Stokoe-Characterological formulations of persons in neighbourhood complaint sequences.pdf (2.36 MB)
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journal contribution
posted on 2020-02-04, 11:31 authored by Marc Alexander, Elizabeth StokoeThis article shows how speakers mobilise characterological formulations of others and,
particularly, ‘types’ of persons, in social action. We extend previous work in discursive
psychology, in which notions of self or others’ identity have been well-studied as categorial
practices, by focusing specifically on the occasioned use of “[descriptor] person”
formulations which index the characteristics of people. Drawing on a British corpus of 315
telephone calls about neighbour problems (e.g., noise, verbal abuse) to environmental health
and mediation services, we show that callers build in-situ descriptions of self and neighbour
for the practical activity of complaining or defending against accusations - as types of people
that are, for instance, reasonable (e.g., “I’m an extremely tolerant person”) in contrast to their
neighbours’ shortcomings (e.g., “He’s a rather obnoxious person”). Our findings demonstrate
that psychological predicates of self and other, indexed through characterological
formulations, are recipient designed (i.e., formulated to display an orientation to co-present
others) in ways that shape the institutional relevance for service provision. We conclude that,
like many other aspects of the psychological thesaurus, ‘character types’ are not just the
preserve of psychologists, but a routine resource for ordinary social interaction.
Funding
Economic and Social Research Council [RES-148-25-0010]; [ES/T008172/1]
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies