Esther González-Martínez

Longitudinal Research on the Organization of Social Interaction: Current Developments and Methodological Challenges

Adapting practices to local circumstances based on earlier interactions is mundane conduct for human beings. It becomes available for description only when conduct is analyzed as ordered in time, both sequentially and historically. In this introduction to the volume, we first situate the studies presented here with regard to the research agenda of classical Conversation Analysis (CA) and discuss earlier longitudinal research in the field. We then scrutinize a range of methodological challenges that arise at the current state of research for “vertical” (Zimmerman 1999) comparison in CA, related to such issues as warranting comparability and building collections over (extended) periods or time, as well as demonstrating the locally accountable character of longitudinal change. We close the chapter by briefly discussing perspectives for future research.

Passing-by 'Ca va?' checks in clinic corridors

Abstract We have conducted a video-based field study on work interactions between staff members in the corridors of a hospital outpatient clinic in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. In this paper, we examine a specific mobile interactional configuration: passing-by interactions in which staff members get involved as they walk following close and parallel trajectories going in opposite directions. We also examine a specific conversational activity performed in the corridors: checks – introduced by the French expression “Ça va?” (Going okay?) – with which one staff member verifies that the situation of a colleague conforms to a routine state of affairs. Adopting the approaches of multimodal and conversation analysis, we point out features of the interactional configuration and the conversational activity under consideration that participants combine in some excerpts analyzed in the paper. Passing-by checks are practically accomplished, on the spot, through the sequential, embodied and embedded conduct of the staff members. We identify resources involved in building close but non-convergent trajectories, limiting interactional involvement, and coordinating talk and walk for a fleeting co-presence. The article contributes to the study of “on-the-move” contingent interactions as they happen in hospital corridors.

Newcomer Nurses’ Telephone Calls to Porters and Doctors: Inquiring and Reporting as Vehicles for Requests

This chapter examines two vehicles for requests that newcomer nurses use when calling their two main telephone interlocutors at the hospital: doctors and porters. When asking a porter to transport a patient, a nurse inquires as to his or her interlocutor’s ability to carry out a specific action. In contrast, when requesting a doctor’s intervention, the nurse reports a problematic situation regarding a patient but without mentioning either a specific action to address it or who is expected to do it. In the chapter, we reflect on what the differential use of these vehicles tells us about the interactional competences that newcomer nurses call upon in the workplace.

Building Situation Awareness on the Move: Staff Monitoring Behavior in Clinic Corridors

We conducted a workplace research project on staff mobility in a Swiss hospital outpatient clinic that involved extensive fieldwork and video recordings. The article describes monitoring practices and routines that staff engage in as they walk through the corridors and in and out of the clinic’s rooms. The staff perform checks on on-going activity, share their observations with colleagues, and take responsive action while engaged in away-oriented walk or in specific roaming, action-seeking, rallying, and patrolling walk. We argue that these behaviors are closely associated with building and sustaining situation awareness (SA) with regard to the status of the clinic’s functioning. They contribute to the coordination of a spatially distributed team that rapidly accomplishes consequential and closely interrelated activities in constantly changing circumstances.