Identities in Talk

This text demonstrates that identities are constructed "live" in the actual exchange of talk. It identifies how a person can be ascribed to a category, and the ways in which people are able to create their own "identity" beyond the classic categories of age, gender, class and ethnicity. `Identity′ attracts some of social science′s liveliest and most passionate debates. Theory abounds on matters as disparate as nationhood, ethnicity, gender politics and culture. However, there is considerably less investigation into how such identity issues appear in the fine grain of everyday life. This book gathers together, in a collection of chapters drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, arguments which show that identities are constructed `live′ in the actual exchange of talk. By closely examining tapes and transcripts of real social interactions from a wide range of situations, the volume explores just how it is that a person can be ascribed to a category and what features about that category are consequential for the interaction.