My research concentrates on the role of interaction and communicative practices in the construction of institutional categories and identities, with particular reference to the domains of administrative practices, social welfare (esp. child welfare and protection), education and health. In recent years, my interest has extended to addressing the implications of globalization-related and migration-affected multilingualism for the functioning of institutions.
From a theoretical-methodological point of view my work covers (i) the nature of discourse and spoken interaction, (ii) the relevance of conversation analysis, linguistic ethnography, ethnomethodology, pragmatics and the work of E. Goffman for the empirical study of recorded interaction in institutional contexts, (iii) the interface between social theory and language study and (iv) the globalization of language practices and the sociolinguistics of (urban) multilingualism.
Approaches to discourse and discourse analysis
