Objects, Bodies and Work Practice

Edited by Dr. Dennis Day, Johannes Wagner

Publication date:

15 July 2019

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781788924528

What role do material objects play in the in-situ, embodied and spatial circumstances of interaction? How do people organize their embodied conduct with regard to such objects, and how is this consequential in and for their work practices? In this volume, contributors focus on these questions in terms of connections between ongoing courses of interaction within work practices, object materiality and mobility in space, bodily movement and manipulation of objects, and language. The chapters in this book address a broad range of settings and actions (including dressmaking, foreign language teaching, international business meetings and forklift driving) where a variety of objects become relevant.

Introduction. Dennis Day and Johannes Wagner: Objects, Bodies and Work Practice

Transcription Conventions

Part 1: The Role of Objects for the Progressivity of Action

Chapter 1. Maurice Nevile: Objects of Agreement - Placing Pins to Progress Collaborative Activity in Custom Dressmaking

Chapter 2. Anne-Sylvie Horlacher: Workplace Asymmetries and Object-Passing in Hair Salons

Chapter 3. Chiara M. Monzoni, Basil Sharrack, Markus Reuber: Informing and Demonstrating: Manipulating Objects and Patients’ Participation in Shared-Decision-Making

Part 2: Spatial Aspects of Objects in Interaction

Chapter 4. Dennis Day and Gitte Rasmussen: Interactional Consequences of Object Possession in Institutional Practices

Chapter 5. Elwys De Stefani: Ordering and Serving Coffee in an Italian Café: How Customers Obtain ‘Their’ Coffee

Part 3: Objects in the Service of Preparing for a Possible Future

Chapter 6. Trine Heinemann and Barbara Fox: Dropping Off or Picking Up?: Professionals’ Use of Objects as a Resource for Determining the Purpose of a Customer Encounter.

Chapter 7. Maurice Nevile and Johannes Wagner: Objects in Motion: ‘I’m Just Behind You’ and Other Warnings in Forklift Truck Driving

Part 4: Objects as Interactional Accomplishments

Chapter 8. Mie Femø Nielsen: Adjusting or Verbalizing Visuals in ICT Mediated Professional Encounters

Chapter 9. Spencer Hazel and Kristian Mortensen: Designedly Incomplete Objects as Elicitation Tools in Classroom Interaction

Chapter 10. Giolo Fele: Olfactory Objects. Recognizing, Describing, and Assessing Smells During Professional Tasting Sessions

Postscript. Aug Nishizaka: Thing and Space

This multidisciplinary collection, from respected and experienced researchers, not only extends prior work on social interaction but constitutes a critique of past research that has programmatically ignored the materiality that research subjects use or make relevant in the course of their activity.