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In:Identity Struggles: Evidence from workplaces around the world
Edited by Dorien Van De Mieroop and Stephanie Schnurr
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 69] 2017
► pp. 355–370

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Chapter 19
The discursive accomplishment of identity during veterinary medical consultations in the UK

Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.69.19bur
Abstract
Drawing on extracts from a corpus of 65 video recorded veterinary medical consultations this chapter examines how veterinarians and animal owners identify themselves, one another, and co-present animals. It illustrates how identity is invoked during veterinary medical consultations, and then explores two sites of identity struggle. Firstly, occasions during which veterinarians and animal owners work to identify animals. Secondly, occasions during which veterinarians and animal owners claim rights to report on the animal’s health, prompting struggles over lay-professional boundaries. This chapter draws on, and contributes to, a niche body of literature concerned with the discursive practices used in conjunction with non-human animals. In particular, it addresses discussions about the social construction of identities pertaining to non-human animals.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical background
  • Data and analysis
  • Identifying animals
  • Identifying patients
  • Identity struggle
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Note
  • Transcription symbols (adapted from Jefferson 2004)
  • References
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Hobson‐West, Pru & Annemarie Jutel
2020. Animals, veterinarians and the sociology of diagnosis. Sociology of Health & Illness 42:2 ► pp. 393 ff. DOI logo

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