In this dissertation, I examine how buyers and sellers interact in the Massachusetts funeral market. I utilize theories in economic sociology and ritual studies to explain how these interactions coalesce into a functioning market. To do so, I draw on semi-structured interviews with funeral consumers and funeral directors in Massachusetts. Standard economic theories would predict that funeral consumers weigh the costs and benefits associated with each choice they face before purchasing those products that best maximize their individual utility. Economic sociologists respond by pointing out that economic actors face uncertainty, a state in which they cannot assess the costs and benefits of their many options. Instead, consumers rely on 'social devices' - such as social norms and rules - to guide their behavior; however, they are 'intentionally rational' in that they seek to maximize their utility. Rather than thinking of consumers as rational utility maximizers or as uncertain, intentionally-rational actors, I argue that the majority of funeral consumers' purchases are unreflexive and thus cannot be thought of as choices at all. When consumers do make choices, they do not seek to maximize their utility, but instead purchase goods and services that perform what Viviana Zelizer labels relational work. Such purchases serve to define, maintain, or change social relationships. The ways that consumers approach their purchases shape the ways that sellers compete with one another. Because most consumers return to the same funeral home again and again without considering alternative providers and because consumers are socially required to purchase those goods and services necessary to complete the funeral ritual, sellers cannot draw in new customers by lowering prices or by developing new products. With these avenues closed off, sellers must compete by building social networks in their communities; however, they must work to define their network connections in specific ways. Customers must see their involvement in the community as motivated by a desire to contribute to civic life rather than a desire to generate business. Ultimately, then, sellers also perform relational work, and their relational work serves as the main competitive mechanism in funeral markets.

Despite advances in medical technologies, interpersonal communication remains the primary tool physicians use to exchange information, make diagnoses, and treat patients (Cameron & Williams, 1997; Groopman, 2007; Ong, de Haes, Hoos, & Lammes, 1995). In the medical encounter effective communication between physician and patient is essential so that beneficial health and wellbeing outcomes are achieved for patients. Taking a discourse analytic approach, this study examined interactions occurring between international medical graduate (IMG) residents, attending physicians, and patients during the treatment advice phase of the supervised medical encounter. The aim of the study was to examine the co-constructed nature of the delivery and receipt of treatment advice and the ways in which physicians and patients managed interpersonal relations through the negotiated activity. The theoretical framework of pragmatic competence was utilized to underpin the study. Physician-patient interactions served as the primary data source. Medical encounter interactions between five different IMG residents and 31 patients were observed and audio-recorded. Observations and a post-medical encounter survey completed by patients served as secondary data sources. The analysis of the data revealed that this medical speech activity embedded within the medical encounter was realized through the use of a variety of discourse strategies and contributions from multiple participants as they attended to the interpersonal and transactional goals associated with the delivery and receipt of treatment advice. Findings provided insights into how multi-party discourse worked to jointly construct and negotiate treatment recommendations. Findings indicated that IMG residents utilized indirect advice giving strategies. Additionally, both IMG residents and patients utilized interrogatives in various ways to engage actively in the treatment decision-making process. Finally, the data revealed how the participants attended to each other's face needs as they worked to enhance, maintain, or challenge face through the dynamic process of negotiating relationships.

Interaction with local speakers of a second language (L2) in a naturalistic setting during study abroad is beneficial to language learning in many respects; particularly in the development of pragmatic competence, or the awareness and ability to use the appropriate language for a specific social context (Kinginger, 2011; Magnan & Back, 2007; Schauer, 2009; Shively, 2011). Service-learning - volunteering in the local community combined with an academic pursuit - during study abroad provides the opportunity for meaningful interaction between language learners and local speakers of the L2 in authentic and collaborative settings (Overfield, 2007). This study examines the interactions of Italian L2 users and local speakers of Italian while engaged in service-learning in Italy. A sociopragmatic framework revealed emergent trends and linguistic norms in this context. Using a discourse analytic approach, this study offers a detailed description of directive use of the L2 learners and the local Italian speakers (Blum-Kulka, et al, 1989; Ervin-Tripp, 1976; Nuzzo, 2007). The study also examines (mis)understandings and relational work (Locher & Watts, 2008) that occur in the interactions. Primary data consists of audio recordings of the naturally-occurring interactions at three service-learning sites during a short-term summer study abroad program in Italy. Secondary data consists of interviews with the L2 users and their interlocutors. The data reveal that the majority of directives came from the local Italian speakers, not the L2 users, likely due to the clear power dynamic and the nature of the activities at each site. The directives were most commonly in the imperative with little or no mitigation for purposes of clarity or urgency of the tasks. Misunderstandings expressed by the L2 users were primarily linguistic, although there were also instances of pragmatic misunderstanding. Relational work emerged in the interactions, yet clear, explicit direction took precedent over face-work and rapport building among interactants. Findings from this study can be used to inform foreign language pedagogical practice in myriad ways; from developing practical applications for situated language use, to using actual transcripts from the data in pre-departure language and cultural activities in U.S. Italian language classrooms. Findings also provide community partners with data regarding the challenges, linguistic and otherwise, that L2 user/volunteers face during service-learning in Italy, and suggest areas for further research.

This study aims to focus on children’s perspectives of the relationship with leisure-time teachers. It aims to show the relationships significance and how the relationships are created and maintained. Semi structured group interviews with 25 children aged 8-9 years on leisure- time centers were conducted. Their stories have been analyzed from a relational perspective. The results show that for a child, a leisure-time teacher can be anything from an adult in the background who maintains order and security in the environment, to an adult who stands relationally close. The children highlight the importance of leisure-time teachers' inclination to care for the child. The leisure-time teachers’ concern can be presented in different ways and children notice if it is genuine. The children's stories are an admonition to today’s leisure- time teachers to reduce the negative interactions that includes reprimands and anger, and to take the time to listen and take the children seriously.

Office hour interactions at universities are one type of communicative activity in which international instructors and their Turkish EFL students are involved as a form of academic or institutional discourse (Drew & Heritage, 1992). In such real world communication, both parties employ several linguistic strategies and attend to various interactional goals to address the academic concerns at hand (Chiang, 2011; Chiang & Mi, 2008; Limberg, 2007; 2010; Reindhart, 2010; Skyrme, 2010). Embracing a discourse analytic approach, this study investigated the primary functions and topics of office hour interactions; discourse organization of office hour interactions with regard to the features of participants’ contributions (e.g. turn-taking and turn length, verbosity or dominance, etc.); suggestion-response episodes; and successful and problematic aspects in office hour interactions. The study utilized the theoretical framework of relational work. Thirty-eight office hour interactions constituted the primary data source. The participants included 3 international instructors and their 34 Turkish EFL students. Post-interaction questionnaires and classroom observations served as secondary data sources in the study. The data analysis demonstrated that office hour interactions have various purposes and topics mostly related to the course content offered by the instructors, their expertise, and their experiences. Additionally, both parties co-constructed the discourse segments of equal and unequal contribution in which they achieved interactional and transactional goals using distinctive linguistic and discourse strategies. The co-constructed suggestion-response episodes included both instructor-initiated suggestions and students’ self-suggestory acts. The use of modals and semi-modals, imperatives, and interrogatives played a key role in instructor-initiated suggestions, whereas the students mostly relied on interrogatives. However, each party made their choices relying on the interactional goals they wished to accomplish through the use of suggestion forms. Finally, both the international instructors and their Turkish EFL students attended to different types of relational work that contributed to the successful and problematic aspects of office hour interactions, and that were mostly connected to suggestions.

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Ce mémoire vise à approfondir un cadre théorique élaboré dans les années 2000 par la sociologue Viviana Zelizer pour comprendre comment l’activité économique (la consommation, la production, les échanges) prend forme à travers une pratique sociale qu’elle nomme travail relationnel. Ce concept reflète les conflits de correspondance entre transactions économiques, culture et relations sociales dans la vie économique. Depuis quelques années des chercheurs en sociologie économique et économie politique tentent d’élargir la portée de ce cadre théorique, construit à partir des relations intimes, afin de changer son niveau du micro vers le macro. J’adopte cette même problématique théorique en explorant comment le mouvement climatique étudiant à Montréal « travaille » la société québécoise pour répondre à la crise climatique. J’ai mené 10 entretiens semi-dirigés avec des activistes présentant un fort niveau d’engagement pour la lutte climatique dans plusieurs groupes militants participant à ce mouvement social au Québec. Mes résultats montrent plusieurs manières par lesquelles la culture et les relations sociales s’entremêlent aux activités économiques dans les discours des activistes concernant l’économie politique. Spécifiquement, les activistes climatiques misent sur la solidarité, le partage, l’interdépendance et la durabilité pour repenser l’économie et son architecture sociale. C’est ce que je rattache au concept de travail relationnel de Viviana Zelizer. Mon analyse m’amène à proposer le concept de travail relationnel civil pour représenter une pratique politique visant à transformer symboliquement l’« arrière-plan relationnel » de l’activité économique, c’est-à-dire l’appartenance à une communauté imaginée et des modèles normatifs d’échange. / This dissertation aims to develop a theoretical framework elaborated in the 2000s by sociologist Viviana Zelizer, meant to understand how economic activity (consumption, production, and exchange) takes shape through a social practice called relational work. This concept illustrates how conflicts of correspondence between economic transactions, meaning-making and social relations are central to economic life. In recent years, scholars in economic sociology and political economy have recognized the need to deepen the analytical scope of Zelizer’s framework by scaling-up relational work from the micro-level to the macro-level. My research follows such a theoretical puzzle and explores how the student-climate movement in Montréal “works” Québec society in the context of a climate crisis and emergency. My findings reveal multiple ways in which culture and social relations are intermingled with economic activity in the activist’s discourses of political economy. Specifically, the cultural repertoire of climate activists includes solidarity, sharing, interdependence and sustainability as tools for “rethinking” the economy and its social architecture. This cultural logic is similar to relational work as defined by Viviana Zelizer. Through my analysis I elaborate the notion of civil relational work to represent a political practice that aims to construct and transform the “relational background” of economic activity, that is, the identification with an imagined community and normative models of exchange.