This workshop examines how rights to determine action are organized in interaction, and how autonomy and (a)symmetrical social relations are managed. Drawing on the framework of deontics, we address both the negotiation of activities themselves and the relational dimension that unfolds alongside them. Although these dimensions are closely intertwined in practice, the workshop focuses on how they can be examined as analytically distinct layers.

We will situate deontics in relation to neighboring areas of conversation analytic and discourse research. One focus will be on how social-relational heuristics can be understood as positioned between membership categorization analysis and positioning approaches. Another will be on how the interplay between deontics, epistemics, and emotion can be examined within this perspective. Attention will also be given to emerging lines of inquiry, such as intercultural approaches to deontics, embodied and prosodic resources in negotiating deontic rights, and deontics across multiple temporalities and collectivities.

The format combines short lectures, collaborative data sessions, and discussion, through which participants will practice identifying practices by which rights and obligations to determine action are negotiated turn by turn, with the aim of strengthening their own analytic toolkit.

Facilitated by:  Melisa Stevanovic and Simon Magnusson