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The process of change is presented as an upside-down version of the traditional labelling theory: if normal people can be labeled as deviants, deviants can be re-labeled as normal. This study concludes that commonplace interactions are powerful labeling situations. These situations seem at first glance to be trivial, superficial and very common. Still, and perhaps because of their ''smallness'', they are identified as authentic and thereby trustworthy contributors to new narratives of worthy selves.

This article explores interview data from a study of 50 Norwegian generalist nurses' focus group accounts of caring for dying patients in the hospital and care home. An eclectic discourse analytic approach was applied to nurses' accounts of the patient and three discursive contexts of reference to the patient were identified: the 'taken as read' patient, the patient paired with particular characteristics and the patient as psychologically present. Talk about the patient falls mainly into the first two contexts, which position the patient in relation to three closely related discursive processes: individualization, anonymization and objectification. The third context presents the patient as a person with a particular identity. The analysis is discussed in a broader philosophical and sociological context in which we return to some of the theoretical work on death and dying of the 1990s and the topic of sequestration. We suggest that nurses' talk about the patient can be heard to participate in a continuing sequestration of the dying patient in healthcare institutions focused on 'result-oriented' care.

During fieldwork in a rehabilitation institution for drug abusers, I 1 became aware that certain, apparently commonplace, informal interaction situations between residents and staff appeared to constitute emotionally moving and identity-constructing situations which apparently had a great impact on the residents. These situations seem, on the surface, to be trivial, minor, superficial and very common. Still, and perhaps because of their 'smallness , they show qualities that suggest authentic interaction, immediate and unfeigned, by participants. This article draws upon an analysis of what I have called 'love-bearing interaction situations (Skatvedt, 2001) and connects this with theoretical insights drawn from the work of Erving Goffman and Johan Asplund, and from Howard Becker s labelling theory.2 Of particular interest is a notion touched upon by Goffman, namely, the expression of love in commonplace interaction

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