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4.0 Introduction CHAPTER 4 DOING SOCIA(B)L(E) SCIENCE In the previous three chapters I have drawn on a substantial and eclectic body of literature to address face and facework (Chapter 1), German-English differences in communicative style (Chapter 2), and posited a framework for addressing facework as alignment in sociable episodes (Chapter 3). In this chapter, before moving on to the analytical chapters, I want to briefly outline my general methodology for the collection and initial management and analysis of conversational data. After formally out setting the research questions (4.1), 1 shall provide a brief description of the data sites from which my data are drawn. This will include details of settings and participants. I shall outline my methodology for data collection, focusing on the nature of the data employed, the recording remit, and technical aspects of data collection, as well as additional methods employed to enhance the depth of the analysis (4.2). Following this I shall provide an overview of the initial organisation and analysis of the conversational data (4.3). Issues concerning my role, relationship to participants, and related ethical issues will then be discussed (4.4). Finally, I will provide a conclusion (4.5). In effect, this chapter relates to the pre-analytical phase of this study, that is, the fieldwork phase. In that sense it shall focus on the procedures employed to gather data from sociable gatherings, as well as focusing on the actual experiences and contingencies of working in such milieu. The title of the chapter 'doing social(b)l(e) science has been deliberately contrived to capture the full set of contingencies of this particular type of data collection ethnographic work. 100
4.1 Research Questions In the previous chapter I advanced a model of facework as alignment. It was proposed that sociable conversation could be conceived of as being characterised by what I termed positive and negative alignment, that is, positive alignments in and through claims to sameness, and negative alignment in claims to difference. Importantly, such claims were seen to be achieved in a and through the alignment of what I referred to as sociable selves. Based upon these propositions, I suggested certain fundamental questions which might need to be addressed if German and English differences in communicative style - specifically within sociable episodes - was to be understood as face as alignment. These were quite general questions, but are ones which related directly to the model set out above. More pertinently, they have fundamentally informed the chosen methodology which I shall outline here, and subsequent analytical stance developed in Chapters 5 to 8.1 have accorded these questions a separate section heading due to their centrality to the wider concerns with methodology. Based on my discussion and propositions set out in Chapter 3, the research questions can now be formally posited: 1. What is the nature of positive and negative claims in each culture? 2. How do participants collectively align to allow these claims to be ratified? 3. What is the nature of conversational selves mobilised in the doing of sociable conversation? 4. How are selves used as resources for alignment? In subsequent chapters, I shall attempt to unpack these rather general questions by considering in both cultures the development of conversational topic as a collaborative sociable act and the prevalence and nature of positive and negative alignment in both cultures (see Chapters 5-8). These three areas will form the central themes around which the analytical part of this study is organised (see fig. 4.1). 101
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4.1 Research Questions<br />
In the previous chapter I advanced a model <strong>of</strong> facework as alignment. It<br />
was proposed that sociable conversation could be conceived <strong>of</strong> as being<br />
characterised by what I termed positive and negative alignment, that is, positive<br />
alignments in and through claims to sameness, and negative alignment in<br />
claims to difference. Importantly, such claims were seen to be achieved in a and<br />
through the alignment <strong>of</strong> what I referred to as sociable selves. Based upon<br />
these propositions, I suggested certain fundamental questions which might<br />
need to be addressed if German and English differences in communicative style<br />
- specifically within sociable episodes - was to be understood as face as<br />
alignment. These were quite general questions, but are ones which related<br />
directly to the model set out above. More pertinently, they have fundamentally<br />
informed the chosen methodology which I shall outline here, and subsequent<br />
analytical stance developed in Chapters 5 to 8.1 have accorded these questions<br />
a separate section heading due to their centrality to the wider concerns with<br />
methodology.<br />
Based on my discussion and propositions set out in Chapter 3, the<br />
research questions can now be formally posited:<br />
1. What is the nature <strong>of</strong> positive and negative claims in each culture?<br />
2. How do participants collectively align to allow these claims to be ratified?<br />
3. What is the nature <strong>of</strong> conversational selves mobilised in the doing <strong>of</strong><br />
sociable conversation?<br />
4. How are selves used as resources for alignment?<br />
In subsequent chapters, I shall attempt to unpack these rather general<br />
questions by considering in both cultures the development <strong>of</strong> conversational<br />
topic as a collaborative sociable act and the prevalence and nature <strong>of</strong> positive<br />
and negative alignment in both cultures (see Chapters 5-8). These three areas<br />
will form the central themes around which the analytical part <strong>of</strong> this study is<br />
organised (see fig. 4.1).<br />
101