ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on a central tension characterizing different traditions and practices for studying interaction. In particular, we explore the rich – if sometimes turbulent – array of methodological approaches arising from two different analytic desiderata: (a) to develop empirical accounts of endogenous meanings while avoiding the imposition of external theoretical frameworks, on the one hand, and (b) to analyze interaction in ways that speak to broader psychological, social, political, and ethical concerns while acknowledging the perspectives the analyst inevitably brings to bear on the data, on the other hand. We trace some of the scholarly debates that have tended to cast these analytic goals in relatively purist and oppositional terms. We then explore the complex and variegated methodological possibilities opened up by the productive tension between them. Through a reflective account of our own analytic approach to a video case study, we raise questions about the roles and possibilities for the evaluation of evidence and participant experience within contemporary practices for analyzing interaction.
