The present thesis explores talk in institutional settings, with a particular focus on how institutionality and institutional norms are constructed and reproduced in interaction. A central aim is to enhance our understanding of how institutional agendas are talked into being. In line with the ethno­methodological approach, norms are viewed as accomplished in everyday interaction, whereas institutionality represents dimensions of talk where participants demonstrably orient to particular contextual constraints. Five studies were conducted using Conversation Analysis (CA), focusing on how institutional constraints impact sequential trajectories and shape different opportunities for participants. The data consists of two corpora of video recordings: group tutorials at a Swedish university (UTs), and performance appraisal interviews in an organ­ization (PAIs). The thesis pays particular attention to the interactional management of knowledge, entitlement and stance, and analytic foci include how speakers manage epistemic claims and rights at a certain point in interaction, and how they accomplish social positioning. The UT studies examine the negotiation of rights to speak for others in a group (Study I), and how diver­ging understandings of the institutional activity-at-hand can be negotiated on the basis of students’ advice-seeking questions (Study II). In Study III, orientations to institutional and sociocultural norms are investigated in the PAIs, where managers and employees treat negative stances on stress as problematic. The relationship between theory and institutional practice in the use of question templates in PAIs is also examined, through an analysis of the delivery and receipt of a particular question in different interviews (Study IV). Focusing on different adaptations of a preset item, this analysis shows how the same question sets up for a variety of subsequent actions. Finally, deployment of the verb känna (‘feel’) in managing epistemic access and primacy is examined (Study V). It is argued that ‘feel’ allows for a reduction of accountability when making epistemic claims. The studies highlight the relationship between linguistic formats and social actions and illustrate how institutional agendas have consequences for participant conduct. Attention to the details of actions in institutional interaction can thus shed light on social and linguistic underpinnings of the enactment of institutional norms.

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This dissertation analysed the interactions between instructors and students in a language classroom in Russia. Using video-recorded data, instructor interviews, and student assessments from English classes at a private language school for children in the Urals region of Russia, a Conversation Analytic [CA] framework was employed to determine: how the talk (specifically turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and repairs) was sequentially organised; if and how the institutional setting constrained the talk; and if previously determined 'universal' structures of talk applied to this Russian academic discourse. This research also tested the hypotheses that the 'universal' structures of talk would apply regardless of gender, but would be used differently by the boys and girls, and by the instructors interacting with them. The relevance of the participants' institutional identities or gender to the interaction was also examined. The analysis showed that the participants did orient to their institutional identities of instructor or student, and the institutional setting did constrain the organisation of talk. The instructors' responses to the interviews and 'student assessment' questionnaires showed that they generally had positive attitudes toward girls and mixed attitudes toward boys. While the underlying sequences, the universal 'rules' of interaction, applied to interactions with both boys and girls, how (and how frequently) the sequences were used did vary by gender (i.e., typically 'male' and 'female' speech styles). Also, some of the organisation of talk showed that the instructors did orient to the students' genders in the classroom. This research is significant as the first CA study of the sequential organisation of talk in an institutional setting in Russia. In general, this research contributes to the CA findings on the organisation of talk in different languages, cultures, and settings; specifically, it provides the first point of comparison of Russian classroom interactions, from a CA perspective, with the large corpus of data already collected in classrooms in the Western tradition of education. Finally, this research is significant as it provides a thorough microanalysis of the relativity of gender-specific verbal behaviour; the analysis also shows how the instructors behave verbally, and in this way produce gender-specific communication styles. / Slavic Linguistics

In many institutional settings in today’s globalized job market, people have to deal with different role asymmetries in the co-construction of meaning. In this study, institutional, cultural and linguistic asymmetries are focused on in interviews at an employment agency in Sweden. Interviews between a recruiter and fourteen female job candidates with an academic background from other countries were video taped. Three sequences on personality were analysed: What do you consider to be your strengths? What personal characteristics do you want to improve? and What has made an impact on you? The general aim of the study was to gain knowledge of the processes whereby self-presentations are co-constructed and how participants try to reach common understanding when they do not share common linguistic and cultural resources. Theoretically, the study has a dialogical framework. Discourse is seen as the place where society, culture, situation, individual and language meet and where meaning is constructed through social action. Within an interactional sociolinguistics framework, an holistic approach to methods combines ethnography of communication with ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. The results show that the meaning-making project in this institutional situation is institutionally framed, culturally hidden, socially constrained by face-work and interactionally embedded. The recruiter orients to the institutional frame by embedding reformulations of the candidates’ answers in her uptake, often an adjective, which is filled in on a form and later transferred to a data base. The recruiter also takes on the face-work of the communicative dilemmas that the questions exhibit, for example by using explanations when candidates admit to low self-confidence. It is also shown that for some candidates the hidden agenda of the situation is concealed and that their communicative styles clash with the recruiter’s expectations. The asymmetrical situation can for the candidates be seen as both a resource and a constraint. The linguistic asymmetry is not foregrounded. Instead, the negotiation of meaning concerns the institutional and cultural frame rather than linguistic meanings. On the other hand, the recruiter shows a tendency to normalize the candidates according to her own institutional and cultural knowledge. This dynamic interplay between heterogenization and homogenization tendencies is an important feature in the interviews.

Abstract My aim is to explore how interaction is constructed in sermon discourse and lesson discourse, and what interactional roles emerge. Institutional speech is information-centred, but communication never aims merely to transmit information. Rather, it is a complex linguistic relationship affected by the societal and social context. The main theories of this study stem from systemic-functional grammar and critical discourse analysis. The research questions deal with reference to person, modification of the degree of certainty, naming, asking, ordering and politeness strategies. The data consisted of ten sermons and ten lessons. The approach of constructional discourse analysis was applied, but I used methods of conversation analysis, semantics, literary research and rhetoric and dialogue. The cleric and the teacher are speakers ex cathedra. Institutional discourse involves asymmetric power relations between the participants. In the tradition of the church, the sermon remains the cleric's address. In vocational education, the teacher is free to choose his or her methods. Presentation by the teacher is still the most popular method. The cleric tries in a sermon and the teacher in classroom speech to establish contacts with their listeners by using interactional strategies. The interpersonal features used differ in quality and quantity. Based on this I distinguished interactional types of action in sermon discourse and lesson discourse. Sermon discourse was here classified into five types of interpersonal action: matter-centred, narrative, declarative and directive monologue and dialogic sermon. Lesson discourse involved four types of interpersonal action: lecture monologue, directive monologue, lecture dialogue and instructional dialogue. The cleric and the teacher act in the institutional roles of a transmitter of information, an advisor, an orderer and a sharer of experiences. Both use different politeness strategies to reduce the interpersonal asymmetry brought about by their institutional status. The tradition of the cleric's address will not have an opportunity to change unless the listener is allowed to participate. The teacher has the power to change the discourse practice in the classroom, but the individual-centred school culture seems to bind the teacher to a teacher-centred learning model. The institution speaks, the listener keeps silent. The need for change must be recognized by the community before interaction can be revived in practice. The change may also be initiated by the listeners: is it possible at all to get into heaven or to get a job by the methods of the institution? / Tiivistelmä Nopeiden sosiaalisten ja teknologisten muutosten takia yhteiskunnan perinteiset toimintatavat joutuvat kriittiseen tarkasteluun. Tässä tutkimuksessa kohteena on kirkon ja koulun vuorovaikutus. Tarkoitukseni on selvittää, miten vuorovaikutus ilmenee saarna- ja opetusdiskurssissa ja mitä vuorovaikutusrooleja syntyy. Saarna ja oppitunti kuuluvat osana kirkon ja koulun diskurssikäytäntöön. Papin ja opettajan koulutus ja työ ovat yhteiskunnan säätelemiä. Institutionaalisessa puheessa sanoma on keskeinen, mutta ihmisten välinen viestintä ei ole vain tiedon välittämistä, vaan se on monimuotoinen kielellinen yhteys, johon vaikuttaa koko laaja sosietaalinen ja sosiaalinen konteksti. Tutkimukseni pääteoriat ovat peräisin systeemis-funktionaalisesta kieliopista ja kriittisestä diskurssianalyysista. Tutkimuskysymykset käsittelevät henkilöviittauksia, lausumien varmuusasteen modifiointia, nimeämistä, kysymistä, käskemistä ja kohteliaisuuskeinoja. Aineistoni koostuu kymmenestä saarnasta ja kymmenestä ammatillisen opetuksen oppitunnista, jotka on videoitu autenttisissa tilanteissa. Tarkastelutapa on konstruktionistinen diskurssianalyysi. Lisäksi olen hyödyntänyt menetelmiä keskustelunanalyysista, semantiikasta, kirjallisuustieteestä sekä retoriikan ja dialogin tutkimuksesta. Pappi ja opettaja ovat ex cathedra -puhujia. Kirkon traditiossa saarna on säilynyt papin puheenvuorona. Ammatillisessa opetuksessa opettaja voi valita opettaja- tai opiskelijakeskeisen menetelmän. Pappi ja opettaja pyrkivät kontaktiin kuulijan kanssa erilaisilla vuorovaikutuskeinoilla. Interpersoonaisten piirteiden käyttö vaihtelee saarnassa ja opetuspuheessa laadultaan ja määrältään. Tämän perusteella erotan saarna- ja opetusdiskurssista vuorovaikutuksellisia toimintatyyppejä. Tyypittelyn tarkoitus on havainnollistaa puhujan ja kuulijan vuorovaikutussuhdetta sekä osoittaa, että erilainen toimintatyyppi rakentaa erilaisia vuorovaikutusrooleja. Saarnadiskurssissa erottuu viisi toimintatyyppiä: asiakeskeinen, kertova, julistava ja kehottava monologi sekä saarnadialogi. Opetusdiskurssissa toimintatyyppejä on neljä: luentomonologi, ohjaileva monologi, luentodialogi ja opetusdialogi. Papin ja opettajan vuorovaikutusrooleja ovat muun muassa tiedon välittäjä, neuvon antaja, ohjailija ja kokemusten jakaja. Kuulijan vuorovaikutusrooleja ovat tiedon vastaanottaja, neuvon saaja, ohjeiden toteuttaja ja kokemukseen samastuja. Vuorovaikutus on saarnassa ja opetuspuheessa epäsymmetristä, minkä vuoksi pappi ja opettaja pyrkivät vähentämään institutionaalisen statuksen tuomaa vuorovaikutuksellista epätasapainoa erilaisilla kohteliaisuuskeinoilla. Saarnatraditio papin puheenvuorona ei tarjoa suurta mahdollisuutta vuorovaikutuskäytännön muutokseen, ellei toinen osapuoli saa osallistua. Opettaja voisi muuttaa luokkahuoneen diskurssikäytäntöä valitsemalla opiskelijakeskeisiä työtapoja, mutta yksilökeskeinen opettajakulttuuri näyttää sitovan opettajan omana kouluaikana opittuun malliin. Instituutio puhuu, kuulija vaikenee. Muutoksen tarpeen pitää lähteä yhteisöstä, jotta uudistuminen voisi toteutua. Diskurssikäytännön muuttamiseen voidaan joutua myös toisen osapuolen johtopäätöksistä: onko taivaspaikka tai työpaikka lainkaan instituution keinoilla saavutettavissa?

Abstract In interaction, a proposal projects an acceptance or a rejection as a sequentially relevant next turn. However, conversation does not always proceed so straightforwardly but it is possible for participants to respond to a proposal in many ways without taking an explicit stand. This thesis focuses on such responses and uses Conversation Analysis as a research method. The thesis analyses the sequences in which the recipient 1) does not verbally respond to a proposal, 2) responds to a proposal with a stand-alone particle, mm, jaa or joo, or 3) responds to a proposal by teasing, by shifting the focus to the procedural details of the activity or by rejecting the entire activity. Additionally, the thesis exploits the fact that the research data (22 psychological interaction tests) have already been analysed as part of a psychiatric schizophrenia study in which the methodological approach was the Communication Deviance (CD) Scale. Consequently, in the second phase of the thesis, Conversation Analysis and the CD Scale are compared as methodological approaches to interaction. The thesis shows that by not responding or by responding with a mere particle, a recipient does not accept the proposal and may also avoid explicit disagreement with the proposer. However, the particles under analysis constitute a continuum in terms of agreeing with a proposal, with mm at one end as the least encouraging particle, jaa in the middle as neutral and joo at the other end as the most encouraging. The responses that tease, shift to the procedural details of the test or reject the test task, in turn, do also other interactional work: they control and guide other participants and rebel against the test task. On the whole, participants orient to discontinuity in the course of action initiated by the proposal: they treat the responses under analysis as insufficient and pursue a more explicit acceptance or rejection. The thesis also shows that the CD Scale finds communication defects in the same sequences but that the defects do not primarily involve the discontinuity of interaction. Thus CA and the CD Scale look at interaction from different perspectives and disagree on what is considered an interactional problem. / Tiivistelmä Vuorovaikutuksessa ehdotus luo odotuksen hyväksynnästä tai hylkäyksestä sekventiaalisesti relevanttina seuraavana vuorona. Aina keskustelu ei kuitenkaan etene näin suoraviivaisesti, vaan ehdotukseen on mahdollista vastata monin eri tavoin ottamatta siihen eksplisiittisesti kantaa. Tässä väitöstutkimuksessa tarkastellaan keskustelunanalyysin menetelmää käyttäen tällaisia tapoja eli analysoidaan toimintajaksoja, joissa vastaanottaja 1) ei reagoi ehdotukseen kielellisesti tai kuultavasti, 2) vastaa ehdotukseen pelkällä dialogipartikkelilla mm, jaa tai joo tai 3) vastaa ehdotukseen kiusoittelemalla, puuttumalla toimintatapaan tilanteessa tai torjumalla koko toiminnan. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään sitä, että tutkimusaineisto eli 22 psykologista vuorovaikutustestiä on jo aikaisemmin analysoitu psykiatrisen skitsofreniatutkimuksen yhteydessä, jolloin menetelmänä käytettiin kommunikaatiohäiriöpisteytystä. Tutkimuksen toisessa vaiheessa verrataan siis keskustelunanalyysiä ja kommunikaatiohäiriöpisteytystä vuorovaikutuksen analyysimenetelminä. Tutkimus osoittaa, että jättämällä vastaamatta ehdotukseen tai vastaamalla pelkällä dialogipartikkelilla vastaanottaja ei hyväksy ehdotusta ja voi lisäksi välttää eksplisiittisen erimielisyyden ilmauksen. Tutkitut dialogipartikkelit asettuvat kuitenkin saman- ja erimielisyyttä kuvaavalle jatkumolle siten, että toisessa päässä on vähiten jatkamaan kannustava mm, keskellä neutraali jaa ja toisessa päässä kannustavin joo. Kiusoittelevat, toimintatapaan puuttuvat ja testitehtävän torjuvat responssit puolestaan tekevät myös muuta vuorovaikutustyötä, eli ne kontrolloivat ja ohjaavat toisten toimintaa sekä kapinoivat testitehtävää vastaan. Kaiken kaikkiaan osallistujat orientoituvat ehdotuksen aloittaman toimintalinjan jatkumattomuuteen: he käsittelevät tutkittuja responsseja riittämättöminä ja hakevat ehdotukselle eksplisiittisempää hyväksyntää tai hylkäystä. Lisäksi tutkimus osoittaa, että kommunikaatiohäiriöpisteytys löytää vuorovaikutusongelmia tutkituista toimintajaksoista mutta ongelmat eivät useinkaan liity vuorovaikutuksen jatkumattomuuteen. Siksi voidaankin sanoa, että keskustelunanalyysi ja kommunikaatiohäiriöpisteytys katsovat vuorovaikutusta eri näkökulmista ja näkevät eri piirteet ongelmallisina.

The present study focusses on the theatre audience, and on its’ role in the maintenance of the theatrical situation. Using video-recorded performances of relatively naturalistic, modern dramas, the study examines the behaviour of the audience in relation to the unfolding of stage events. Such behaviour is described through close inspection of the sounds the audience produces, consisting primarily of coughing, throat-clearing, and laughter. The study contributes to the growing body of research surrounding ethnomethodological conversation analysis (CA). CA methods are used to analyse not only an audience’s overt reactions to stage events, but also the actions occurring outside these relatively short-lived phenomena in the context of a theatre performance. It is demonstrated that members of the audience refrain from making « vocal noise » during the verbal interaction of actors, and some of the resources used to achieve this end are described. These include the interpretation of the emerging dialogue, of the relative positioning of actors and of the actors’ use of gesture. Members of the audience are observed making vocal noise around possible completions in the sequence of ongoing stage actions, a placing which seems to make it maximally unobtrusive. Furthermore, the audience’s laughter is described. It is argued that members of the audience negociate collective moments of laughter with each other and with the actors. In doing so, the audience displays a sensitive awareness of the other members of the audience and the performers on stage. It is finally suggested that vocal noise on one hand and laughter on the other are differently placed in relation to an emerging action. This relative placing seems to indicate their producers’ different orientations to these actions, according to which vocal noise is to be hidden and laughter to be taken as an overt reaction.

The study concerns the needs assessment processes that older persons undergo to gain access to home care. The participation of older persons, their relatives and municipal care managers was studied from a communicative perspective. The assessment meetings functions as formal problem-solving events. The older persons´ accounts are negotiated discursively in interaction. Various storylines are used by the older persons and their relatives whether they view home care as an intrusion, as a complement or as a right. In case of divergent opinions the older person has the final say as prescribed by the Swedish social service act. One conclusion is that the role of relatives is not defined and a family perspective is not present. In the study the institutional structure of the assessment process was also analyzed. Older persons are processed into clients; their needs are fitted within the framework of documentation and institutional categories. In the transfer of talk to text all the particulars are not reflected and two types of documentation was identified; a fact-oriented objective language or an event-oriented personal language. Care management models and a managerialist thinking has influenced the assessment process by bureaucratisation of older people trough people processing, which is in contradiction to the individual-centric perspective prescribed by the law. The introduction of care management models in gerontological social work has lead to an embedded contradiction and constitutes a welfare political dilemma. Improved communicative methods are needed in order to achieve a holistic assessment situation. / Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i de bedömningsprocesser äldre personer genomgår för att få tillgång till hjälp i hemmet. Bedömningsprocessen där äldre, deras anhö-riga och kommunala behovsbedömare deltog studerades ur ett kommunikativt perspektiv. Interaktionen vid behovsbedömningssamtalet fungerar som en pro-blemlösningsprocess. Den äldre personens redogörelse för behov förhandlas diskursivt i interaktionen och tre olika berättelselinjer identifierades, baserade på om de sökande betraktar hemtjänsten som ett intrång, som ett komplement och stöd eller som en rättighet. När olika åsikter uttrycks har de äldre sista ordet i enlighet med Socialtjänstlagens föreskrifter. En slutsats är att de anhörigas roll i behovsbedömningsprocessen inte är definierad och att ett familjeperspektiv sak-nas. I studien analyserades också bedömningsprocessens institutionella struktur. De äldre behovssökande processas till att bli klienter, deras behov anpassas till dokumentationens ramverk och kategoriseras i enlighet med institutionella kate-gorier. I transfereringen av tal till text redovisas inte samtliga element i samtalet. Två typer av utredningstext identifierades, den faktaorienterade och den händelse-orienterade. I studien diskuteras det marknadsekonomiska tänkande som kommit att påverka bedömningsprocessen genom byråkratisering vilket står i motsatsställ-ning till det individcentrerade perspektiv som lagen förespråkar. Introduktionen av marknadsmodeller i det gerontologiska sociala arbetet har medfört en inbyggd motsättning och utgör ett välfärdspolitiskt dilemma. Förbättrade kommunikativa metoder behövs för att uppnå en holistisk bedömningsprocess.