“You’re Not Listening”: Negotiating and Problematizing Ideal Interaction Through Metatalk About Listening in the Waco Standoff

Abstract

Listening is typically taken for granted in interaction, and yet it has potential to become a conversational issue when one participant is not listening to the other’s satisfaction. This study focuses on that issue in the context of the crisis negotiations that took place during the standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidians, in the Spring of 1993. Using concepts from grounded practical theory, it explores the intersection of talk and listening through analysis of “listening” as metatalk. The essay describes interactions in which the metatalk of listening reveals implicit negotiations about the meaning of listening and idealizing features of interaction. Implications reflect on the communication practices of listening, metatalk about listening, and crisis negotiation.