ABSTRACT
This chapter sketches the contours of half a dozen generic organizations of practice central to the conduct of interaction and that form of interaction that is distinctive to humans—talk in interaction. The practices of repair are focused in a sharply defined window of opportunity in which virtually all repair that is initiated is initiated. The generic character of the structural organization of the unit “a single conversation” consists straightforwardly in its provision of the practices for launching and closing episodes of interaction with the commitments of attention that they place on their participants. A good starting point for exploring the fit with conversation analysis is to remark on the obvious point that, whatever is to be found in the cognitive apparatus, it is not working on a blank field in its engagement with the world. As central a theme as any in the preceding sketch of conversation analysis is that talk in interaction is about action and courses of action.
