Crossing with care: bogs, streams and assistive mobilities as family praxis in the countryside

Laurier, Eric; Dunkley, Ria; Smith, Thomas A.; Reeves, Stuart

Abstract

In this paper, we use ethnomethodology, membership categorisation analysis, and conversation analysis (EMCA) to investigate traversing obstacles in outdoor environments as reflexively constitutive of producing, resisting and adjusting family relationships. We look at how relationship categories are a resource to be drawn upon in organising intercorporeal mobile actions. When faced with obstacles, group members offer, recruit, request or reject assistance, through altered bodily movements, in relation to obstacles. The assistance offered is constituted through, literally, lending a hand in finely coordinated and adjusted forms of contact and support. We locate the significance of assisting practices that are made relevant by these relationships (e.g. adult-child) and how such practices are intertwined with perceiving the local environment (e.g. rivers, the terrain underfoot). The data are video recordings of families walking through the countryside and assisting one another in crossing obstacles. Our findings on the organisation and accountability of traversing, through touch, gesture and talk, contribute to studies of family practices, mobility, and inter-corporeality.

Citation

Laurier, E., Dunkley, R., Smith, T. A., & Reeves, S. (2021). Crossing with care: bogs, streams and assistive mobilities as family praxis in the countryside. Gesprächsforschung, 22, 544-568

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 5, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: May 27, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 15, 2022
• Journal: Gesprächsforschung: Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion
• Electronic ISSN: 1617–1837
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Pages: 544-568
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7369762
• Related Public URLs: http://www.gespraechsforschung-online.de/mobility.html