This article discusses how ethnomethodology and conversation analysis can contribute to the feminist study of caregiving. Interviews with caregivers of older relatives with disabilities were analyzed using a detailed conversation and membership categorization analysis within an ethnomethodological framework. The interviews were treated analytically as interactional encounters, useful to document instances of identity production and moral versions of oneself as a caregiver. The study describes some instances of the moral and relational universe in which caring practices are embedded, exploring the discursive construction of caring. Caring duties were shown to be bound to kin relationships, but significant gendering was evident in the attribution of caring responsibilities.
Antaki, C. and Widdicombe, S. (eds) (1998) Identities in Talk. London: Sage.
2.
Arber, S. and Ginn, J. (1991) Gender and Later Life. London : Sage.
3.
Atkinson, M.J. and Heritage, J. (eds) (1984) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversational Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Baber, K. and Allen, K. (1992) Women and Families: A Feminist Reconstruction. New York: Guilford Press.
5.
Baker, C. (1984) `The "Search for Adultness": Membership Work in Adolescent-Adult Talk', Human Studies7: 301-23.
6.
Baruch, G. (1981) `Moral Tales: Parents' Stories of Encounters with the Health Profession', Sociology of Health and Illness3: 275-96.
7.
Billig, M. (1999) `Whose Terms? Whose Ordinariness? Rhetoric and Ideology in Conversation Analysis', Discourse & Society10: 543-82.
8.
Cameron, D. (1997) `Theoretical Debates in Feminist Linguistics: Questions of Sex and Gender', in R. Wodak (ed.) Gender and Discourse. London: Sage.
9.
Cameron, D. (1998) ` "Is There Any Ketchup, Vera?" Gender, Power and Pragmatics', Discourse & Society9: 437-55.
10.
Dooghe, G. and Appleton, N. (eds) (1995) Elderly Women in Europe. Brussels: Centrum vor Bevolkings.
11.
Edwards, D. (1998) `The Relevant Thing About Her: Social Identity Categories in Use', in C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe (eds) Identities in Talk, pp. 15-33. London: Sage.
12.
Facchini, C. and Scortegagna, R. (1994) `Italia: Alternative all'istituzionalizzazione e ruolo centrale delle donne', in F. Leseman and C. Martin (eds) Assistenza a domicilio, famiglia e anziani. Un confronto internazionale, pp. 33-69. Milan: Angeli.
13.
Finch, J. and Groves, D. (eds) (1983) A Labour of Love: Women, Work and Caring. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
14.
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
15.
Graham, H. (1983) `Caring: A Labour of Love', in J. Finch and D. Groves (eds) A Labour of Love: Women, Work and Caring, pp. 13-30. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
16.
Heap, J.L. (1990) `Applied Ethnomethodology: Looking for the Local Rationality of Reading Activities.' Human Studies13: 39-72.
17.
Hester, S. and Eglin, P. (ed.) (1997) Culture in Action. Studies in Membership Categorization Analysis. Washington, DC: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America.
18.
Hustler, D.E. and Payne, G.C.F. (1985) `Ethnographic Conversational Analysis: An Approach to Classroom Talk', in R.G. Burgess (ed.) Strategies of Educational Research: Qualitative Methods. London: Falmer.
19.
Istat (1997) Anziani in Italia. Bologna: Il Mulino .
20.
Jayyusi, L. (1984) Categorization and the Moral Order. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
21.
Jenkins, C.L. (1997) `Women, Work, and Caregiving: How Do These Roles Affect Women's Well-Being?', Journal of Women and Aging9: 27-45.
22.
Kitzinger, C. and Frith, H. (1999) `Just Say No. The Use of Conversation Analysis in Developing a Feminist Perspective on Sexual Refusal', Discourse & Society10: 293-316.
23.
Kotthoff, H. and Wodak, R. (eds) (1997) Communicating Gender in Context . Amsterdam: Benjamins.
24.
Land, H. and Rose, H. (1985) `Compulsory Altruism for Some or an Altruistic Society for All?', in P. Beam et al. (eds) In Defense of Welfare, pp. 74-96. London: Tavistock.
25.
McHoul, A. and Grace, W. (1993) A Foucault Primer. Discourse, Power and the Subject . Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
26.
Miller, L.J. and Metcalfe, J. (1998) `Strategically Speaking: The Problem of Essentializing Terms in Feminist Theory and Feminist Organizational Talk', Human Studies21: 235-57.
27.
Moerman, M. (1996) `The Field of Analyzing Foreign Language Conversations' , Journal of Pragmatics26: 147-58.
28.
Neal, M.B., Ingersoll-Dayton, B. and Starrels, M.E. (1997) `Gender and Relationships Differences in Caring Patterns Consequences Among Employed Caregivers', The Gerontologist37: 804-16.
29.
Nilan, P. (1994) `Gender as Positioned Identity Maintenance in Every Discourse', Social Semiotics4, 139-62.
30.
Ochs, E. (1979) `Transcription as Theory', in E. Ochs and B.B. Schieffelin (eds) Developmental Pragmatics, pp. 43-72. New York: Academic Press.
31.
Paoletti, I. (1997) `La produzione dell'identita' nell-interviste con anziane', in A. Macarino (ed.) Analisi della conversazione e prospettive di ricerca in etnometodologia , pp. 235-47. Urbino: Edizioni Quattroventi.
32.
Paoletti, I. (1998a) Being an Older Woman: A Study in the Social Production of Identity. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum .
33.
Paoletti, I. (1998b) `Handling "Incoherence" According to the Speaker's On-sight Categorization', in C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe (eds) Identities in Talk, pp. 171-90. London: Sage.
34.
Paoletti, I. (1998c) `Caring for Older People: A Gendered Practice' , paper presented at the RC 11 & RC 32 `Women and Aging' session of the ISA World Congress of Sociology, Montreal, 26 July-1 August.
35.
Paoletti, I. (1999a) `A Half Life: Women Caregivers of Older Disabled Relatives,' Journal of Women and Aging11: 53-67.
36.
Paoletti, I. (1999b) `Caring Women, Cared Women: The Discourse of Caregiving in Italy', in K. Judd et al. (eds) Ageing in a Gendered World: Women's Issues and Identities, pp. 133-52. Santo Domingo: INSTRAW.
37.
Paoletti, I. (1999c) Family Carers of Disabled Elderly: The Intricacy of Gender, Moral, Relational, Financial and Housing Issues. Research Report . Ancona: INRCA.
38.
Paoletti, I. (2001) `Membership Categorization and Time Appraisal in Interviews with Family Carers of Disabled Elderly', Human Studies24: 293-325.
39.
Rose, H. and Bruce, E. (1995) `Mutual Care but Differential Esteem: Caring Between Older Couples', in S. Arber and J. Ginn (eds) Connecting Gender and Ageing, pp. 114-28. Buckingham: Open University Press.
40.
Sacks, H. (1967) `The Search for Help: No One to Turn To', in J. Schneidman (ed.) Essays in Self-Destruction, pp. 203-23. New York: Science House.
41.
Sacks, H. (1972) `On the Analysability of Stories by Children', in J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds) Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
42.
Sacks, H. (1984) `Notes on Methodology', in M.J. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action. Studies in Conversational Analysis , pp. 21-7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
43.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation, Vols I & II. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell .
Silverman, D. (1987) Communication and Medical Practices. London: Sage.
46.
Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data. London: Sage.
47.
Stokoe, E.H. (1998) `Talking About Gender: the Conversational Construction of Gender Categories in Academic Discourse', Discourse & Society9: 217-40.
48.
Stokoe, E.H. and Smithson, J. (2001) `Making Gender Relevant: Conversational Analysis and Gender Categories in Interaction', Discourse & Society12: 217-44.
49.
Stokoe, E.H. and Smithson, J. (2002) `Gender and Sexuality in Talk-in-Interaction: Considering Conversation Analytic Perspecives', in P. Mcllvenny (ed.) Talking Gender and Sexuality: Conversation, Performativity and Discourse in Interaction. Amsterdam : John Benjamins (in press).
50.
Urgeson, C. (1987) Policy is Personal: Sex, Gender and Informal Care . London: Tavistock.
51.
Watson, R. and Weinberg, M. (1982) `Interviews and the Interactional Construction of Accounts of Homosexual Identity', Social Analysis11: 56-78.
52.
Wetherell, M. (1998) `Positioning and Interpretative Repertoires: Conversational Analysis and Post-Structuralism in Dialogue', Discourse & Society9: 387-412.
53.
Widdicombe, S. (1995) `Identity, Politics and Talk: A Case for the Mundane and Everyday', in S. Wilkinson and C. Kitzinger (eds) Feminism and Discourse. London: Sage.
54.
Wodak, R. (1997) ` "I Know, We Won't Revolutionize the World With It, But. . .": Styles of Female Leadership in Institutions', in H. Kotthoff and R. Wodak (eds) Communicating Gender in Context, pp. 335-70. Amsterdam : Benjamins.
55.
Wowk, M.T. (1984) `Blame Allocation, Sex and Gender in a Murder Interogation' , Women Studies International Forum7: 75-82.
