Jansson-etal2017

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Jansson-etal2017
BibType ARTICLE
Key Jansson-etal2017
Author(s) Gunilla Jansson, Cecilia Wadensjö, Charlotta Plejert
Title Managing complaints in multilingual care encounters
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Affect, Emotional labor, Care encounters, Complaints, Multilingualism
Publisher
Year 2017
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City
Month
Journal Multilingua
Volume
Number
Pages
URL Link
DOI 10.1515/multi-2016-0043
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
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Abstract

Troubles-telling and complaints are common in contexts of care for older people and need to be managed by care staff in a respectful manner. This paper examines the handling of an older person’s complaints in multilingual care encounters that involve participants who do not share a common language. The data consist of video-recordings and ethnographic fieldwork in a residential home for older people in Sweden that is characterised by a variety of languages and backgrounds. The findings are based on analyses of multi-party interactions involving an Arabicspeaking resident and caregivers with different levels of knowledge in different languages. We focus on complaint sequences when the resident expresses a negative stance (displeasure, anger, etc.) towards some difficult circumstance. Using the methodology of conversation analysis, we analyse the affect-regulating work through which the caregivers attempt to turn a pressing situation into a moment of cheerfulness and intimacy. The analyses bring to light the multilingual practices that the caregivers draw upon in pursuing this work, such as translating and giving voice to the resident’s complaining.

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