Complainable Matters: The Use of Idiomatic Expressions in Making Complaints

Drew, Paul; Holt, Elizabeth M.

doi:10.1525/sp.1988.35.4.03a00060

Cited by 86 publications

(68 citation statements)

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“…Idiomatic expressions are robust and difficult to challenge with specific or contrary information. They are thus commonly found at points of conversations where the listener is unlikely to support what is being said by the speaker (Drew & Holt, 1989). The strength of the expression here is bolstered further by the use of 'just'.…”

Section: Avoiding 'Ageist' Attributions 3: Making Potentially Discrimmentioning

confidence: 78%

Committed to (un)equal opportunities?: ‘New ageism’ and the older worker

McVittie

McKinlay

Widdicombe

2003

British J Social Psychol

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In recent years the principle of equality of opportunity in employment has been widely promoted as a means of addressing the marginalization of various groups of workers, including older workers. Evidence suggests, however, that equal opportunities have not improved prospects for older workers. The present study employs discourse analysis to examine a variety of accounts of those responsible for employment within a number of organizations. Analysis shows that these accounts are rhetorically oriented towards potential attributions of age discrimination. As evidence of a non-discriminatory stance, participants attend to possible shortcomings in written policies by making explicit their organizations' equal opportunity practices. In describing their workforces as comprising predominantly younger employees, however, they make only implicit reference to practices involving older workers. When they account for the apparent age imbalances in their workforces, they attribute these imbalances to factors outwith their control so that the organization's practices become completely 'invisible'. The contrast between this 'invisibility' and explicit claims to be committed to equal opportunities allows participants to position themselves as non-discriminating employers and at the same time justifies the marginalization of older workers.

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Section: Avoiding 'Ageist' Attributions 3: Making Potentially Discrimmentioning

confidence: 78%

Committed to (un)equal opportunities?: ‘New ageism’ and the older worker

McVittie

McKinlay

Widdicombe

2003

British J Social Psychol

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“…Previous studies looking at more direct complaints in services for people with learning disabilities have found that they can sometimes be resisted or reformulated by those who represent the service (Antaki et al, 2002;Jingree et al, 2006). Although we looked at complaints about non-present third parties (for discussions of these types Expressions of dissatisfaction and complaint 267 ' ' of complaints see Drew, 1998;Drew & Holt, 1988;Holt, 2000), we found that four participants explicitly oriented to the difficulties of making such complaints, suggesting it was either useless or dangerous to do so. The difficulties and sensitivities of making complaints in this context, then, is not just an analyst's assumption but is sometimes part of the discourse of making a complaint itself.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The present study uses discourse analysis (Potter & Wetherell, 1987;Wetherell & Potter, 1992) and critical discursive psychology (Edley, 2001;Wetherell, 1998) to examine how people with learning disabilities express dissatisfaction to third parties in ways that attend to credibility, even-handedness, and potential challenge. We draw on previous research from the general population on complaints (e.g., Dersley & Wootton, 2000;Drew, 1998;Drew & Holt, 1988;Edwards, 2005;Holt, 2000;LaForest, 2002;Stokoe & Wallwork, 2003) and other accounts where speakers build credibility (e.g., Abell & Stokoe, 1999;Potter, 1996), but we will also see how potentially difficult issues of identity, competence, and power are managed with reference to the particular institutional context of social care. Two aspects of the context make this particularly interesting: (1) the complaints refer to social care services in which those who are complained about have greater institutional power than those making the complaints, and (2) the speakers' institutional identities mean there is a danger their judgements might be questioned on the basis of their reliability.…”

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confidence: 99%

Expressions of dissatisfaction and complaint by people with learning disabilities: A discourse analytic study

Jingree

Finlay

2011

British J Social Psychol

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This paper uses critical discursive psychology to examine expressions of dissatisfaction and complaint by people with learning disabilities. UK government policies stress that people with learning disabilities should have more control over their lives. Expressing dissatisfaction about services is an important aspect of this process. However, given that such individuals are often treated as incompetent, and given the delicate nature of complaining about services one might rely on for day-to-day support, this can be difficult to do. In building complaints, speakers drew on repertoires about competence and incompetence, the right to free choice as a principle, and tempered dissatisfaction to make contrasts between good and bad supporters and practice. While the complaints show many of the general features of complaints identified in previous work in the general population, they were crafted to the particular institutional context of social care, and attended both explicitly and implicitly to the particular issues of competence, power, and authority found in those services. Speakers positioned themselves as competent, and service workers as more or less competent in their roles. Issues of power in social care services were observed explicitly in the accounts, whereby people described staff as controlling and it being difficult to voice dissatisfaction. They were also implicit in the way speakers drew on the others with institutional authority for corroboration and comparison.

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“…CA research has extensively studied conversational structures. It has also shed light on a number of psychological phenomena and the ways that they are intersubjectively constructed in the course of dialogs, for example, the making of accusations (Drew, 1978) and complaints (Drew & Holt, 1988). Antaki (2008) deployed CA to study the use of formulations by therapists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Methodological Review of Discourse and Conversation Analysis Studies of Family Therapy

Tseliou

2013

Family Process

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Discourse (DA) and conversation (CA) analysis, two qualitative research methods, have been recently suggested as potentially promising for the study of family therapy due to common epistemological adherences and their potential for an in situ study of therapeutic dialog. However, to date, there is no systematic methodological review of the few existing DA and CA studies of family therapy. This study aims at addressing this lack by critically reviewing published DA and CA studies of family therapy on methodological grounds. Twenty-eight articles in total are reviewed in relation to certain methodological axes identified in the relevant literature. These include choice of method, framing of research question(s), data/sampling, type of analysis, epistemological perspective, content/type of knowledge claims, and attendance to criteria for good quality practice. It is argued that the reviewed studies show "glimpses" of the methods' potential for family therapy research despite the identification of certain "shortcomings" regarding their methodological rigor. These include unclearly framed research questions and the predominance of case study designs. They also include inconsistencies between choice of method, stated or unstated epistemological orientations and knowledge claims, and limited attendance to criteria for good quality practice. In conclusion, it is argued that DA and CA can add to the existing quantitative and qualitative methods for family therapy research. They can both offer unique ways for a detailed study of the actual therapeutic dialog, provided that future attempts strive for a methodologically rigorous practice and against their uncritical deployment.

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Complainable Matters: The Use of Idiomatic Expressions in Making Complaints

Cited by 86 publications

References 0 publications

Committed to (un)equal opportunities?: ‘New ageism’ and the older worker

Committed to (un)equal opportunities?: ‘New ageism’ and the older worker

Expressions of dissatisfaction and complaint by people with learning disabilities: A discourse analytic study

A Critical Methodological Review of Discourse and Conversation Analysis Studies of Family Therapy

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