Watson-Weinberg1982
| Watson-Weinberg1982 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Watson-Weinberg1982 |
| Author(s) | D.R. Watson, T.S. Weinberg |
| Title | Interviews and the interactional construction of accounts of homosexual identity |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Interviews, Homosexuality |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 1982 |
| Language | English |
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| Journal | Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice |
| Volume | 11 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 56-78 |
| URL | Link |
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Abstract
This paper aims to examine the ways in which the presentation of male homosexual identity and biography is built up within the context of a sociological research interview with a 'straight' researcher.1 These 'ways' will, it is hoped, be shown to provide not only for the communication and documentation of the substantive features of male homosexual identity, but also for a wide range of other communicative tasks which are involved in the description of persons. In other words, following Ryle (1971), we wish to distinguish two orders of cultural knowledge held by the members of a society, namely'knowledge that'(e.g. that something is the case) and 'knowledge how'. Instead of simply being concerned with the substantive conceptions of homosexual identity which are manifested in the interviews, we are also interested in the procedural knowledge which is deployed in building up and communicating these substantive conceptions. We are concerned not just with 'colouring in' the content of homosexual identity as manifested in the interviews, but in the communicative and interpretive methods through which society-members avow, ascribe and otherwise mobilize this content. Since procedural knowledge is, of course, a highly diverse and extensive order of cultural knowledge, we shall focus in this paper on those communicative or reasoning procedures which are used in the description or identification of persons, and which are used as descriptive resources in the presentation of the respondents' identities.
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