Repair After Next Turn: The Last Structurally Provided Defense of Intersubjectivity in Conversation

Abstract

Organizational features of ordinary conversation and other talk-in-interaction provide for the routine display of participants' understanding of one anothers' conduct and of the field of action, thereby building in a routine grounding for intersubjectivity. This same organization provides interactants the resources for recognizing breakdowns of intersubjectivity and for repairing them. This article sets the concern with intersubjectivity in theoretical context, sketches the organization by which it is grounded and defended in ordinary interaction, describes the practices by which trouble in understanding is dealt with, and illustrates what happens when this organization fails to function. Some consequences for contemporary theory and inquiry are suggested.