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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 32:2 (2022) ► pp.299–327

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Material and embodied resources in the accomplishment of closings in technology-mediated business meetings

ORCiD logo with link | University of Oulu
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 5 November 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19045.oit
Abstract
This study uses conversation analysis (CA) and video-recorded data from an international company to investigate closings in technology-mediated (i.e. distant) meetings. The focus is on the situated affordances and multimodal resources that the chair and participants deploy to transition from meeting talk to a coordinated exit. Due to restricted access to bodily-visual leave-taking behaviours, other mutually recognized practices need to be implemented to initiate and advance closings: (1) when closing is made relevant as the next step, (2) when opportunity spaces to move out of the closing emerge, and (3) when departure from the meeting needs to be negotiated. This progression requires the close coordination of co-participants’ vocal and embodied conduct in the physical setting and rendering actions publicly intelligible via the screen at specific moments. The analysis portrays closings as emergent, collaborative accomplishments, in which the import of multimodal turn constructions and (dis)aligning behaviours must be negotiated in situ.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Closings
  • 3.Closings in technology-mediated environments
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.Accomplishing closings via vocal, material and embodied resources
    • 5.1Initiating the closing of meeting proper
    • 5.2Managing opportunity spaces
    • 5.3Negotiating departure from the meeting
  • 6.Conclusions and further considerations
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
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