (eds) Talk and Social Structure. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Seedhouse, Paul (1998) `CA and the Analysis of Foreign Language Interaction: A Reply to Wagner', Journal of Pragmatics30: 85-102.
46.
Silverman, David (1987) Communication and Medical Practice: Social Relations in the Clinic. London: Sage.
47.
ten Have, P. (1999) Doing Conversation Analysis: A Practical Guide. London: Sage.
48.
Wagner, J. (1996) `Conversation Analysis of Foreign Language Data', Journal of Pragmatics26: 215-235.
49.
Wetherell, Margaret (1998) `Positioning and Interpretative Repertoires: Conversation Analysis and Post-Structuralism in Dialogue', Discourse & Society9(3): 387-412.
50.
Whalen, J. (1995) `A Technology of Order Production: Computer-aided Dispatch in Public Safety Communication', in P. ten Have and G. Psathas (eds) Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organization of Talk and Embodied Activities, pp. 187-230. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
51.
Wilson, Thomas (1991) `Social Structure and the Sequential Organization of Interaction', in Deirdre Boden and Don Zimmerman (eds) Talk and Social Structure. Cambridge: Polity Press.
52.
Zimmerman, Don (1998) `Identity, Context and Interaction', in C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe (eds) Identities in Talk, pp. 87-106. London: Sage.
