It is now widely agreed that in latter part of the 20th century sociology has taken a ‘linguistic turn’. One of the approaches to emerge out of the linguistic turn is conversation analysis, which is now recognized as one of the most distinctive and genuinely original approaches to the study of language, communication and social interaction to have emerged during the last forty years.

Research in conversation analysis over the past 30 years has shown how these and other technical aspects of talk-in-interaction are structured, socially organized resources - or methods - whereby participants perform and coordinate activities through talking together. Conversational interaction is the primordial site of human sociality. Thus these methods are the technical bedrock on which people build their social lives, and construct their social relations with one another.

This comprehensive collection, brought together by two of the leading figures in conversation analysis, will be indispensable to researchers in not only linguistics but sociology, social psychology, communications, and health sciences whose work involved the language and linguistic features of social action.

Volume 1: Foundations, and the principal organizations of conversation

Volume 2: The methodology of conversation analysis

Volume 3: Language and social action

Volume 4: Interaction in institutional and workplace settings