Problems of Versions in Everyday Situations

This work offers a combination of theoretical critique and empirical study. It criticizes Alfred Schutz's discussion of multiple realities, Melvin Pollner's account of reality disjunctures, and Dorothy Smith's textual analysis of a story of a person becoming mentally ill. Cuff examines transcripts of persons talking about marital breakups and a radio program in which a family discusses a problem in the presence of a commentator and experts. The author stresses the temporal development of the presentation and resolution of conflicting versions of events as told by different persons. Contrasting versions are shown to not simply clash or contradict each other but to provide elaborations and alternative ways of describing events. Cuff shows that versions are not rigidly held, and that parties show an awareness of how their versions contribute to an intersubjective conversation. Co-published with the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis.