ABSTRACT
A central concern of this chapter is to articulate relationships among researchers’ and interactants’ methods for orienting to naturally occurring social activities. Basic questions are raised as central to the future course of research on social interaction. Following an overview of research commitments of conversation analysis, a discussion of “coding” is offered as a practical achievement enacted by all researchers as they orient to interaction. A transcribed segment of courtroom interaction is offered so as to examine, in turn-by-turn detail, the nature of participants’ achieved orientations to a civil hearing. It is argued that by examining actual sequences of interaction as displays of social order, priority is given to the talk itself. This position is in contrast to accounting for the detailed work of speakers and hearers by invoking “macroconcepts” such as power, status, identity, institution, or related forces in any way “external” to the interaction.
