Core Research Traditions Within Language and Social Interaction

Abstract

Research undertaken by members of the Language and Social Interaction Division of the ICA addresses diverse topics, often topics of interest to scholars in other divisions as well. But it is not the topics that particular studies address that distinguish and coalesce work in language and social interaction (LSI); it is what these studies contribute directly or indirectly to helping us understand. Work within the core traditions of LSI research gives primary emphasis to the discursive practices through which persons construct or produce the realities of social life (e.g., action, relationship, community, identity, conflict or cooperation, organization, power). And a further, more basic, commonality underlying work in LSI is that it contributes to our understanding of what persons do, on what basis, to produce socially meaningful action and achieve (or fail to achieve) mutual understanding. Following an initial overview of LSI research and its main traditions in these basic terms, this essay gives more detailed attention to the goals, methods, and topics in the two most populous areas of LSI research: the ethnography of speaking and conversation analysis.