Abstract
This paper considers the relationship between Melvin Pollner’s sociology of mundane reasoning and conversation analysis. We
suggest, first, that Pollner’s revolutionary view of the role of accounts in everyday life provides a basic framework for
understanding how norms of conversational organization are sustained across time periods ranging from the evanescent moment
to the longue durée of historical time. Second, we argue his work on conflict and reality disjunctures is important for the light it sheds on
conversational processes concerned with the avoidance and/or management of disagreement. Although Pollner was not personally
engaged with conversation analysis, his theorizing is nonetheless of great significance in understanding some of its basic
preoccupations.
suggest, first, that Pollner’s revolutionary view of the role of accounts in everyday life provides a basic framework for
understanding how norms of conversational organization are sustained across time periods ranging from the evanescent moment
to the longue durée of historical time. Second, we argue his work on conflict and reality disjunctures is important for the light it sheds on
conversational processes concerned with the avoidance and/or management of disagreement. Although Pollner was not personally
engaged with conversation analysis, his theorizing is nonetheless of great significance in understanding some of its basic
preoccupations.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-10
- DOI 10.1007/s12108-012-9148-3
- Authors
- John Heritage, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Steven Clayman, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Journal The American Sociologist
- Online ISSN 1936-4784
- Print ISSN 0003-1232