Harvey Sacks
Social Science and Conversation Analysis
Key Contemporary Thinkers
1. Auflage August 1998
232 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Harvey Sacks's early death in 1975 robbed the social sciences of
one of its most original thinkers. Although he published relatively
little in his lifetime, his lectures and papers were enormously
influential in sociology and sociolinguistics and they played a
major role in the development of ethnomethodology and conversation
analysis. The recent publication of Sacks's Lectures on
Conversation has provided an excellent opportunity for a
wide-ranging reassessment of his contribution.
In this new book, David Silverman provides a clear introduction to
Sack's work and reassesses its value for sociology, linguistics,
anthropology and psychology. Using a variety of examples, he
explains Sacks's ideas on method, language and talk-in-interaction.
He argues that Sacks's work offers a highly original perspective on
language and social life and raises fundamental questions for the
social sciences - questions which, after more than twenty years,
remain vitally important and largely unanswered.
Written in a lively and accessible way, this book will be of
particular interest to students of sociology, sociolinguistics,
social theory and method, but it will also be of interest to
students and researchers in anthropology, psychology and related
disciplines.
1. Beginnings.
2. An Intellectual Biography.
3. Social Science.
4. Method.
5. Membership Categorization Analysis.
6. Conversation Analysis.
7. Using Membership Categorization Analysis.
8. Using Conversation Analysis.
9. Sacks's Legacy.
Appendix 1. Simplified Transcription Symbols and Selected
Abbreviations.
Appendix 2. Sacks's Lectures: Some Key References.
Appendix 3. Summaries of Sacks's Major Published Papers.
References.
Name Index.
Subject Index.
expert through the complex, heretofore underground corpus of Harvey
Sacks's work. Finally, the social science community can study and
learn from Sacks's pathbreaking studies of talk and conversational
analysis. The social science community in the field of everyday
life studies owes Silverman a great debt.' Norman K. Denzin,
University of Illinois
'Harvey Sacks, as they say, was an original. David Silverman
provides a thoughtful, lucid account of his penetrating work. I
urge anyone concerned with occurring speech to read this book.
One's sense of how to interpret what is said will be changed. Even
if one does not adopt the approach, one will have an essential
landmark and reference point to inform what one does oneself.'
Dell Hymes, University of Virginia
'David Silverman's book on Harvey Sacks...deals with
conversation analysis and its relation to social sciences. It is
designed to stimulate an interest in the potential of conversation
analysis among those who are not too familiar with the area, and it
is likely to succeed. ... For those who are tired of the rhetoric
of big strategic issues or the latest managerial fad, here is an
opportunity to redirect themselves towards making management
research (or part of it) into a truly observational social science.
Read Silverman's book on Sacks, think, and then read some more!'
Sten Jönsson, Scandinavian Journal of Management
'This book can be used to complement primary materials in
upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses on language use and
conversation analysis. At the time of writing this review, I have
not yet had a chance to use the book in my classes, but
particularly at the undergraduate level, where my use of Sacks's
lectures has met with varied reactions, I anticipate that
Silverman's introduction to the "aesthetic" and "the legacy" may
help overcome some barriers.' Language in Society
