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Narrating Nursing Jurisdiction: “Atrocity Stories” and “Boundary‐Work”
Author(s) -
Allen Davina
Publication year - 2001
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.2001.24.1.75
Subject(s) - jurisdiction , negotiation , sociology , symbolic interactionism , ethnography , storytelling , conversation , boundary work , constitution , conversation analysis , work (physics) , the symbolic , social psychology , psychology , nursing , linguistics , narrative , law , social science , psychoanalysis , political science , anthropology , medicine , communication , philosophy , mechanical engineering , engineering
Sociologists have long recognized that the division of labor is, at its root, a process of social interaction. Although “negotiations” figure centrally in symbolic interactionist studies of work, relatively little attention has been given to the ways in which the structure of workplace talk contributes to the social constitution of occupations. Drawing on the insights of discourse and conversation analysis, this article examines occupational atrocity stories and considers how they accomplish boundary‐work in the hospital setting. I focus on the stories British nurses told about doctors and use data generated in ethnographic research into the routine accomplishment of nursing jurisdiction. I conclude with some general observations about how the detailed analysis of stories and storytelling can contribute to the wider study of social group formation.