Critical Conversation Analysis: Inequality and Injustice in Talk-in-Interaction (Critical Language and Literacy Studies, 31)

Showcases the power of conversation analysis as a methodology to tackle issues of social (in)justice and (in)equity.

This book presents the first collection of conversation analytic studies addressed exclusively to issues of inequality and injustice. It offers a broad depiction of how inequality and injustice are reproduced, resisted and transformed in our daily life; together the chapters produce a forensic analysis of how participants enact discriminatory ideologies, negotiate systemic power imbalances, and pursue social change in and through the nuances of their interactions.

The authors draw on audio and video recordings of interaction in a wide range of social settings, ranging from classrooms to family dinners, and political town halls to television sitcoms. The book demonstrates the power of conversation analysis to tackle issues of social (in)justice and (in)equality and launches critical conversation analysis as a distinct empirical program dedicated to systematically investigating and promoting inclusion and equity in the minute details of everyday interaction.

Hansun Zhang Waring is Professor in the Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. She is the co-editor of Storytelling in Multilingual Settings: A Conversation Analytic Perspective (with J. Wong, Routledge, 2021).

Nadja Tadic is Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, USA. Her research addresses issues of diversity, discrimination and social (in)justice through the lens of critically motivated conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis.