Positioning in an Inter-Professional Team Meeting: Examining Positioning Theory as a Methodological Tool for Micro-Cultural Group Studies

Pasi Hirvonen

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.9.4.05

Authors

Pasi Hirvonen University of Eastern Finland, Finland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.9.4.05

Keywords:

Positioning Theory, Positioning, Group, Interaction, Micro-Cultural

Abstract

This paper sets out to test the possibilities of the Positioning Theory as a means to approach small group phenomena from a micro-cultural perspective. The study draws on a transcription of a videotaped inter-professional team meeting in the field of social services. Analysis of the data was set to examine how the basic concepts of the Positioning Theory suit the analysis of in-group phenomena, what different forms of positioning are present, and how the positioning is connected to the group processes. Studying the group’s interaction shows how it is possible to approach the interaction via the basic concepts of the Positioning Theory and how the positioning is intervened with group processes, such as decision-making, arguing, and conflict. The study also offers a new theoretical and empirical perspective to the research on small group dynamics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Pasi Hirvonen, University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Pasi Hirvonen is a postgraduate student of Social Psychology in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. The working title of his doctoral dissertation is Positioning Theory and group dynamics: Positioning in management board meetings, and it focuses on discursive positioning in decision-making and conflict situations in small groups. His fields of interest include small group and interaction studies and qualitative methods.

References

Arminen, Ilkka. 2005. Institutional Interaction: Studies of Talk at Work. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Google Scholar

Asmuβ, Birte and Jan Svennevig. 2009. “Meeting Talk: an Introduction.” Journal of Business Communication 46(1):3-22.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943608326761

Bales, Robert F. 1951. Interaction Process Analysis: a Method for the Study of Small Groups. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Press.
Google Scholar

Burke, Peter J. 2003. “Interaction in small groups.” Pp. 363-387 in Handbook of Social Psychology, edited by John Delamater. New York: Kluwer Academic.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36921-X_15

Delamater, John, (ed.). 2003. The Handbook of Social Psychology. New York: Kluver Academic.
Google Scholar

Denzin, Norman K. 1999. “Reading the interaction order.” Pp. 285-312 in Social psychology, 8th ed., edited by Alfred R. Lindesmith, Anselm L. Strauss, and Norman K. Denzin. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Firth, Alan, (ed.). 1995. The Discourse of Negotiation. Studies of Language in the Workplace. Oxford: Pergamon.
Google Scholar

Frosh, Stephen, Ann Phoenix, and Rob Pattman. 2003. “Taking a Stand: Using Psychoanalysis to Explore the Positioning of Subjects in Discourse.” British Journal of Social Psychology 42(1):39-53. Retrieved April 10, 2011 http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/101/1/frosh6.pdf
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1348/014466603763276117

Gough, Brendan and Majella McFadden. 2001. Critical Social Psychology: An Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Harré, Rom. 1997. “Social life as rule-governed patterns of joint action.” Pp. 129-145 in The Message of Social Psychology: Perspectives on Mind in Society, edited by Craig McGarty and Alexander Haslam. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Google Scholar

Harré, Rom and Fathali Moghaddam, (eds.). 2003. “Introduction: the self and others in ttraditional psychology and in positioning theory.” Pp. 1-11 in The Self and Others: Positioning Individuals and Groups in Personal, Political, and Cultural Contex. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Google Scholar

Harré, Rom and Fathali Moghaddam. 2008. “Intrapersonal conflict.” Pp. 65-78 in Positioning Theory: Moral Contexts of Intentional Action, edited by R. Harré and Luk van Langenhove. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-72112-5_4

Harré, Rom and Nikki Slocum. 2003. “Disputes as complex social events: on the uses of the positioning theory.” Pp. 123-136 in The Self and Others: Positioning Individuals and Groups in Personal, Political, and Cultural Context, edited by Rom Harré and Fathali Moghaddam. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Google Scholar

Harré, Rom and Luk van Langenhove, (eds.). 1999a. Positioning Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Google Scholar

Harré, Rom and Luk van Langenhove, (eds.). 1999b. “The dynamics of social episodes.” Pp. 1-13 in The Positioning Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Google Scholar

Hartley, Peter. 1997. Group Communication. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Heath, Christian, Jon Hindmarsh, and Paul Luff. 2010. Video in Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Heritage, John. 2004. “Conversation analysis and institutional talk.” Pp. 103-146 in Handbook of Language and Social Interaction, edited by Robert Sanders and Kristine Fitch. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Google Scholar

Hydén, Margareta. 2005. “‘I Must Have Been an Idiot to Let It Go On’: Agency and Positioning in Battered Women’s Narratives of Leaving.” Feminism Psychology 15(2):169-188.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353505051725

Jones, Stanley E. and Curtis D. LeBaron. 2002. “Research on the Relationship Between Verbal and Nonverbal Communication: Emerging Integrations.” Journal of Communication 52(3):499-521.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02559.x

Kangasharju, Helena. 2002. “Alignment in Disagreement: Forming Oppositional Alliances in Committee Meeting.” Journal of Pragmatics 34(10/11):1447-1471.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00073-5

Linehan, Carol and John McCarthy. 2000. “Positioning in Practice: Understanding Participation in the Social World.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior 30(4):435-453. Retrieved April 10, 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-5914.00139/pdf
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00139

MacMartin, Clare and Curtis D. LeBaron. 2006. “Multiple Involvements Within Group Interaction: A Video-Based Study of Sex Offender Therapy.” Research on Language & Social Interaction 39(1):41-80.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3901_3

Moghaddam, Fathali, Elizabeth Henley, and Rom Harré. 2003. “Sustaining intergroup harmony: An analysis of the Kissinger papers through positioning theory.” Pp. 137-156 in The Self and Others: Positioning Individuals and Groups in Personal, Political, and Cultural Context, edited by Rom Harré and Fathali Moghaddam. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Google Scholar

Moura, Georgina de et al. 2008. “Prospects for Group Processes and Intergroup Relations Research: a Review of 70 Years’ Progress.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 11(4):575-596. R etrieved S eptember 15, 2 011 http://gpi.sagepub.com/content/11/4/575.full.pdf+html
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430208095406

Nikander, Pirjo. 2003. “The absent client: Case description and decision-making in inter-professional meetings.” Pp. 112-128 in Constructing Clienthood in Social Work and Human Services: Identities, Interactions and Practice, edited by Christopher Hall et el. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Google Scholar

Nikander, Pirjo. 2005. “Managing scarcity: Joint decision making in inter-professional meetings.” Pp. 260-279 in Social Work in Health and Mental Health: Issues, Developments and Actions, edited by Tuula Heinonen and Anna Metteri. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Google Scholar

Pink, Sarah. 2007. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857025029

Poole, Marshall S. and Andrea B. Hollingshead. 2004. Theories of Small Groups: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483328935

Poole, Marshall S. et al. 2004. “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Small Groups.” Small Group Research 35(3):3-16. Retrieved March 15, 2011 http://sgr.sagepub.com/content/35/1/3.full.pdf+html
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496403259753

Potter, Jonathan and Derek Edwards. 2001. “Discursive social psychology.” Pp. 103-118 in The New Handbook of Language and Social Psychology, edited by Peter W. Robinson and Howard Giles. London: Wiley.
Google Scholar

Potter, Jonathan and Margaret Wetherell. 1987. Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Rohall, David E., Melissa A. Milkie, and Jeffrey W. Lucas. 2007. Social Psychology. Sociological Perspectives. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Google Scholar

Sammut, Gordon and George Gaskell. 2010. “Points of View, Social Positioning and Intercultural Relations.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 40(1):47-64. Retrieved April 10, 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00422.x/pdf
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00422.x

Schmidle, Robert E. 2010. “Positioning Theory and Terrorist Networks.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 40(1):65-78. Retrieved April 8, 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00421.x/pdf
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00421.x

Schwartzman, Helen B. 1989. The Meeting: Gatherings in Organizations and Communities. New York, London: Plenum Press.
Google Scholar

Slocum-Bradley, Nikki. 2010. “The Positioning Diamond: A Trans-Disciplinary Framework for Discourse Analysis.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 40(1):79-107. Retrieved April 8, 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00418.x/pdf
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00418.x

van Langenhove, Luk and Rom Harré, (eds.). 1999. “Introducing positioning theory.” Pp. 14-31 in Positioning Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Google Scholar

Webb, Janette. 2004. “Organizations, Self-Identities, and the New Economy.” Sociology 38(4):719-738.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038504045861

Wittenbaum, Gwen M. and Richard L. Moreland. 2008. “Small-Group Research in Social Psychology: Topics and Trends Over Time.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(1):187-203. Retrieved March 15, 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00065.x/pdf
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00065.x