Second Annual Lecture

A public lecture by Professor John Heritage, Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, from the Department of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Professor Heritage is one of the world's leading researchers of talk and social interaction, particularly social interaction in medical settings. There will be a drinks reception from 5pm and the lecture will start at 6pm. 

One of the more surprising developments in sociology during recent decades has been the success of the ultra-microsociological field of conversation analysis (CA). As its name implies, this field focuses on how people talk in conversation and other forms of interaction, and it does so in fine detail. The field was invented in my Department at UCLA, and has since become a widespread approach to research on social interaction and commmunication, practiced worldwide and prominently here at the University of York. The success of this field has two sources: its contribution to solving basic problems in the social sciences, and its use as a resource in solving applied problems in many walks of life. This talk describes some of the basic problems, as well as some applications of CA in the everyday worlds of law, medicine and politics.

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