Stokoe2015a

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Stokoe2015a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Stokoe2015a
Author(s) Elizabeth Stokoe
Title Identifying and responding to possible -isms in institutional encounters: alignment, impartiality, and the implications for communication training
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Racism, Sexism, MCA, Membership Categorization Analysis, Communication, Mediation, Complaints, Training
Publisher
Year 2015
Language English
City
Month
Journal Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Volume 34
Number 4
Pages 427–445
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/0261927X15586572
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article examines sequences of interaction in which speakers utter a possible -ism, that is, something possibly racist, sexist, or otherwise prejudiced, in the course of making, warranting, or defending against complaints. Recorded encounters between mediators and their (prospective) clients were analysed using conversation analysis. I show how participants orient to their own or recipients’ talk as possibly prejudiced, occasionally explicitly characterising that talk as racist (sexist, etc.). Mediators’ responses fell into one of two broad categories, either deleting (e.g., through reformulation) or challenging the -ism (e.g., through admonishment). Both involve misalignment or disaffiliation rather than the mediation-mandated impartial stance. Two upshots will be discussed. First, the fact that few instances of -isms are treated explicitly as such goes to the heart of debates in conversation analysis about warrants for particular kinds of observations, and the designed defeasibility of social action. Second, the article discusses the way the data and analysis are used in communication training workshops with mediators, for whom such cases present challenges to their commitment to impartiality.

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