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Small Disagreements: Character Contests and Working Consensus in Informal Talk
Author(s) -
Malone Martin J.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1994.17.2.107
Subject(s) - contest , conversation analysis , character (mathematics) , conversation , ideology , face (sociological concept) , context (archaeology) , sociology , order (exchange) , presentation (obstetrics) , social psychology , psychology , politics , political science , communication , social science , history , law , mathematics , archaeology , finance , radiology , economics , medicine , geometry
This article is an analysis of a single conversational episode. A disagreement about the significance of a shared event between two participants in a conversation leads to what Goffman calls a character contest. It is resolved by three others present to achieve a new working consensus. The analysis is about character contests and examines face threat, accounts, and working consensus as constituents of the interaction order which operates to maintain face and self presentation. Gender and role are part of the institutional context of this dispute. They provide ideological resources which contribute first to the conflict and later to a new working consensus. The analysis explores how the interactional and institutional orders are intertwined in informal talk.