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Authority and camaraderie: The delivery of directives amongst the ice floes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2019

Anne Elizabeth Clark White
Anne Elizabeth Clark White*
Affiliation:
University of California Davis, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Anne E. C. White, University of California Davis, 4150 V St #3100, Sacramento, CA95817, USAaecwhite@gmail.com
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Abstract

This analysis focuses on the institutional talk of sea-kayak guides and their clients in order to understand how guides negotiate the interactional balance of giving orders to maintain a safe and timely excursion while facilitating a fun and recreational experience. Using a mixed-method analysis including Conversation Analysis, ethnography, and statistics, this study examines 576 instances of directives found in video recordings of twenty-five Alaskan kayaking ecotourism excursions and explores the practices guides use in their talk to maintain control of an excursion while not coming across as domineering. By systemically examining directives’ design, directives are found to reveal both their temporal urgency in addition to the precipitating events that necessitate them, such as client behaviors or environmental stimuli. This study's analysis contributes to our understanding of how interactants mitigate face-threatening actions and focuses attention on the interactional work that directives and their accounts achieve in an institutional setting currently underinvestigated (Directives, mixed-methods, Conversation Analysis, ethnography, ecotourism)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 207 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

*

I am very appreciative of my bosses for allowing me to double as a guide and researcher, my co-guides for their willingness to participate and help gather data, and the clients who allowed their vacations to be shared. I am also very thankful to John Heritage, Steve Clayman, Tanya Stivers, Federico Rossano, and the reviewers for their invaluable comments and support.

I am supported by grant number T32HS022236 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) through the Quality, Safety, and Comparative Effectiveness Research Training (QSCERT) Program.

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