ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of the analytic methodology used in this book, which draws on conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA). The discussion is only partial in reflection of the scope, variety and richness of the work in this area, and rather than offering a review of the field, it focuses on providing the reader with aspects of the methodology that are relevant to the analysis presented in the following chapters. The first section of the chapter offers an introductory account of conversation analysis – analysis of the structural and sequential organization of talk-in-interaction. The second section discusses Harvey Sacks’s (1972a; 1972b; 1995) work on membership categories – the ways that descriptions and common-sense understandings are produced and recognized. The final section discusses membership categorization analysis, and some of the debates and issues around analyzing both sequential and categorical organization.
