The multimodal enactment of deontic and epistemic authority in Indian meetings

Abstract

Authority is a much discussed topic in organizational literature, but its in situ enactment is little investigated. Using the notions of deontic and epistemic authority and using multimodal conversation analysis as a research methodology, the purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical study of authority-in-action. We particularly focus on both sequences of talk and the multimodal resources that are mobilised to ‘do’ authority. Furthermore, as research from non-Western contexts remains rare, we complement insights into authority enactment based on ‘Western’ data by using data that is drawn from a corpus of naturally-occurring video-recorded faculty meetings at an Indian University. Findings indicate that the doing of authority can be made visible by explicating participants’ orientation to their respective deontic and epistemic rights and their invocation of particular identities, which are accomplished by means of a complex intertwining of verbal and non-verbal resources.

A deontic perspective on the collaborative, multimodal accomplishment of leadership

“…Thus, instead of focusing on one multimodal resource (e.g. gesture or eye-gaze), multimodal CA typically adopts a holistic approach that looks at the 'finely tuned temporal organization of multimodal resources' (Mondada, 2009(Mondada, : 1995 in interaction, which has already proven to be a useful approach for the study of proximal deontics in meetings (see Clifton et al, 2018;Van De Mieroop et al, forthcoming). In line with this, I adopt a methodological approach that integrates the scrutiny of discursive, sequential and multimodal features into the analysis.…”

Co-liderazgo en interacción: Un análisis del discurso multimodal durante una reunión de un movimiento juvenil

“…No obstante, como dice Larsson (2017), la deóntica proximal puede asimismo influenciar este proceso, dado que, al coordinar el orden del día, un presidente de una reunión ejerce su influencia sobre los procesos de la interacción que determinan acciones futuras de la organización. Entonces, ambas formas de la deóntica están vinculadas al ejercicio de la autoridad y el liderazgo (véase por ejemplo Clifton, Van De Mieroop, Sehgal, & Aneet, 2018;Van De Mieroop, 2020;Van De Mieroop et al, 2020).…”

Multimodal methods for managing deontic rights in interdisciplinary trials

“…Stevanovic and Peräkylä (2012) have demonstrated how deontic authority is locally achieved in the interaction and is claimed and negotiated through turns-at-talk. While a majority of previous studies have focused on how deontic authority is managed through talk (Stevanovic and Peräkylä, 2012; Weatherall and Edmonds, 2018; Magnusson, 2020; Stevanovic, 2021; Nanouri et al, 2022), less attention has been given to the mobilization of non-verbal resources (Stevanovic and Monzoni, 2016; Clifton et al, 2018; Magnusson, 2021). In a study by Clifton et al (2018), they show that deontic authority is negotiated in a number of ways including multimodally.…”

“…While a majority of previous studies have focused on how deontic authority is managed through talk (Stevanovic and Peräkylä, 2012; Weatherall and Edmonds, 2018; Magnusson, 2020; Stevanovic, 2021; Nanouri et al, 2022), less attention has been given to the mobilization of non-verbal resources (Stevanovic and Monzoni, 2016; Clifton et al, 2018; Magnusson, 2021). In a study by Clifton et al (2018), they show that deontic authority is negotiated in a number of ways including multimodally. They argue a need for more research into the variety and interwovenness of multimodal resources that can be mobilized by participants to claim and negotiate deontic authority (Clifton et al, 2018).…”

“…In a study by Clifton et al (2018), they show that deontic authority is negotiated in a number of ways including multimodally. They argue a need for more research into the variety and interwovenness of multimodal resources that can be mobilized by participants to claim and negotiate deontic authority (Clifton et al, 2018).…”