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Wetherell and Potter (Discourse Analysis)

discourse analysis textbook by wetherall and potter

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Wetherell and Potter (Discourse Analysis)

discourse analysis textbook by wetherall and potter

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millie3
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Analysing Everyday Explanation A Casebook of Methods Edited by Charles Antaki {ABS a SAGE Pubtications London # Newbury Park © Beverly Hills © New Delhi PARTIV RHETORIC AND IDEOLOGY 2 Discourse analysis and the identification of interpretative repertoires ‘Margaret Wetherell and Jonathan Potter Inthischaper we intend toihstrate the appoachtolay explanations tak- enby course analysts We wil attempt in particular, to demonstrate the value of interpretative repertoires at abasic analyte unt Fis, however, letusstuat this methodological approach within broad devel ‘opments in both socal psychology and modem theories of discourse ‘Theoret background ‘Many social peychologes even ‘new’ ones — have a rather ‘ld‘ashined tiew of language. They asume that language ace as a neutral, transparent medium between the social actor and the world, #6 that normally discourse can be taken at fice value 26 2 simple description of a mental state or an event. People's ‘terancrs might occasionally be distorted by the desire Tor social ‘esrabilty But thee cases of Jstoried. dicoure ae unusual. More ‘often, accounts ae taken to be simple, unitrsive, neural electors ‘of rea processes located elewhere ‘The toplauaity of tie sandard essunytion in tedtonal scl pyehology and in is alterives can be seen when we look a the frurgeoning work in sociology, philosophy and literary theory on language function. Analysts in these felds have demonstrated the essen and inecapabl action orientation’ of discourse (Heitage, 1981). Discourse hae Become seen as a zocal pracice nell 35 opposed to. neutral tansmiter, with is own characteristic features and practical eonsequences. ‘There is no space hee to trace the threads of our own prefered theoretical framework — discourse analjis ~ in the intellectual ‘uations of speech act theory, ethpomethodology, conversation Discourse analysis and inerpretative eperires 168 analysis, semiology and post-strucualsm. The contributions by Billig, (Chapter 14), Parker (chapter 13), Heritage (chapter 9) and iy and McLaughlin (chapter 8) are complementary to our own, and contain a great dealt would be wasteful to dupieate here. Le ‘usstat from the position that uiterancesare aes, and that languages fnetiona all hetime net simply on atypical spac evasion, The ‘meaning ofan tterance is nota straightforward matter of external reference but depends onthe local and broader discursive systems Inwhich the uterance is embeded. ‘Geary, we are not suggesting thal disparate and contradictory per- spectiveson dicoursesuch as speech act theory end post structualism ‘an simply be Blended together to orm a new analti perspective. ‘These are separate traditions with their own disputes and diffu. Bu they indicate some ise traditions socal psyehologss neglect when they comtinue to take participants’ talk as simple referential Matements indicating 2 mate or less ouble-ree path to actions, sttades and events. And fom this bass we can begiao think about the form a dscoure approach to socal psychology might take. Discourse analy Discourse ans can best be onderstood by itodsing the interconected concepts of fst, consucton, varsion and the anc unite tnterpretatnereperoe” We wil stat ‘nt the notion of function Doth spect act theory and etinomethodaogy sets the action corentation of language ve. People J things wih et course they make sciatone, ak questions, joy thet condct and 50 fon, At ihe se ine, potstructurat wor gps that we need {© modsate and sopplement wy of he pecormaie dimension ‘ot langage use with work on wider ninended consequences, when pioy a price form of dscourse it has repercussions Eile ovn wah may nor have been formule or een “derstood by the speaker or write "The ancoure aaa acorpores both of exe pecs wer the general ets funchon. Wan think of 3 comin fom mare “imarpenonal functions sacha explaining, juin, excusing, tinmng and soon wich define the cl cave context te wider purposes ducouse might srve~ whee, for istance, 2 soil St gat wth sesebe an acount yt shaving arcu kindof eologcal ffs inthe sme of egiimaling ‘nb powerot one groin asocy. fe cnn recy ely, Some ater for example, emerge Geary br explely mean speech acts. The feranc for inane, T name ths sip he Titan an obviows 170 Margare Wetherll and Jonathan Power ‘example. Inthe appropriate circumstances (Austin, 1962) twill be perferly ear to the assembled dignitaries and spectators that this Sterance has the function of ship naming. Similarly other specific language functions such as requests, excuses and accusations may frequenty be quite unambiguous Functions of this kind ate ot always clear-cut, however. Much ofthe time participants have good reasons for keeping the exact ature of thei utterances Inexplick. For example, Drew (1984) has demonstrated how speakers offen make requess indirectly, allowing the recipient of the request 10 reject them without ‘making this rejection obvious ean be equally difficult to specify the broader consequences of discourse. Choice of terminology can have subtle effects which may be ‘overlooked by speakers. For instance, itis commonplace to describe thecutrentpracticeofmovingthehandicapped andthe mentally ilout ‘fintttions andinto smaller hoselas'communty cae’ Oneofthe functions ofthis particular description sto draw onthe positive eva lone tedto'sommunity'diacource anda develops characterisation focused around the organic and agency metaphors which distinguish “community talk (Pote and Colle, 1987; Poter and Reicher, 1987) Cis ofthe policy may fndit necessary to deconstruct or negate the ‘community emphasis toetfectivelyargue against, Butnether users nor receiver ofthis discourse need be intentionally aware ofthese ‘consequences when formblating their description: it seems right. In many cases alk which simply packaged as describing the situation, ‘asthespeakerseest,canbeanalysedin rms of discursive functions and effets which go beyond mere description. or these reasons discourse aalysiseannot be, ina straightforward sway, an analysis of funtion, because fonctions are notin general ire available for study. One ofthe dfelties in any analysis of language funtionand he actions containedintterancesisthat Weare immediately involvedininterpetation. Essentially. discourse analysis Involves developing hypotheres about he purposes andconsequerces ‘offanguage. Az we have seen, dicourse doesnot usualy come eady Tabeled wit the functions neatly displayed on show, so that one Kind of form is always an accusation, or always marks out a rationalization. or always suggests consequences which we could ‘Seserbe as ideological in their effect. “The elucidation of function is one ofthe endpoine of discourse analysis, That fe, fonctions ae the findings eater than the anv data. How, then, are functions to be revealed from a study of ‘scours? There is no single answer to this question; however, ‘one important response is that fonctions are revealed through sdtady of varaion: Discourse analysts and interpreavereperoies 171 “The fat that discourse rented toiterent functions means that itl be highly variable: what peopl ay and write wl be diferent, Sccording to what hey ave doing. An venta socal group poly fra personality may be described in many diferent ways a function hanges fom excusing or example. to baming os rom formulating 2 postive evaluation fo constructing a negative one. Speakers gi ‘ing inconistent and varies tre of thet soil words tiny ways thi isa highly counterintuitive cain, Payehologis areaceustomed to rego the ndviduala coherent, content te starting point oftheir invertigations. Only on deteipion is pomible of ste of ming, and once thar desertion achieved the {ues i complete. Vriabliy within and between the accounts hat People give ot pat of thisimage. ‘Varibliy i best demoncrated with data, and when we move con to concrete research example we wil tra fo our argument For'the moment our pont that variation has a ruil analytic Tole. As variation is # consequence of funtion it canbe wed 38 Baty: clon what fron song perormed nw part Stretch of dacoures That ly by Hentlyng variation, which Comparatively strigtforward anal task we can work towards Gn understanding of fancon. We can predict that cram Kinds of faction wil lead to certain Kings of variation and we can ook for those variations (Gilbert and Malkay, 1984; Malay and Gilbert 1982; Potter and May, 1983). ‘Again, we should emphasize that variability need not be a consequence of deliberator itetional processes Much ofthe time ‘People inti lay explanations wil at be strategically planning, schiavelian or saying what ‘feeme right forthe station. “Te faethe couse oriented consciously or nt, to partiar ‘unctionswhichin tur tow yp mao ings variaon, ess Ihatdacourelteing wed constvely Therealst mode, outioed ‘ler, astmesthat corse ongniedio away whichrefets the fature ofthe ents it dexiber. For discourse analysis, However, Tanguaetspetogehr, contacted, fo purposes andtoschieve p= tear Contequences So variations oan index function ue Inder ofthe diferent ways in which accounts canbe manufactured. Sf em contraction i appropsate forthe reso. Fs, cae ita oe pol a cu mance ot re exatng igus resouceswithproperiesofibirown, muchas hig puttogeter ning pdr concrete andeable some of which sre flenie some ard and 00m Secondly, reminds us that ace 72 Margaret Weherell and Jonathan Poter ‘some will be used and some not. Thirdly, the notion of construction ‘emphasizes, once more, that discourse hasan action orientation: that racial consequences: Much of ou socal ives depends on dealing ihevens deol which re experienced ony ines ofspcie gust versions. In profound sense the ‘coir ourived reaiy (Pot, St Scvralspecfcanalyicpracticeshaveemergedfromourdcwson Tors Fk, and fey strony, wr net ceggesting that tees ‘tentonispaidto the detailoflanguage use, working rom transcripts fr documents rather man from (in the soca psychological tradition) ‘Some numerial ransformatonof these things or (in micro-ocology) the remembered git of interaction. Secondly, this approach sugges ‘hat discourse itself becomes the primary research focus, Ici nota subsidiary path fo the true nature of events, beliefs and cognitive proceses, Thirly, we propose that discourse analysis depends on {he study of variation, working from the way discourse f constructed {some concision abou the functions discourse might be serving ‘Moving on rm these pints we come tour nal analytic ok the Interpretative repertoire. Wesupgestedealierthadscourseis variable ‘nthe sense that any one speaker will cnstrot evens and person in itferent waysaccoring function. Thisisnottoimply that therelsno ‘egularityatalln iscourse~simply that regularitycannotbe pinnedat ‘helevel of the individual speaker. There isregulariy inthe variation. Inconsistencies and diferencs in discourse ae diferences between relatively internally consistent, bounded language units which we have calle, following Gilbert and Mulkay (1964), interpretative repertoires (Poter and Mulkay, 1982; Poter and Reicher, 1987; Potter and Wetherll, 1987; Wetherel, 1986; Yealey 1985) ‘Once again, repertoires are best’ described in relation to 2 particular empirieal example. However, some points should be ‘noted here im absrat. In dealing with lay explanations che analyst ‘often wishes to describe the explanatory resources to which speakers Ihave acess and to make interpretations about patterns inthe content (ofthe material. The interpretative repertoire i summary unt at this level. Repertoires can be seen as the building blocks speakers faeion. Commonly these tems ae derived from one or more key ‘metaphors andthe presence of repertoire willoten be signalled by Certain tropes or figures of speech ‘The ‘community’ tak mentioned eartier is, in fact, a classic fxample of a repertoire inthis sense. Iti a set of terms used in explanations which depend crucially on certain metaphors and Discourse analysis and interpretative repertoires 173 ropes. The community’ repetoteisa resource which the analystean deity asa recurring pattern inthe content of certain materials, Our empirical example examines repertoires ia quite diferent domain~ {the construction of model for race relations Empirical example: the construction of race! Background ‘The study which we wil focus on is taken fom an extended project ‘on racism in New Zealand, Tis project was concerned with how the ‘majority group of white European New Zealandersunderstand sues ke inequalities of employment opportunities and how they make sense of their relationship withthe indigenous Maori people. Tes ot necessary, fortunately, tobe familia wth the theoretical background to this work or with the New Zealand context to spprecite our study a an example of dicoure aa at work, y here that our project developed as 2 way iy ‘Wetherell and Poter, forthcoming; ef. Billig, 1987); Reeves, 1983; ‘Van Dijk, 1984), We were intereried in how ordinary, mainstream white New Zealanders would describe their pst, present and future felations withthe minority Maori group, and our concern was with the ideological consequences oftheir discourse. We wanted to look ft how our sample's practical reesoning about race might jas and ‘work to maintain asymmetrical power elations between the majority ‘and minority groups, rationalizing and naturalizing a certain kind (of status quo (Giddens, 1979; Thompson, 1984). Needless co 54), when Uicoane emul These kinds of goals it mast bbe combined with «careful analysis of the particular intergroup Stuation fn question. Discusive pattems must be located within fn account of thee wider context. 'We conducted interviews with 40 women and 41 males, of varying politcal affiliation, relatively evenly spread between National (ght ‘wing) and Labour (more left-wing) voters, and covering most age Tange rom IB years upwards. Those interviewed could be desribed middle clas, by education inthe case of the young people, by fecioeconomie cicumstance in the case ofthe nonworking women ind men, or by their professional or managerial occupation forthe remainder. This relatively large sample by discourse anal andards, chosen becaute We wete particularly interested inthe {generality of eur conclusions aerossa wide group. 174 Margaret Weherll and Jonathan Powter Interviews were designed to elicit extended sequences of talk on a number of topies. They focused especially on perceived causes of the dssdvantaged postion of the Maori people fecent multcutaral Social polices, proposed reasons for ram and tension, and special provision or positive disriminaion for ethni groups. Allinerviews ‘were tape recorded and fully anserbed. The general procedural Stas of interviewing and wanscipion are discussed at length in Potter and Wetherell (1987). Veriton Let us first use some of our dats 10 illustrate variation in discourse before presenting our method and findings with regard {einterpretative repertoires. We argued that variation in individuals! ‘accounts was an eaten! feature of natural language use, and an Important route to understanding function. In terms ofthis projec, ‘Acontrast could be made between the expectation of atte theory, ‘that people's statements wil feflct un Underyingattude which 5 either consistently prejudiced or tolerant’ andthe discourse analysis ‘aim that people use language, including attitude ype statements, functionally nd thes variably asthe discursive context changes ‘The extracts elow have been grouped under two categories: A and B. The ist extract under Ais an anecdote about the speaker's bible class where an incident Is desribed and the point drawn that child internalize racist atitudes fom ther parents In the second fxtract under A the same speaker gives herview on racist jokes, ‘commensurate with her point of view about racist remarhsin gener Finally, under A, this speaker ndiate the aspects of Mart culture she admires. Oveal this speaker ean be heard to fel strongly about ‘acism and postive about Maor culture. If so inclined, we might characterize her aa iberal non-pejudiced person, Bxract A “0D do his ible lsat the moment no highly religious, ust hk ehidren ought to Know about religion. nd las night e were fs. Siscsing oe of he Conmancments. ive your meghbou, snd fad thas Ed who shdWaat would happen If you got whe teat of Maori ving next oor to you” am Is ohm "That's very act rman and 1 le td be shut wp in sot fveseconds and wet gle edn the ace andrealed wears ‘Ratobrauly trams he ws, tre out be ekg that came direct on spares (2) [Rector 1 on iether do’ ther amusing. (8) [Wher car we lear from Mao culwe?| The extended fanly Stations bia, theyve got his fovely idea tha 3 eid bor Discourse analysis and interpretive repertoires 175, ‘out of wedock would hve to be the Best ot ofl bees wae ‘Shuouly born noe Tn hel way wth cidrens wondetl "They vepotalotiodbow us ia ‘The three extracts under B presenta dierent picture. The speaker shereseems more willing toatiribute negative characteristic to groups and unwilling to accommodate Maor culture. Inthe fst extrac, itis ‘Suggested that Australian are handing their intergroup relations in ‘an unfortunate way letting other groups get ontop of them Because had conquered the Macriris, Europeans have licence to define ‘own terms in New Zealand. And, then, the speaker suggests in the third extract that Maorie must accommodate to Earopean they ca’ be repatriated in any sense unlike other Polynesian groups ‘who are immigrants to New Zealand. Exact B (@) The Greets lve in ome part of Syny, al the sacha sch, and they're ll rowing up and speaking ii ows language td dang ‘reiting theyre pngtohavealltheeproupe andthe Aestrslan Sreusaly ly peopl, and hat her cators ne geting on op ‘ofthem, thee gg tbe big problems thee one dy. (6) Teri hing that, ify realy want tobe nasty about and sek uth Eoropeaneeny iat over New Zen soe, {Sed mean hat Maoriled af the Maori beforehand, mens {ease eae the ld to sar wth Tmenn sa Bales. {hak we bend over backwars i00 much (6) And thi isthe part that T think i wrong with () » Bit wrong ‘it the Mocs we thee, the poems hy ba, they ent ‘Elio: ean ts Europe oy evan they vg ara TDmisind pt imandwor athens mean you can el them to gobeck to where they came fom. {here extracts was common ino itervews i the sens thal, 8 We have argued people construct diferent version depending on tv funcional context Over an entre interview t exceedingly ail to nummarize thei views. Indeed, trom he perspective of attade theory, how wouldonedesribe Benton sunderyingatitade? Ishi Prejutized person? A tolerant person? Aperonigeytobein favour ‘Stmalicaltrali andor ans raciam, ad agains tbuting neg {ive qualtesto people onthe grounds frac or atonal? Orit {pon wo rte the mdsonane of win earl beeen? a 176 Marsares Wetherll and Jonathan Poter We see Benton, then, drawing on different, often inconsistent ‘resources, 35 they sem appropriate. She isnot an isolated example ‘The same complenity i apparent in the next extract, taken ffom another speaker whom we will eall Anna James. (ink {maticnbara soi oti is oe tig cot sete, tink lst ats t ite anda news prto be aly area ot we do p> ‘verbo thaw toge, Tee ve bent fo inne, Saath Norsoer th Years hs gts open wens ‘Frc mony ina soce) unt aa a htge we've go Scearettootogo overboard um Ink we've gt obrcacaint {tors thewhteccntolarMaon they diana nt {hewhie chren sheng. Now, oay.you ge he oppor, {aca they have the Mat plychoa Moor anguope ply schoot, fname realy god for Mae Wc But Toe wat my {Sie Mao on ent ng it ear abut pr ars an ny of ope wih sce tpt be oman of rors si tnt the oman their eas abo, you Know, soc. Okay, um, 1 thik we sould Sdetand tow Mao () sh ate norman now ery te shove ow the Ss, and wold be my Bs {oa dayep na mraesedsce ow hey” bt real nk we fexiote edly crcl abou peshig i own peoples cas, Roca whhe peopl as “This extrac can be seen 10 be organized around a particular kind cof functional feature = namely a disclaimer. A diclaimer ia verbal ‘evicedesignedtowardorf potentially obnoxious atrbutions (Hewitt landStokes, 1975) Thosifsomeone prelacestheirremarkswith no Sst but", the listener can be relatively confident that cbnoxious ‘emarks about women wil follow bt the speaker is wishing to head ‘off, or disaim, the posible implication that they are sexs. ‘Disclaimers create form of variation which presents particular problems forthe reali model of discourse and the asumption that fhe individual actor can be assumed to be a coherent consistent ting point for analysis. In the ease of this extract Anna James fire establishes that hei nol one of those people opposed to Mage cate, but then goes onto give arguments explaining why her eid Should not be exposed to molicaltral edycation. Her views on ‘multicultural socal policy are clealy qualified. Now, of course, ‘people's views are frequently qualified in this way. Something i 8 [ood thing provided certain conditions are met, and then it becomes Soclear whether is a good thing or not. But how could this complex iw be summarized and put ‘does ths person's utterance support multicultural education pois Discourse analysis and interpretative repertoires 177 ‘or not? She is clearly not indiferent to the isue, or without a view, fd thas inthe middle of come response sale. "These extracts, therefore, indicate the problem of variability. They demonsrate very clearly some of the difclies involved in working to study variations in content fo work towards an understanding, of function. By studying the resoures from which an account is constructed, we can alo investigate what it might achieve. We ‘noted earlier that differences in content reflect diferences between interpretative reperioies.Iwelook, therefore, or regularities athis leven fanguage, and abandon the individual as ou principal unt of analysis, then progress might be made n understanding the complex inconsistencies inthe discourse centred around’ rac’ relations. Interpretative repertoires ‘The it goa ina std of this kind st perform some preliminary coding and this sift out a manageable subset of data from hundreds fof pager of transcript. We selected out from the interviews al Dasrages of talk relating 1 ob topic af models of “ace relations. "This included all material relating tothe respective places of Maori land European culture in New Zealand ~ ies such a integration ‘versus separate development or asimlation, the teaching of Maori language, reaction to sttempis ata renasance in Maori culture ‘and s0'0n. The topics developed inthe interview questions were et by the structure of contemporary debates and the general agendas ofthe main political parties. "As an ate, itis mportant to sress here thatthe analysis which follows isin no way intended as complete presentation of Our ‘conclusions for this part of our data. The aim is simply to use some material as an example, to iusrate our method, and not to give & definite picture ofthe repertoires articulated or of the Keological Implications of whiteNew Zealander analysisofthepath they suggest relations with the Mon people should follow. ‘Our coding policy at this stage of discourse analysis is usually an inclusive one, secepting all borderine nd anomalous cases, and the tend prod 9 ile of photocopies ofthe orginal transrpt. Iti at ‘this point that analysis proper begin, with careful repeated readings ‘ofthe material in sare for patteras and recurring organizations. “This process no a matter of following rules and recipes; it offen involres following up hunches and the development of tentative imerpretative schemes which may need tbe abandoned and revised ‘over and over agai. Discourse analysis isa time consuming and Taborious business, with the search for regular pattern piving 178 Morgare: Wetherelland Jonathan Poster way to the formation of hypotheses about that pattern of repertoire use, From thir process a numberof diferent repertoires were identified for our general topic = to0 many to be dscusted here. However, tree particular dominant repertoires can be picked out: we have labeled these culture fostering, pragmatic realism, and togetherness This worth spending’ a bit of fof ‘se of these fepertoies And the grounds for identifying them a5 dierent, before going etal of thee content. ‘Clture fostering was used by ove 90 per cent of the respondent while pragmatic realism and togetherness were drawn on by abot half the respondents. So the most common pattern of accounting ‘was culture fostering combined with either pragmatic realism OF togetherness, although an appreciable number of respondents ~ perhaps 10 per cent-combinedall hee. The immediate point hen, thal there snosenaein which wecouldhave divided our respondents {nto thre classes, each diatngushed by a different patter of bei. [Each respondent selectively combined different repertoires. Indeed, ‘tmay be that if we had aed afew more questions al respondents ‘would have drawn on all three repertoires. The combination of ‘eperoires produces the kind of complex and varied versions we ‘noted inthe extract considered earlier, ‘What grounds have we fr defining three diffrent interpretative repertoires here? In this analysis we used three central kinds of evidence for this. Firstly, as we wil show, there are inconsistencies "noteeable to both analysts and participants ~ between the ferent forms of account. Secondly, these forms of account fare generally separated ino different passages of talk 50 that Inconsistencies do not become a problem for participants to deal ‘with: Thirdly, on these occasions when the diferent repertoires fre deployed together, participants dpa inthe alk an ‘tientation 10 the potential inconsistencies, or the variation 1S onanized for diferent funcions ~ one repertoire presented for discaiming for example. ‘Let us now Took in'a bit more detail atthe makeup of these repertoires. Culture fonering presets arguments forthe development ‘of Maori culture, Itappearsto advocate multicultural social policy fad the importance of Maor culture for New Zesland society. ‘There are two major facets to i. On the one hand, it presents the view that Maori cutre should’ be encouraged, fostered, ‘and conserved because it uniquely and distinctive: Iy identifies New Zealand, and is a worthwhile culture in Heel. For example: Discourse analysis and interpretative repertoires 179 TSliureanda langage and eveything ee fae out Shel) (On the other hand, culture fostering presents the view that i is Important forthe Maor people tohave asense of denttyand history ‘or oats, inthe way its considered important for every person tohave sense of identity or place. For example! (©) hak the sort of Maori renaissance, the Maortanga. is important ‘cre ie {wat expiiing about Selng that prt Studs) isdn thaw where wath my ery. | ‘hii iencentary for people pt hia ein ck Bese Itesomething erp rooted side you, (Reed). Culture fostering here i seen as positively compensating for what ie viewed asa deficit ora weakness within Maors. Formerly Macis tended to be seen a5 deficient in relation to European culture, in ‘eed of European enculturtion and civzing influence. In modern ‘iberal New Zealandsuch an obviously whitesupremacs view sess acceptable, bu this form of accounting retains the nation of deficit; ‘pecially Maori te sen as deficient as Maori, and therefore now Jnneed of Maori enculturation (Nash, 1983). ‘What funeion in the broader sense might this deficit notion achieve for those who se 1 Fist, it seems to make sense of ‘another commonplace understanding that Maors have a deprived {odal poron and are discontented, through using the idea of Tootlesness and Yost of identiy. In this lay sociology. people Without roots ~ those who have ‘los’ their identity in some way do not perform well and ate likely to agitate. Secondly, in sing ‘he nation of cultural deficit speakers can effectively place Mao problem ekewhere, removed ffom ther own responsibilities a Scions In this way speakers ean convey that they themselves are in ‘no way toblame for these problems ‘One ofthe consequences of his form of tak is that multiulturalist socal policy is advocated without requiring reciprocal change in the majority European group. The development of Maori eutore ‘becomesa matter for Maori nly, sited by Europeans who merely clear a space, a it were, fortis development, as a mother might ‘deat a space fora child Yo play, knowing that pay is good forthe ‘mental alt ofthe child. Respondents vitally never characterized ‘the ineusion of Maori culture ina way which involved active effort or ‘change on their own part effort and change was depicted asa Maori problem and duy. We hypothesize tha this i a repertoire used 10 180 Margaret Wetherelland Jonathan Potter ‘eponsiyf the we walorty oop. “The second repertoire used in dicussions of ‘ace’ relations strategies is pragmare realism. Pragmati reais, wed by roughly half the sample at some point in the interview, and thos inching ‘many of those who also draw on the eultare fostering repertoie, Stteses dhe promotion of those things which are useful, modern and {elevant today. Itcombines wth this an emphasis and appreciation of the practical constraints on ation. For example: (Uy he wun tom gg mire Man aan nt era on ewe oo ety Men Sepegeeett eas naw nemeseneed SS omnes (0) ogy oe Sure sere reg aes Ee rariae acne Somes ‘When using thi repertoire it becomes incomprehensible to tur the clock backward The idea is that on sheer pragmati rounds there {site to be gained from Maoritanga, for Maoe cultural practices are ‘unrealistie'or impractical “Tai sa very different, even contradictory, repertoire from that, cof clture fostering. Its principal idea i that much of Maot culture to present constraints which are beyond their contol, and which they Discourse analysis and interpretive reperires 181 «an thus regret, butatthe same time toconstruct themselves s people ‘who ae atleast realistic and practical, ‘The third repertoire, which we hae called ogethernes, ithe most, inieresting in many ways. It articulates a familar postion andi the ‘otion that there shoul be no divisions or barriers between people: ‘weshouldallbe onc together. People shouldbe treated as people not in terms of their colour or cultural background, (12) wih that we could gop thinking about Mace and European {nd think stout New Zealanders (lat Nm.) and Yo Bell i ‘whaolour people are. (Dizon) or (13) Liki mportan that we ecognie that wear infact all New ‘Zealandrsand we shouldbe endngio become moreone ther then ‘Span ning Weve pliner {Srlmos sense importance that doa thnk relly as. Weare ‘ne people dept story. (Bar) (On the face of it this seems a highly postive and caring approach, ‘ana indeed in psyenolopeal tems i's probably wel intentioned. However theimplcations of applying itinshiscontex(asover alte ‘espondentsdid) are notsopestive. European cultureisthedomiant calturein New-Zealand; thussets the normative framework for what ltmeans tobe one people together. Put another way for these people ‘New Zealanders areoften depict as basically white Europeans and the divisions between people or barriers objectedto are those created bythe legitimate claims of the Mao people. The upshot of this form of talk i that Maoris should stop encouraging rit and confit and ‘ccommodate to dominant European vahiess however, this conee- {quence shiddenbehindtheinnocuousmoralformulaoftopethernes. ‘Overall then, respondent talk around this general ope s made ‘up from a combination of repertoires (and we have only discussed thre ofthese) which produce a complex and potentially inconsistent eas, variable response, We hve concentrated inthis analyse riefly speculating about the broads ideological consequences fof these repertoires, although the functions they achieve at the level of the loalized discursive content could alzo be considered ‘through the study of variably. Ingeneralthese speakers couldnoteasilybe described asoppressve or racist; indeed, On asupericial hearing they may come over as ‘welkmesning and sympathetic. However, we would want to make Strong distinction between the psychological motivations for using these discursive forms and ther socal psychological consequences. 12 Margoret Wetherell and Jonathan Power ‘Wellntentioned talk can have reactionary consequences, as we have tcl to demonstrate. For this reason also, we reject psychologically reductive theories of racism (Pater and Wetherel, 1987; Wetherell ‘own morally virtuous sel presentation, yet the pote force of Maori protest and anti-racism safely contained. Put tits ‘Simplest the ertiecanbesilenced by culture fostering, undermined by ‘rapmaticrealism andinadeitionsecusedofcreatingbarriersbetween people Its only when looking tthe organization of explanations in the discourse asa whole that the fragmented and inconsistent nature ofthe talk becomes apparent. We would suggest that this Nesbiity im articulation is crudally important to ideological effectiveness (Wetherell, Stiven and Pote, 1987). Advantages and disadvantages ‘There aero areas of potemial disadvantages with discourse analytic work this kind. Firstly, there isthe sheer effort involved. The time taken up by conducting ose ofinterviews and then fll transcribing them is considerable, and few people find transcription pleasurable though there fe nothing beter for encouraging close attention (0 ‘what people ae saying. Analysis sa craft sll which takes time 10 od i slow to conduct. Iti quite posible to follow up an “analy schemefor some day only to find tha tissimply impossible to validate with the materials avaiable ‘Secondly, work of this Kinds not suited tothe production ofthe kind of broad empirial laws which are commonly the goal of

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