Categories in Text and Talk

A Practical Introduction to Categorization Analysis

Georgia Lepper

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN: 9780761956662
• eBook ISBN: 9781446275641
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

`This is a very fine introduction to the tradition and practice of categorisation analysis, a method for analysing language derived from the work of Harvey Sacks. Georgia Lepper conveys with great effectiveness and simplicity the basic principles of this method, and enables the reader to apply it in practice. Through a series of practical exercises and worked examples, the reader is taken through the necessary steps to achieve full independence in practice of this important analytic method. A great deal of practical wisdom and experience has gone into this book, and it will undoubtedly be of great assistance to students and researchers seeking to apply this still innovative approach to qualitative data analysis? - Clive Seale, Goldsmiths College, University of London

`A stunning introduction to categorization analysis! Georgia Lepper is a master teacher and her book a major achievement. Sensibly organized, amply illustrated, and deftly instructive, this remarkably clear text is a pedagogical milestone in the area? - Jaber F Gubrium, University of Florida

This is the first practical book on how to apply Harvey Sacks? `membership categorization analysis? technique, an increasingly influential method for conversation analysis. Categorization analysis is a method for the study of situated social action and offers a complementary method to the traditional sequential analysis used in the study of naturally occurring talk and text.

The author provides an understanding of the concepts through an analysis of data samples and a series of exercises. Later chapters discuss the application to a variety of disciplines. Examples used to illustrate the approach include, talk, text and images, narratives, stories and organizational settings.

The practice of research is further elucidated in the use of an extended case study and the topics of reliability, validity and ethics are also covered.

Additional features include suggested further readings at the end of each chapter and a glossary of terms.

The book will be invaluable to students and beginning researchers in the disciplines of linguistics, sociology and anthropology, and other main users of conversational and narrative analysis methods, in cultural studies, ethnography, organization studies, discursive psychology and psychotherapy, who are seeking empirical methods for the study of the phenomena of everyday interaction.

This book can be used as a companion volume to Doing Conversation Analysis: A Practical Guide also published in the Introducing Qualitative Methods series.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 - Introducing Categorization Analysis
• What is categorization analysis?
• Sacks and his work
• Sacks' methods and generalizability
• Subsequent developments
• How to use this book
• Recommended reading
• Part I - Practising the Art of Categorization Analysis
• Chapter 2 - First Principles
• The baby cried
• Exercise 2.1
• Exercise 2.2
• Membership categorization devices
• Exercise 2.3
• Exercise 2.4
• Category bound activities
• Exercise 2.5
• Location categories
• Location analysis
• Membership analysis
• Topic or activity analysis
• Exercise 2.6
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 3 - Practising the Art of Categorization Analysis: Further Developments
• Versions
• Exercise 3.1
• Predicates
• Exercise 3.2
• Analysing disjunctive categories
• Exercise 3.3
• Indexicals, or 'pro-terms'
• Hierarchies of relevance
• Exercise 3.4
• Wider applications of Categorization Analysis
• The psychology of the individual
• Social psychology
• Exercise 3.5
• Story-telling and narrative analysis
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Part II - Analysing Culture Using Talk, Text and Image
• Chapter 4 - Analysing Context
• A newspaper headline
• Exercise 4.1
• Context and culture
• What is context?
• How can categorization analysis contribute to the empirical analysis of context?
• Procedures
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 5 - Analysing Talk
• A radio news interview
• Exercise 5.1
• A troublemaker
• Disorderability
• Accountability
• Exercise 5.2
• Tying and procedural consequentiality
• Exercise 5.3
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 6 - Analysing Text
• Text and talk
• The'Logbook'
• Exercise 6.1
• Exercise 6.2
• Notes on method
• Comparative method
• 'Emic' and 'etic' as members' resources
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 7 - Analysing Images
• Seeing and believing
• Leaving home
• Exercise 7.1
• The visual as social theory
• Exercise 7.2
• Using filmed data
• Exercise 7.3
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Part III - Analysing Narrative
• Chapter 8 - What is a Narrative?
• Defining the phenomenon
• Labov: analysing the structure of stories
• Sacks: analysing stories in conversations
• Exercise 8.1
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 9 - Applying Categorization Analysis to the Study of Naturally Occurring Stories
• First analysis of a story
• Exercise 9.1
• Exercise 9.2
• Exercise 9.3
• Second stories
• Exercise 9.4
• Co-produced stories
• Exercise 9.5
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 10 - Contemporary Application of Sacks' Work on Narrative
• Identifying stories in ongoing interaction
• Analysis of story evaluations
• Exercise 10.1
• Applications
• Developmental psychology
• Life stories
• Psychotherapy
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Part IV - Analysing Organizations
• Chapter 11 - Background to the Study of Organizations
• Institutional talk
• What is an organization?
• The emergence of organization theory
• The relationship between 'micro' and 'macro' levels of phenomena and analysis
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 12 - The Contribution of CA
• Organization as structure-in-action
• Exercise 12.1
• The nature of organizational rationality
• Exercise 12.2
• The nature of power and hierarchy in organizations
• Exercise 12.3
• The comparative method
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 13 - A Case Study
• Getting started
• The analysis: 'A report of incident leading to injury'
• The beginning of the report
• The story continues: first
• The story continues: then
• Complaining
• Findings
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Part V - The Practice of Research
• Chapter 14 - Reliability and Validity
• CA and science
• The principle of 'next turn' validity
• Reliability
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 15 - Working with an Extended Textual or Conversational Data: The Uses and Abuses of Computer-aided Analysis
• Using computer-aided techniques in CA
• More
• Better
• Different
• Too much?
• Recommended reading
• Chapter 16 - Ethics in Research
• Ethics
• Values
• Summary
• Recommended reading
• Glossary
• Appendix A: Transcription Notation
• Appendix B: Sample Consent Form
• References
• Name index
• Subject index