Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis in Motion: An introduction

Abstract

Abstract:

This chapter introduces the present volume and discusses current and emerging trends in Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis (EMCA). EMCA is a qualitative, inductive, and empirical research approach and methodology to the study of social action. It grounds its analyses on people's actual conduct as they are witnessed in video and/or audio recordings of naturally occurring interactions. This introduction presents previous research on social (human-human) interaction and positions the present volume and its chapters with respect to the directions, “branches”, and broader evolution(s) within EMCA. The chapters of the book explore and study three central themes: members’ private actions, the analyst's access to a member's perspective, and the affordances, limitations, and emerging trends of the EMCA methodology. The book initiates discussion on the rich range of possibilities to study interaction, endogenous social action, and activity, and critically discusses whether and how new ways of studying social action could, and should, be part of EMCA's questions. The volume updates current directions in EMCA and suggests possible new ones that could support EMCA's fundamental methodological aim: How to study the intelligibility of social conducts as they occur and become accessible and recognisable to both members in interaction and the researcher.