Simonen2017

Simonen2017
BibType	PHDTHESIS
Key	Simonen2017
Author(s)	Mika Simonen
Title	A Conversation Analysis of Social Interaction in the Functional Capacity Interview
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Tag(s)	EMCA, Interviews
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Year	2017
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School	University of Helsinki
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Abstract

This ethnomethodological conversation analysis study investigates how functional capacity interviews are organized in social interaction, thereby documenting recurrent assessment practices. Although interviewing is respected, due to its centrality in knowledge production in contemporary society, little is known about conducting functional capacity interviews per se. Moreover, as demonstrated in the literature review, the notion of functional capacity originates in the works of the sociologists Saad Z. Nagi and Talcott Parsons. It is likely that the very notion of functional capacity therefore conveys their sociological understanding of human functioning. A recent discussion of the social aspects of functional capacity has revealed, however, insurmountable difficulties in their original approach, which attributed functional incapacities to changes in the relationship between humans and their environment, but which was silent on the capacities that are relevant in social interaction. Thus, an alternative sociological understanding of human functioning is required, and this dissertation suggests that instead of focusing on single human subjects, we need to focus on social interaction between humans. That position allows us to elaborate and document the abilities needed in social interaction.

The data for this study were drawn from a collection of videotaped welfare interviews (n=57) from three projects run between 2007 and 2009 to research and develop the assessment of functional capacity in central and southern Finland. The interviewers were professional nurses with a background in health care; the interviewees were either unemployed or retired. The data were transcribed and analyzed in detail with conversation analysis methods.

The results were published in four articles and document how functional capacity interviews are organized in social interaction: (1) Functional capacity interviews are document-driven interactions: there are pre-scripted questions and answer options, (2) Speakers perform the interview as a mutual collaboration. Since displays of incompetence are prominent in this type of interaction, interviewers may need to support interviewees in situ with comforting actions, (3) Social identity is demonstrably relevant and procedurally consequential in the reception of simple positive responses that do not index any answer options, (4) Social relationship can work as a resource for helping the interviewee answer questions on social functional capacity, and (5) Abilities play an important role in how intersubjectivity emerges in interaction.

In the light of the analysis, it seems clear that ethnomethodological conversation analysis is a viable sociological approach for understanding human functioning in social interaction.

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