Formulating the Triangle of Doom

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid in the CA literature to the glossing practices through which participants in conversation formulate who they are, what they are talking about, where the things they are talking about are located, and so forth. There are, of course, gestural glossing practices as well. For any concept or category presented gesturally, however, there is a range of possibilities from which a particular formulation may be adopted on any actual occasion of use. Identifying alternative formulations serves as a useful analytic exercise for exploring the pragmatic consequences of a produced gesture. In our own research, we have been studying the practices through which surgeons provide instruction while performing surgeries in a teaching hospital. We describe here a particular anatomy lesson produced during a surgery. The attending surgeon uses his hands and arms to gesturally construct a representation of a specific anatomic region (“the Triangle of Doom”) for the benefit of two medical students viewing and participating in the surgery. Employing the structure of Schegloff’s analysis of place formulations, we conduct an analysis of the attending’s gestural formulation. We will show how analyzing a particular gesture in this way illuminates both the intricate ways in which the gesture is tied to its context of production and the exquisite specificity of the gesture itself.

Visual Expertise as Embodied Practice

“…On the other hand, gesture can be treated "not only as an external manifestation of understanding but also as reflecting a constructive process of connection making" (2002, p. 252). It is with this latter view in mind that we turn to the present study and its interest in how gestures can become active means through which visual expertise is built and enacted-how gestures are performed in the service of sense making (cf., Koschmann, LeBaron, Goodwin, Zemel, & Dunnington, 2007), both for self and others.…”

Shaping Participation in Vocational Training Interactions: The Case of Schisming

“…In the conditions of work, learning occurs through participation in interaction, which means that interactional properties may serve as resources for learning. is can be observed for instance in speci c interaction patterns, di erent from explicit teaching, that may emerge in the course of work production tasks, and that may display an "instructional component" from the perspective of the participants (Koschmann et al 2007;Koskela and Palukka 2011). is can also be observed in the ways the participants' speci c contributions to interactions may be rati ed, ignored or corrected, depending on their local contextual relevance.…”

Beyond ‘Doctor and Patient’: Developments in the Study of Healthcare Interactions

“…For example, recent studies have explored ante -natal screening and examinations (B ü scher and Jensen 2007, Nishisaka 2007, Pilnick 2004, AIDS/HIV counselling (Per ä kyl ä 1995 , Silverman 1997 ), anaesthesia (Hindmarsh and Pilnick 2002 ), child counselling (Hutchby 2007 ), health visiting (Heritage and Sefi 1992 ), dentistry (Anderson 1989 , Hindmarsh in press ), emergency calls (Whalen et al 1988, Whalen 1995, homeopathy (Ruusuvuori 2005 ), medical and child helplines (Greatbatch et al 2005 , Pooler forthcoming , Potter andHepburn 2003 ), pharmacy (Pilnick 1998 ), physiotherapy (Parry 2004, Martin 2005, psychiatry and psychotherapy (McCabe et al 2002, Antaki et al 2005, Per ä kyl ä et al 2008, Speer and Parsons 2006 and surgery (Koschmann et al 2007, Sanchez Svennson et al 2007, Mondada 2007. Furthermore, there are a range of recent studies relevant to medical sociology that stand outside formal healthcare settings, such as research concerning Alcoholics Anonymous (Arminen 1998 ) and the family (Beach 1996 ).…”