Article published In:
Language as ActionEdited by Maurice Nevile and Johanna Rendle-Short
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 30:3] 2007
► pp. 36.1–36.13
Edited by Maurice Nevile and Johanna Rendle-Short
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 30:3] 2007
► pp. 36.1–36.13
Resisting categorisation
An ordinary mother
In this paper we use membership category analysis to examine the way an interviewee utilises category work in order to resist the possible accusation of being a bad mother and instead posit her mothering as ordinary. Through our analysis we explore the interactional work of ascribing and resisting categorisation organised through claims and counter-claims making procedures routinely grounded in descriptions and accounts, and embedded in shifts between individual and categorial actions.
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
References
Atkinson, J. M.; Heritage, J.
editors 1984 Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cuff, E. C.
1993 Problems of Versions in Everyday Situations. International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis and University Press of America, Washington D.C., previously published as: 1980. Some Issues in Studying the Problem of Versions in Everyday Life. Occasional Paper, Department of Sociology, University of Manchester.
Day, D.
1998 ‘Being ascribed and resisting, membership of an ethnic group’. In Identities in Talk, edited by Antaki, C.; Widdicombe, S. London: Sage.
Drew, P.; Atkinson, M.
1979 Order in Court: The Organisation of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London: Macmillan.
Edwards, D.
2006 ‘Discourse, cognition and social practices: The rich surface of language and social interaction’. Discourse Studies 8 (1): 41–49. 
Edwards, D.; Potter, J.
2005 ‘Discursive psychology, mental states and descriptions’. In Conversation and Cognition, Discourse, Mind and Social Interaction, edited by Te Molder, H.; Potter, J. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fitzgerald, R.; Housley, W.
2002 ‘Identity, categorisation and sequential organisation: The sequential and categorial flow of identity in a radio phone-in’. Discourse and Society 131: 579–602.
2006 ‘Categorisation, accounts and motives. “Letters-to-the-editor” and devolution in Wales’. In Devolution and Identity, edited by Wilson, J.; Stapleton, K. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Hester, S.; Eglin, P.
editors 1997 Culture in Action, Studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis. Lanham, MD: University Press of America and International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis.
Housley, W.; Fitzgerald, R.
2002 ‘The reconsidered model of Membership Categorisation’. Qualitative Research 21: 59–74.
Forthcoming). ‘Motives and social organisation: Sociological amnesia, psychological description and the analysis of accounts’. Qualitative Research.
Jayyusi, L.
1984 Categorisation and the Moral Order London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Juhulia, K.
2004 ‘Talking back to stigmatised identities: Negotiation of culturally dominant categorisation in interviews with shelter residents’. Qualitative Social Work 3 (3): 259–275.
Leudar, I.; Nekvapil, J.
2000 ‘Presentations of Romanies in the Czech media: On category work in television debates’. Discourse and Society 111: 487–513.
Lynch, M.
2006 ‘Cognitive activities without cognition? Ethnomethodological investigations of selected “cognitive” topics’. Discourse Studies 8 (1): 95–104.
Lynch, M.; Bogen D.
2005 ‘“My memory has been shredded”: A non-cognitivist investigation of “mental” phenomena’. In Conversation and Cognition, Discourse, Mind and Social Interaction, edited by Te Molder, H.; Potter, J. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McHoul, A.; Watson, R.
1984 ‘Two axes for the analysis of “commonsense” and “formal” geographical knowledge and classroom talk’. British Journal of the Sociology of Education 51: 281–302.
Nikander, P.
2002 Age in Action: Membership Work and Stage of Life Categories in Talk. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.
Osvaldsson, K.
2004 ‘I don’t have no damn cultures. Doing normality in a deviant setting’. Qualitative Research in Psychology 11: 239–264.
Parry, R.
2004 ‘The interactional management of patients’ physical incompetence: A conversation analytic study of physiotherapy interactions’. Sociology of Health and Illness 26 (7): 976–1007.
Potter, J.
2006 ‘Cognition and conversation’. Discourse Studies 8 (1): 131–140.
Roth, A.
1998 ‘Who makes the news? Descriptions of television news interviewees’ public personae’. Media Culture and Society 201: 79–107.
Sacks, H.
1974 ‘On the analyzability of stories by children’. In Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, edited by Turner, R. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
1995 Lectures on Conversation Vol I and II, edited by Jefferson, G. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Watson, D. R.
1997 ‘Some general reflections of “categorisation” and “sequence” in the analysis of conversation’. In Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis, edited by Hester, S.; Eglin, P. Lanham, MD: University Press of America and International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation.
Widdicombe, S.; Wooffitt, R.
1995 The Language of Youth Subcultures: Social Identity in Action. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Cited by
Cited by 9 other publications
Burdelski, Matthew & Noriko Takei
2022. “He’s not Aussie Aussie”: Membership Categorisation in Storytelling Among Family Members and Peers. In Storytelling Practices in Home and Educational Contexts, ► pp. 375 ff. 
Cobb-Moore, Charlotte
2012. ‘Pretend I was Mummy’: Children's Production of Authority and Subordinance in their Pretend Play Interaction during Disputes. In Disputes in Everyday Life: Social and Moral Orders of Children and Young People [Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, 15], ► pp. 85 ff.
Devlin, Niall
2015. The Ethical Demand in an Impossible Profession. In Critical Educational Psychology, ► pp. 88 ff.
Foster, Emily & Laura Kilby
2023. “Speaking as a mother”: A membership categorisation analysis of child-centric talk in a UK daytime television talk show. Feminism & Psychology 33:4 ► pp. 550 ff.
Lester, Jessica Nina
2021. Introduction to Discursive Psychology and Disability: Working at the Intersection of Discursive Psychology and Disability. In Discursive Psychology and Disability, ► pp. 1 ff.
Monforte, Pierre & Teun A van Dijk
2023. ‘Ordinary people like myself’: Character work and modesty in the Refugees Welcome movement. Journal of Civil Society 19:1 ► pp. 20 ff.
Renshaw, Peter, Juliet Choo & elke emerald
2014. Diverse disability identities: The accomplishment of ‘Child with a disability’ in everyday interaction between parents and teachers. International Journal of Educational Research 63 ► pp. 47 ff.
Stelmach, Bonnie L. & Stuart D. Von Wolff
2011. A Challenge to Metrics as Evidence of Scholarity. European Educational Research Journal 10:1 ► pp. 64 ff.
Willemsen, Annerose, Jakob Cromdal & Mathias Broth
2023. Expecting the unpredictable: Categorisation of children and youth during driver training. Discourse Studies 25:6 ► pp. 823 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.