Conversation and Gender

Description

Conversation analysts have begun to challenge long-cherished assumptions about the relationship between gender and language, asking new questions about the interactional study of gender and providing fresh insights into the ways it may be studied empirically. Drawing on a lively set of audio- and video-recorded materials of real-life interactions, including domestic telephone calls, children's play, mediation sessions, police-suspect interviews, psychiatric assessments and calls to telephone helplines, this volume is the first to showcase the latest thinking and cutting-edge research of an international group of scholars working on topics at the intersection of gender and conversation analysis. Theoretically, it pushes forward the boundaries of our understanding of the relationship between conversation and gender, charting new and exciting territory. Methodologically, it offers readers a clear, practical understanding of how to analyse gender using conversation analysis, by presenting detailed demonstrations of this method in use.

Susan A. Speer is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Gender Talk: Feminism, Discourse and Conversation Analysis (2005). Elizabeth Stokoe is Reader in Social Interaction in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. She is the co-author of Discourse and Identity (2006).

'Conversation and Gender is the perfect riposte to those who assume that Conversation Analysis cannot account for 'structural' realities. Written by a top flight collection of scholars, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in gender in interaction.' David Silverman, Goldsmiths College and King's College, University of London 'Conversation and Gender shows us just how much more there is to know - and how interesting and compelling that 'more' is - about the myriad, fertile connections between two of social life's most fundamental social institutions. The book's rich diversity of topics and perspectives, incisive analyses, and clarity of expression make it a 'must have' for scholars and students across the broader fields it so expertly brings together.' Geoffrey Raymond, University of California, Santa Barbara '... this volume is a stimulating collection of papers that are well organized and well written. Each paper contains an individual study, which allows readers the liberty to pick and choose the chapters they might find more interesting. Each of the individual papers draws on a set of audio- and/or video-recorded data from which their analysis and discussion branch out and thus posits a firm rebuttal towards those who assume analysis or accounting of 'structural' identities to be out of the scope of conversation analysis ... provides much food for thought as well as a plethora of data that may serve as a resource for students in getting hands-on experience in analyzing different types of data dealing with gender.' Hanbyul Jung, Journal of Pragmatics