The micro-politics of sequential organization

Abstract

Conversation analysis (CA) and ethnomethodology (EM) have long dealt with political talk, but this is the first thematic volume showing the continuity and diversity of EMCA studies in this field. This introduction provides an overview of early to recent EMCA contributions to the study of political talk and discusses how they developed a distinctive field of investigation and how the papers of the special issue draw on and contribute to it. The introduction also clarifies how specific sequential and categorial organizations of social interaction manifest and foster political action and participation, and are locally treated as of political importance by the participants themselves. The study of micro-politics of sequentiality focuses on the temporal, emergent, and sequential unfolding of interaction and the way its organization opens/closes possible occasions for politically relevant actions. By showing how these are established, responded and oriented to by the participants, it offers a respecification of political issues.