Conversation Analysis: The Study of Talk-in-Interaction (Qualitative Research Methods)

"This book provides an introduction to conversation analysis as an approach and a method for studying social interaction usable not only for investigating the organization of naturally occurring talk, but for investigating the forms, the structures, and the machinery of a wide range of social actions."

--Lingua

Conversation Analysis is a set of rigorous systematic techniques designed to explore the everyday world of ordinary people through the language they use in mundane interactions. Developed over the past 30 years, conversation analysis has contributed enormously to the understanding of social life, social structure, the meaning ascribed by individuals to interaction, and the rules and structures of conversation. George Psathas′ succinct introduction to conversation analysis outlines its procedures and its major accomplishments, including discussions of verbal sequence, institutional constraints on interaction, and the deep structure of talk. This book is of value to students in sociology, communication, social psychology, sociolinguistics, and cognitive science.

George Psathas (B.A. ‘50 and Ph.D. ’56 Yale University; M.A. ‘51 University of Michigan) is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Boston University (since 1997) and Professor (since 1968) and has served as Chairman and Associate Chairman of the Department. He also has taught at Indiana University, the University of Colorado, and Washington University, St. Louis, and held visiting appointments at the University of London, the Panteios School in Athens, the International University of Japan, Doshisha University (Kyoto), and the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna). He is past president of the Society of Retired Faculty and Staff, Boston University; co-founder of the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences; co-founder of the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis; and founder and Editor-in-Chief of Human Studies: An International Journal for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences. He is listed in Who’s Who in The World, 2006; Who’s Who in America, 2005 and Who’s Who in the East, 1997. In recent years he has specialized in phenomenological perspectives in sociology, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. His more theoretical research has focused on the works of Alfred Schutz, Harold Garfinkel and other contributors to this tradition. His areas of interest include qualitative research methods, social interaction, conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and phenomenology and sociology.