ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the issue of how care might be performed competently as a practical accomplishment in social interaction. It aims to offer some practical thoughts on the symbolic resources through which meanings of care may be generated. The chapter explores three potential areas for future research questions: around the multimodal nature of care; care within challenging work situations; and how competence may be defined in dynamic care-giving. It also deals with the third and fourth of Joan Tronto’s phases–of care-giving and care-receiving–and the issue of how care might be performed competently as a practical accomplishment in social interaction. The chapter summarizes some of the complexities of delivering care in social interaction and how calls from various literatures to act in caring ways have highlighted contrary themes within practices of care-giving. It focuses on discourse analytic theory to explore how interviewees produce and negotiate self-identities and practices within conversation.
