Multilingual Matters Objects, Bodies and Work Practice (Language at Work): 3

Product Description What role do material objects play in the in-situ, embodied and spatial circumstances of interaction? How do people organize their embodied conduct with regard to such objects, and how is this consequential in and for their work practices? In this volume, contributors focus on these questions, specifically to the extent they concern connections between ongoing courses of action within work practices, an object's materiality and mobility in space, bodily manipulation of objects, the body and language. The chapters in this book address a broad range of settings and actions (including dressmaking, foreign language teaching, international business meetings and forklift driving) where a variety of objects become relevant, in addition to participants' bodies. Review Reading this collection may change how you take your shoes back for repair and it will certainly, if you are researching interaction, bring objects to the centre of your attention. Across a stimulating array of settings it charts objects' place in progressing, spatialising and designing actions, and being the achievement of actions themselves. --Eric Laurier, University of Edinburgh, UK About the Author Dennis Day is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Communication, Southern Denmark University. His research interests include ethnography of communication, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and pragmatics. Johannes Wagner is a Professor in the Department of Design and Communication, Southern Denmark University. His research interests include second language acquisition and intercultural communication.