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In terms of the selves mobilised, these in the first instance - due to the
nature and relevance of the topic - can be classed as agonistic selves. The
most salient manifestation is the way in which the topic is taken - not with
exaggeration and humour (as was endemic to both the English episodes), but
rather more seriously. Agonised selves are clearly mobilised not on their
ability to entertain wit dramatic and factual licence, but to convey quite
precisely their stance towards unemployment. The excerpts begins with a
clear manifestation of this general agonised alignment with three of the four
participants identifying unemployment rates as salient aspects of a countries
international profile, and ones which require some precise consideration. EP
claims that no country in the world enjoys zero unemployment (lines 1-3),
even in Amerika [America] where at that time EP noted the economy to be
'gerade am boomen' ['booming at the moment] (line 7), as well as in
Grossbrittanian [Great Britain] where EP is currently resident. Following this,
other participants cite other countries' unemployment rates, such as KN's
claims regarding Holland (lines 10-14) and HB's observations about Schweiz
[Switzerland] (line 15 onwards). Collectively then what the participants work
towards is a cumulative corpus of factual data organised around a central
theme and upon which further consensual definition and evaluation of the
problem of Arbeitslosigkeit can develop.
As is common for German sociable conversation, much of the talk here
is taken up by one speaker, namely, HB. Importantly, HB's claims, and
therefore HB's self, is not being proffered nor taken as an individuated one
based for example on some counter-position, but as one representative of the
definitions and views of the participants qua collective. What HB's claims
further manifest is evidence of a German agonised self. In line 38 and
beyond, HB mobilises such an agonised self as he provides the evidence for
the 'einfachen Grunde' ['simple reason'] for Germany's employment problems
being the correlation between its unemployment rate and the millions of non-
working 'Auslaenders'['foreingers] in the country (lines 40-41) . As the talk
progresses and HB continues to develop the talk in and through this primarily
agonised self, other participants mobilise similar recognisably agonised
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