Talking About Troubles in Conversation

In groundbreaking research Gail Jefferson explores in fine detail the interactional complexities of talking about troubles, not in any professional or therapeutic setting, but in their ordinary conversations with family and friends.

Gail Jefferson (1938-2008) was, with Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff, one of the co-founders of Conversation Analysis. Through her early collaborative with Sacks, she developed the transcription system that underpins our paradigm. Her research into the basic mechanisms and patterns of conversation, and into the contingencies of interaction, is of enduring importance in our understanding of how people interact with one another.

About the editors: Paul Drew, John Heritage, Gene Lerner and Anita Pomerantz are among the world's leading conversation analysts. Their research spans ordinary social interaction as well as interactions in legal, medical, social welfare and other such institutionally specialized interactions - their publications are amongst the most cited in the field. They each worked closely with Gail Jefferson, and have worked on this project closely, in order to bring her work to the attention of new generations of CA researchers and teachers.