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Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis
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Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis

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March 2015 | 208 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

This is an exciting addition to the dynamic, multidisciplinary field of membership categorization analysis. Bringing together the biggest names in MCA this landmark publication provides a contemporary analysis of the field and a platform for emerging researchers and students to build upon.

The book sets out the current methodological developments of MCA highlighting its analytic strength – particularly when examining social identity and social knowledge. It provides a sophisticated tool of qualitative analysis and draws from a wide range of empirical studies provided by global scholars.

The culmination of years of international research this agenda-setting text will be essential reading for academics and advanced students using membership categorization across the social sciences; particularly in media and communication studies, sociology, psychology, education, political science and linguistics.

William Housley & Richard Fitzgerald
Chapter1: Introduction to Membership Categorization Analysis
Rod Watson
Chapter2: De-Reifiying Categories
Elizabeth Stokoe & Frederick Attenborough
Chapter 3: Prospective and Retrospective Categorization: Category proffers and inferences in social interaction and rolling news media
Christian Licoppe
Chapter 4: Categorization Work in the Courtroom: The ‘foundational’ character of membership categorization analysis
Edward Reynolds & Richard Fitzgerald
Chapter 5: Challenging Normativity: re-appraising category, bound, tied and predicated features
Sean Rintel
Chapter 6: Omnirelevance in Technologized Interaction: Couples coping with video calling distortions
William Housley & Robin James Smith
Chapter7: Membership Categorization and Methodological Reasoning in Research Team Interaction

MCA provides an orientation, set of questions, and identification of discrete discourse devices to aid understanding of the moral work  being accomplished by speakers’ and writers’ as they  select  category terms and tie them to descriptions.  Fitzgerald and Housley’s Advances in Membership Categorization Analysis brings together cutting edge theoretical explication with fascinating examples ( YouTube posts, intimates video chatting, a review board assessing parole, a research team meeting, online breaking news updates)  and is a must-read for anyone interested in identities and interaction.

 

Karen Tracy
Professor and Chair, College of Media, Communication and Information, University of Colorado Boulder

A state of the art collection which is essential reading for anyone interested in social identity and social order.

David Silverman
Goldsmiths' and King's College, London, and University of Technology, Sydney

Membership categories are central to the organization of culture.  They set up inferential relations between classes of people, they implicate actions and thoughts, and they mark moral statuses.  Membership categorization analysis develops the tradition of work started by Harvey Sacks and shows that the issues he explored are still urgent and significant.  In this volume an A-list of contributors provide state of the art analyses that illustrate the ongoing vitality of membership categorization analysis.  It is essential reading for anyone interested in this topic.

Jonathan Potter
Professor of Discourse Analysis, Loughborough University

Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley are to be congratulated for further developing the field. In taking up such questions as the ethnomethodology of categorization (a masterful discussion by Rod Watson), the omni-relevance of categories, the precise nature of the connections between categories and predicates, the temporal reference of category usage, the relationship of categorization to “doing being ordinary” and the place of categorization in the “social life of methods,” the contributors truly bear out the promise expressed in the title of advancing membership categorization analysis.

Peter Eglin
Wilfrid Laurier University

The authors provide an applied, multi-modal, and engaging demonstration of how MCA is used in contemporary research. Exercises and cases provided in each chapter are especially useful.

Dr Kathleen C Haspel
Communication Studies, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ-Flor
September 15, 2015

Richard Fitzgerald

Richard Fitzgerald is Professor of Communication at the University of Macau, China (SAR). Before joining the University of Macau in 2014 he has held posts at Cardiff University and the University of Queensland. He has researched and written extensively on broadcast and digital media and methods of qualitative Discourse Analysis. His recent major publications include Advances in Membership Categorization Analysis (2015, Sage) co-edited with William Housley, and On Sacks. Methodology, Materials and Inspirations (2021, Routledge) co-edited with Robin Smith and William Housley. He is a former Editor in Chief of ... More About Author

William Housley

William Housley PhD, DSc.Econ. FAcSS is Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. He is an internationally recognised expert in qualitative and social research methods, sociological theory, the study of practical reason, science and technology studies, ethnomethodology, membership categorization analysis, social interaction and digital sociology. His contribution to Sociology was confirmed through the award of a DSc Econ. by Cardiff University in 2012 for his internationally recognized work in the field of interaction, communication and social organization. He has served as an editor of Qualitative Research (SAGE) and... More About Author

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