In 2010 WikiLeaks released a number of secret and classified documents that contained information pertaining to the United States government. Since then, WikiLeaks and the United States government have been engaged in a rhetorical battle over the circulation of information. Using membership categorization analysis (MCA) as an analytical technique this thesis answers the following research question: what form(s) of politics are made possible as the result of the social orders produced by both WikiLeaks’ and the United States government’s public discourse on the circulation of information? After analyzing a sample of the related discourse, it became clear that the disagreement between WikiLeaks and the United States government is much greater than different views on the distribution of, and access to, information. Rather, the major issue is that the discourses produced by representatives of both organizations constitute two similar and yet somehow opposing social orders. The social orders produced result in different forms of politics and democracy. In turn, this involves each side thinking differently about transparency, the public, the government, the law, and the media.

This study employs conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA) in an exploration of the interactional organization of talk between doctors and the mothers (or the female guardians acting as “proxy mothers”) of HIV-positive child patients being treated at a paediatric hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa, in 2003. The analysis focuses on how the HIV paediatric consultation is co-constructed between the doctor and the mother/guardian, and how interactional choices on the part of the participants shape the course of the consultation. Specific attention is placed on how participants orient to, hear, respond to and coconstruct the category of “mother”, along with the emergent inferences of what constitutes “good mothering” in the context of pursuing the wellbeing of the HIV-positive child who - as it emerges in certain cases - has evidently been infected by the mother in the first instance. As its core focus, this study examines how orienting to “good mothering” is done - in a moment-bymoment, collaborative and co-constructed manner – in the immediate course of the doctor/mother/guardian consultation. This involves considering the interplay of shifts in orientations to “motherly responsibility” and “doctorly responsibility”, and how these shifts are collaboratively activated, negotiated and responded to, as the consultation proceeds.

This study seeks to investigate this core research topic: how identity is involved in everyday interactions between Chinese microblogging website users? By understanding identity as an element in the interaction context of discursive practices, the investigation is achieved through the analysis of naturally occurring text-based online data. Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) are used to do the analysis. The former will focus on the interaction structure while the latter will be used to make some of the contents in the interactions relevant. This study seeks to make the “orderliness” (Sacks, 1972) and “members’ methods” (Garfinkel, 1967) under a particular context describable and analyzable. The sequential and categorical organization described in this study shows how members are oriented to identities in the in situ context when they exchange their ideas on a sensitive topic, and on a microblogging website. / text

Abstract The aim of the study was to study how partners in heterosexual relationship do gender in interaction. The study was guided by the research questions; In what ways is gender done in interaction?; What different norms become visible?; And, what interactional consequences does gender construction lead to? An ethnomethodological perspective was adopted in which the way people in everyday life creates a common understanding of the world is focused. In line with the perspective gender was assumed to be a social construction created when people interact. Eight extracts from TV-interviews with couples was transcribed and analyzed using Membership categorization analysis (MCA). The chosen analytical method focuses on interaction participant’s referral to and use of membership categories and to these associated character traits and actions. The analysis showed that gender was created through explicit as well as implicit referrals to membership categories and character traits and actions associated to these. The gender norms that was made visible was the woman’s responsibility of home and family and the mail conqueror. Doing gender resulted in several consequences; (1) the maintenance/risk of maintenance of unequal division of responsibilities within couples/family constructions, were the greatest responsibility for family and home falls on the woman; (2) that the women sometimes was positioned, many times implicitly, in inferior gender roles; (3) that gender-based alliances could be created among the interaction participants; and (4) that statements, questions and answers could contain references to gender categories in ways that they appeared to be common knowledge and could function as support to what was sad. As the analysis also showed that gender categorization was a common feature associated with participants either holding themselves or others accountable it appears to be a topic for future research.

Pornografi och dess verkningar är ett ämne som varit mer eller mindre aktuellt ända sedan 1960-talet. I huvudsak har två sidor identifierats historiskt: de som är helt emot porrens existens och de som anser att det är upp till individen om den vill konsumera porr eller inte. På senare tid har även röster hörts som försöker nyansera bilden och skapa en diskussion kring ämnet snarare än debatt. Föremålet för den här uppsatsen är en radiointervju med en kvinnlig hardcoreporrskådis. Intervjun sändes i oktober 2018 i programmet Fråga vad du vill i Sveriges Radio P3. Syftet är att undersöka hur porrskådisens identitet konstrueras under intervjun och vilka föreställningar om porrskådisar och porrbranschen som kommer till uttryck under samtalet. En viktig utgångspunkt är att identitet är föränderligt och något vi både bär med oss och skapar i interaktion. Andra viktiga utgångspunkter är hur vi människor använder kategorier för att benämna och identifiera oss, samt radikalfeminismens inställning till pornografi och påverkan på debatten. Central metod för analysen är Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) som fokuserar på vilka kategorier som görs gällande i en samtalssituation och hur deltagarna förhandlar kring dessa. Resultaten visar att identitetsarbetet troligen påverkas av diskursen som i sin tur styrs av vilka frågor som ställs under intervjun. Det mest framträdande är dock hur samhällets föreställningar om porrskådisar kommer till uttryck och hur dessa styr diskursen. Eftersom intervjuns syfte är att ta reda på hur det är att arbeta som hardcoreporrskådis så formas frågorna utefter den premissen – alltså vad frågeställarna kopplar ihop med pornografi och porrskådisar. Detta i sin tur påverkar vilka sidor av porrskådisen som blir relevanta i just det här samtalet.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att utifrån ett språkperspektiv undersöka hur bronies identitet konstrueras i relation till andra grupper i några artiklar om dem. Teoretiska perspektiv som underbygger studien är att normbrytare synliggör normer och att maskulinitetsnormer kan kopplas till de hegemoniska maskulina ideal som män positioneras kring. För att uppnå syftet studeras åtta tidningsartiklar med analysmetoden membership categorization analysis (MCA). Resultatet blev att bronies identitet konstruerades i relation till grupperna vuxna och unga män, nördar, föräldrar, näthatare, bögar och tjejer. Bronies relateras till dessa kategorier med att ibland tillhöra dem, men ibland med att inte tillhöra dem. I relation till manligt och kvinnligt får bronies en alternativ positionering någonstans däremellan. Bronies identitet konstrueras på många sätt genom andras föreställningar om dem. / The aim for this research is to examine how bronies identity is constructed in relation to other groups in eight selected newspaper articles. The articles were analyzed from a language perspective with the method membership categorization analysis (MCA). The result was that bronies identity is constructed in relation to groups of adult /young men, nerds, parents, gays, hater on the internet, and girls. Bronies are depicted in these categories sometimes as belonging to them, but sometimes as not belonging. In relation to male and female, bronies are positioned in an alternative position somewhere in between. Bronies identity is constructed in many ways by others perceptions of them.

This thesis explores the social construction of birth by analyzing the interaction between the participants present in the delivery room. The data is drawn from 79 video recordings of birth. Six are unedited research recordings and the remaining 73 were edited for pedagogical, documentary and entertaining purposes. The theoretical and analytical perspective is Conversation Analysis. With this microanalytic method, a detailed insight is given to the interaction in the delivery room which should be of linguistic, anthropologic and midwifery interest. The thesis demonstrates how different situations are shaped during labor and the first 15 minutes after birth. It reveals how the identities child, girl, boy, mother, father, woman and man are constructed and negotiated in the unfolding interaction between the participants. In this sense, the thesis uncovers the construction of family roles in the delivery room during a delicate interaction between the private persons and the institutional representatives. The latter are charged with the complex task of safeguarding the physical wellbeing of mother and child while also promoting the development of parental identities. The thesis highlights the existence of a social birth work; the institutional interactants make use of a range of linguistic resources to demarcate the progression from second stage labor to birth and to position the newborn as an endeared social creature. Birth is an important liminal situation and is therefore forcefully spoken forth, and, as the thesis shows, enhanced with more or less ritual utterances and actions. Birth is also a matter of bodies, the body in labor, the supporting body of the partner and the appearance of the body of the newborn. The thesis gives insight into how these bodies are managed and stylized in interaction. Further the thesis makes visible the midwife’s use of interactional resources to instill strength into the body of the woman in labor. The results are discussed in light of the socio-cultural circumstances for hospital birth in Sweden.

This thesis examines how a jury on an artistic education adopts next year's students to a BA program at an art school. My intention is to explore how we established artists who are involved in education as professors, teachers (or students) in art education affects who will be released to the exclusive educational path as an art school represents our work in the admissions jury. My ambition is to create an awareness of what it might mean for the reproduction of the artist.

This thesis explores the social construction of birth by analyzing the interaction between the participants present in the delivery room. The data is drawn from 79 video recordings of birth. Six are unedited research recordings and the remaining 73 were edited for pedagogical, documentary and entertaining purposes. The theoretical and analytical perspective is Conversation Analysis. With this microanalytic method, a detailed insight is given to the interaction in the delivery room which should be of linguistic, anthropologic and midwifery interest. The thesis demonstrates how different situations are shaped during labor and the first 15 minutes after birth. It reveals how the identities child, girl, boy, mother, father, woman and man are constructed and negotiated in the unfolding interaction between the participants. In this sense, the thesis uncovers the construction of family roles in the delivery room during a delicate interaction between the private persons and the institutional representatives. The latter are charged with the complex task of safeguarding the physical wellbeing of mother and child while also promoting the development of parental identities. The thesis highlights the existence of a social birth work; the institutional interactants make use of a range of linguistic resources to demarcate the progression from second stage labor to birth and to position the newborn as an endeared social creature. Birth is an important liminal situation and is therefore forcefully spoken forth, and, as the thesis shows, enhanced with more or less ritual utterances and actions. Birth is also a matter of bodies, the body in labor, the supporting body of the partner and the appearance of the body of the newborn. The thesis gives insight into how these bodies are managed and stylized in interaction. Further the thesis makes visible the midwife’s use of interactional resources to instill strength into the body of the woman in labor. The results are discussed in light of the socio-cultural circumstances for hospital birth in Sweden.

Although internet chat is a significant aspect of many internet users’ lives, the manner in which participants in quasi-synchronous chat situations orient to issues of social and moral order remains to be studied in depth. The research presented here is therefore at the forefront of a continually developing area of study. This work contributes new insights into how members construct and make accountable the social and moral orders of an adult-oriented Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel by addressing three questions: (1) What conversational resources do participants use in addressing matters of social and moral order? (2) How are these conversational resources deployed within IRC interaction? and (3) What interactional work is locally accomplished through use of these resources? A survey of the literature reveals considerable research in the field of computer-mediated communication, exploring both asynchronous and quasi-synchronous discussion forums. The research discussed represents a range of communication interests including group and collaborative interaction, the linguistic construction of social identity, and the linguistic features of online interaction. It is suggested that the present research differs from previous studies in three ways: (1) it focuses on the interaction itself, rather than the ways in which the medium affects the interaction; (2) it offers turn-by-turn analysis of interaction in situ; and (3) it discusses membership categories only insofar as they are shown to be relevant by participants through their talk. Through consideration of the literature, the present study is firmly situated within the broader computer-mediated communication field. Ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis were adopted as appropriate methodological approaches to explore the research focus on interaction in situ, and in particular to investigate the ways in which participants negotiate and co-construct social and moral orders in the course of their interaction. IRC logs collected from one chat room were analysed using a two-pass method, based on a modification of the approaches proposed by Pomerantz and Fehr (1997) and ten Have (1999). From this detailed examination of the data corpus three interaction topics are identified by means of which participants clearly orient to issues of social and moral order: challenges to rule violations, ‘trolling’ for cybersex, and experiences regarding the 9/11 attacks. Instances of these interactional topics are subjected to fine-grained analysis, to demonstrate the ways in which participants draw upon various interactional resources in their negotiation and construction of channel social and moral orders. While these analytical topics stand alone in individual focus, together they illustrate different instances in which participants’ talk serves to negotiate social and moral orders or collaboratively construct new orders. Building on the work of Vallis (2001), Chapter 5 illustrates three ways that rule violation is initiated as a channel discussion topic: (1) through a visible violation in open channel, (2) through an official warning or sanction by a channel operator regarding the violation, and (3) through a complaint or announcement of a rule violation by a non-channel operator participant. Once the topic has been initiated, it is shown to become available as a topic for others, including the perceived violator. The fine-grained analysis of challenges to rule violations ultimately demonstrates that channel participants orient to the rules as a resource in developing categorizations of both the rule violation and violator. These categorizations are contextual in that they are locally based and understood within specific contexts and practices. Thus, it is shown that compliance with rules and an orientation to rule violations as inappropriate within the social and moral orders of the channel serves two purposes: (1) to orient the speaker as a group member, and (2) to reinforce the social and moral orders of the group. Chapter 6 explores a particular type of rule violation, solicitations for ‘cybersex’ known in IRC parlance as ‘trolling’. In responding to trolling violations participants are demonstrated to use affiliative and aggressive humour, in particular irony, sarcasm and insults. These conversational resources perform solidarity building within the group, positioning non-Troll respondents as compliant group members. This solidarity work is shown to have three outcomes: (1) consensus building, (2) collaborative construction of group membership, and (3) the continued construction and negotiation of existing social and moral orders. Chapter 7, the final data analysis chapter, offers insight into how participants, in discussing the events of 9/11 on the actual day, collaboratively constructed new social and moral orders, while orienting to issues of appropriate and reasonable emotional responses. This analysis demonstrates how participants go about ‘doing being ordinary’ (Sacks, 1992b) in formulating their ‘first thoughts’ (Jefferson, 2004). Through sharing their initial impressions of the event, participants perform support work within the interaction, in essence working to normalize both the event and their initial misinterpretation of it. Normalising as a support work mechanism is also shown in relation to participants constructing the ‘quiet’ following the event as unusual. Normalising is accomplished by reference to the indexical ‘it’ and location formulations, which participants use both to negotiate who can claim to experience the ‘unnatural quiet’ and to identify the extent of the quiet. Through their talk participants upgrade the quiet from something legitimately experienced by one person in a particular place to something that could be experienced ‘anywhere’, moving the phenomenon from local to global provenance. With its methodological design and detailed analysis and findings, this research contributes to existing knowledge in four ways. First, it shows how rules are used by participants as a resource in negotiating and constructing social and moral orders. Second, it demonstrates that irony, sarcasm and insults are three devices of humour which can be used to perform solidarity work and reinforce existing social and moral orders. Third, it demonstrates how new social and moral orders are collaboratively constructed in relation to extraordinary events, which serve to frame the event and evoke reasonable responses for participants. And last, the detailed analysis and findings further support the use of conversation analysis and membership categorization as valuable methods for approaching quasi-synchronous computer-mediated communication.