Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis in Motion

Book excerpt: This volume discusses current and emerging trends in Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis (EMCA). Focusing on step-by-step procedures of talk and interaction in real time, EMCA explores how people – through locally-produced, public, and common-sensical practices – accomplish activities together and thereby make sense and create social order as part of their everyday lives. The volume is divided into four parts, and it provides a timely methodological contribution by exploring new questions, settings, and recording technologies in EMCA for the study of social interaction. It addresses the methodical diversity in EMCA, including current practices as well as those testing its boundaries, and paves the way for the development of future interaction research. At the same time, the book offers readers a glimpse into the ways in which human and non-human participants operate with each other and make sense of the world around them. The authors represent diverse fields of research, such as language studies, sociology, social psychology, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science. Ultimately, the book is a conversation opener that invites critical and constructive dialogue on how EMCA’s methodology and toolbox could be developed for the purpose of acquiring richer perspectives on endogenous social action. This is key reading for researchers and advanced students on a range of courses on conversation analysis, language in interaction, discourse studies, multimodality, and more.