Talking Problems

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Talking Problems
Studies of Discursive Construction

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Richard Buttny - Author

SUNY series in Communication Studies

Price: $45.00
Hardcover - 224 pages

Release Date: January 2004

ISBN10: 0-7914-5895-4
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-5895-2

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Summary

Presents a theory of discursive co-construction of problems, or how characters are portrayed in the telling of events.

Using discursive constructionism and conversation analysis, Talking Problems examines how participants orient to, communicate about, and act toward events as problems. The book examines a series of problems, including teenage parenthood in high school, interpersonal and family relationships during therapy, and racism and interracial relations on a university campus. These problems are taken as joint constructions and the interest is in how participants’ versions of events get heard, what unfolds as a consequence of this, how participants position themselves, and what social realities are thereby created.

“Teachers may find many of the chapters useful for examples in class or for course readings; students will find the chapters on students’ racial views fascinating. Many of the data excerpts are interesting and well described by the author. The individual chapters might be very useful for teachers addressing, for example, therapeutic talk, racial views, or strategic uses of humor. The chapters are well written and easily accessible … they would make good supplemental readings for an undergraduate course.” — Contemporary Sociology

“The interesting approach to data collection in combination with some fascinating analyses of problem talk makes Talking Problems one of those rare books that is both thoroughly enjoyable and yet scholarly at the same time. Buttny makes an important contribution to our understanding of the ways in which people jointly construct problems about teenage parenthood in high school, relationships in therapy, and racism and interracial relations on campus.” — Journal of Language and Social Psychology

“An especially useful contribution of this book is its examination of the discursive construction of the ‘new racism,’ in that it demonstrates how whites can tune out black social realities. Buttny thus sheds light on the discursive manifestation of various and subtle ways in which hegemony is re-created.” — Language in Society

"The author presents transcripts of utterances and explains how these excerpts support the claims he develops. This is an essential aspect of such qualitative analysis and the author should be commended for his insights." — William Benoit, author of Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration Discourse

Richard Buttny is Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University and the author of Social Accountability in Communication.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Tellings in Talking Problems

1. Ascribing Problems and Positionings in Talking Student Teenage Parent

2. Clients' and Therapist's Joint Construction of the Clients' Problems

3. Therapeutic Humor in Retelling the Clients' Tellings

Part II: Reportings in Talking Problems

4. Reported Speech in Talking Race on Campus

5. Demanding Respect: The Uses of Reported Speech in Discursive Constructions of Interracial Contact, with Princess L. Williams

6. Discursive Constructions of Racial Boundaries and Self-Segregation on Campus

7. Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

References

Subject Index

Name Index

Related Subjects

Communication
Linguistics

42001/(PR/DG/MC)

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