ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explores the 'human instinct for sociability', a very Malinowskian idea, in the context of the family dinner table. It analyses women and girls talking, in particular exploring their use of narrative and reported speech. The part shows participants exploring and negotiating social mores, social stereotypes and social identities through small talk, and doing this as part of a wider process of debating and policing moral boundaries. It considers talk in two private contexts - families gossiping at dinner, and groups of women exchanging stories about bad behaviour. The part aims to develop P. Bourdieu's notion of symbolic capital to make the claim that females and their discourse are assessed and constrained by powerful community norms. It aims to invert the conventional delineation of small talk.
