Introduction: Morality in Discourse

Abstract

This special issue of Research on Language and Social Interaction contains a collection of articles that take the relation of social interaction and morality as their topic. The authors who contributed to this special issue share the view that morality and interaction are deeply intertwined with each other, and in their empirical analysis of actual instances of "moral discourse" they elucidate the nature and dynamics of this interrelation. The articles pay close attention to the principles and forms through which moral issues are handled in social interaction, and they look in the opposite direction by topicalizing the moral implications and consequences of certain verbal activities. Whereas the first perspective takes morality as its starting point and asks how it is interactionally accomplished and shaped, the second perspective starts from interaction and pursues how moral concerns become relevant in and through the social organization of interaction.Jorg R. Bergmann and E' er Line11 gratefklly acknowledge the support of the Werner Reimers Stiftung in Bad Homburg, Germany, which in 1992 hosted a conference of the "Dynamics of Dialogue" study group on "Moralities of Dialogue," during which most of the articles that make up this special issue were presented.Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Jorg MOWLITV, DISCOTjRSE: AN1 1 SOCIAL SCXENCERelating morality and discourse is in itself not a new approach; on the contrary, for centuries scholars of various academic origin have written about discourse mainly wit11 regardl to its moral aspects, In the classicaI rhetorics as well as in the numerous mnnrrds on courtly behavior and good co~ivezsation Ibat were writren and wideXy read in Europe from the 26th to the 18th centray fcf* Burke, L943), morality and discourse were I closely linked in a twofold manner: %1ajor parts of these treatises were made up of descriptions that tdd their readers how they should act and express themselves 3n order to gain their fellow citizens' respect and to establish an impeccable moral character At the same time these desciiptions were not coached as neutral informadon but were shaped in the mold f o m of examples, prescriptions; and warnings. The recommendations o,n proper topics of eon~sersas;iof~, f:I~e Insmction to "'avoid interruptions" and "speak: in turns," the warnings against monopolizing the conversation, and similar guidelines formulated the obligatory code of behavioral duties and good manners $21 a r k epoch or social group. 'lI11.1~ these treatises tII~emelves represent a genre of m o d communicatim;jhek authors were writing in moral ways about moral ways of talkiflg.With the devebpmei~t of modem coxlceptlons of science, the idea evolved h a t moral commitments fxtuali discourse could I x separated.This distinction was a necessary prerequisite of a11 modern social sciences and it opened up the possibility to study arorality and disctxirse isolated frbm each other and without taking a ~nora1 stance. Efforts to formulate program far a nonnonnative, scientif...

A Student in Distress: Moral Frames and Bystander Behavior in School

“…Kohlberg (1969Kohlberg ( , 1984, for example, argues that children's respect for norms and authority in school as well as a lack of self-chosen ethical principles of conscience (which in turn might explain passive bystander behavior, at least in some instances) is a result of the individual child's immaturity and hence unfinished cognitive development through predetermined, invariant, and universal stages of moral reasoning. However, along with other researchers (e.g., Bergmann, 1998;Bhatia, 2000;Tappan, 2006;Tholander, 2002), I would argue that everyday social interactions and the social context in which the children operate heavily influence the construction and reproduction of morals among children.…”

“I will send badass viruses.” Peer threats and the interplay of pretend frames in a classroom dispute

“…If some participant breaches locally constructed organization of appropriate actions, it reveals the local moral order, moral order in interaction (e.g. Bergmann 1998). The moral order is deeply woven into ordinary activities in which they are produced, rather than being independent or outside of them.…”

Causal accounts as a consequential device in categorizing mental health and substance abuse problems

“…We moved on to analyse how causal accounting is displayed and used in these instances. We examined how clients and mental health and substance abuse problems are categorized, and how the moral implications of who is held responsible for the 'double trouble' situations are connected to these categorizations (third phase in the analysis) (Bergmann 1998;Dillon 2011;Stokoe 2003). In Bergmann's (1998: 287, 291) words: "Moral work can be done through the selection of categories" and "the whole enterprise of people- In the extract causal accounting is used to describe that the client had bought Subutex, injected it and was then in psychosis.…”