Negotiating epistemic asymmetries during crisis management exercises: Pre-emptive and corrective practices

Abstract

This study investigates interactional practices to negotiate epistemic asymmetries in multinational crisis management training in which English is used as a lingua franca (ELF). More specifically, we focus on exercises that include patrolling as well as other activities in which the trainees move by and interact in a vehicle. These exercises can be seen as “high stakes” environments that make orientation to urgency and safety issues relevant in the coordination of social conduct. Drawing on video recordings and ethnographic field notes from two United Nations military observer courses and using conversation analysis (CA), we examine moments in the exercises where the trainees orient to knowledge-related (i.e., epistemic) asymmetries in the upcoming or ongoing task. The analysis shows how these moments emerge and become solved in the moment-by-moment organization of interaction via utilization of verbal, linguistic and multimodal resources. We illustrate how some moments in the exercises allow the implementation of pre-emptive practices, whereas others call for corrective strategies and halting the ongoing task-related activity. The study sheds light on the situated practices the trainees use to establish mutual understanding and to advance goal-oriented activities in a mobile environment, and it promotes the temporal and sequential organization of social actions as key for collaborative work in crisis management training.