Analysing Practical and Professional Texts

Rod Watson is Research Associate at the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Linguistique et Sociolinguistique at the Institut Marcel Mauss, Paris, France

• Introduction; Chapter 1 The Ethnomethodological Analysis of Texts and Reading; Chapter 2 Going for Brothers in Black American Speech: Making Textual Sense of Analytic Observations of Black Ghetto Culture in the U.S.A.; Chapter 3 The Textual Representation of Nacirema Culture; Chapter 4 The Textual Incarnation of Sociological Analysis: The Case of Erving Goffman's Writings;

'Rod Watson uses the tools of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to show us aspects of texts, both the mundane texts of ordinary life and the sociological texts of authors like Erving Goffman, that we had not suspected were there. It’s a brilliant analysis of the language games and rhetorical tropes that suffuse sociology’s theoretical discourse. Anyone who wants to understand sociologists’ work will profit from Watson’s penetrating insights.' Howard S. Becker 'Rod Watson cogently and masterfully draws the reader in as a co-participant in his textural analysis. Of particular importance is his discussion of the value and power of the documentary method as an analytical tool. Watson meticulously builds his case throughout the volume, culminating in his incisive and insightful textual examination of the work of Erving Goffman.' Thomas S. Weinberg, Buffalo State College, USA 'Watson eschews generalization and instead examines the ''production work'' that constitutes a specific text and gives it meaning-in-use... Watson's book is a welcome addition to the still embryonic literature concerned with how texts actually work as social productions...' Contemporary Sociology