Interpretative repertoires, conversation analysis and being critical

Abstract

This chapter proceeds by discussing three aforementioned representative texts Wetherell, Stiven and Potter in order to locate the target article within its theoretical, empirical and historical context. Interpretative repertoires are ideological in the sense they are part of a social and moral order that is tied to historical and cultural contexts. Potter and Wetherell described the range of methodological influences shaping their distinctive form of discourse analysis, which included conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and linguistic philosophy. Social psychology was challenged for being pervasively experimental, excessively quantitative, and overly reliant on university students as research subjects. Producing rigorous analyses of psychological topics and concerns grounded in language-in-use is central to discursive psychology. The Wetherell-Schegloff debate that resonated with discourse analytic approaches within psychology concerned the legitimacy of invoking social categories such as gender, race or sexuality. Finally a discussion of the ramifications of the debate on gender and language research and on criticality in discursive psychology is shown.