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made by participants to factual and objective knowledge of some wider topic
or issue. In and through the mobilisation of such selves, speakers are able to
demonstrate their uniqueness of understanding and access to factual
knowledge on any given issue. In this sense, their primary use, particularly
when mobilised against one another, is to achieve negative alignment (Cf.
'Studieren als Hobby').
However, similar to 'Cookie's Party, the mobilisation of what I have
referred to above as normatively negatively aligned selves in what I will argue
is the essentially positively aligned nature of 'Internationale Arbeitslosigkeit' is
secondary, and serves not to undermine agonised selves but to support them
and thereby support the primary alignment status of 'Internationale
Arbeitslosigkeit' as positive .
Similar to the distribution of available selves seen in 'Cookie's Party, it
appears that agonised selves are spread across all participants in this
particular episode, with HB, GIB, KN, and EP all mobilise at one time or
another both knowledgeable and agonised selves. There is then, similar to
'Cookie's Party, a general symmetrical distribution of conversational selves,
pointing to the generally positively skewed nature of this particular episode.
'Internationale Arbeitslosigkeit' as a sociable episode is already well
underway at the point at which this excerpt allows us to enter. In this particular
excerpt the first few lines of talk are filled with participants discussing various
unemployment rates in Europe, before moving on to focus more closely on
Germany. Over the duration of the talk, as with 'Cookie's Party', participants
are clearly mutually aligning to some common topic, sharing definitions of
what this topic is, and expressively evaluating it (Le 'Arbeoitslosigkeit als
Schlimm' ['Unemployment as ,a bad thing']). As also with 'Cookie's Party', the
conversational and symbolic resources are embedded in these shared
definitions and are drawn upon to achieve equilibric sociable conversation for
the duration of this particular phase of the episode. Subsequently, EP, KN,
HB, and GB mobilise sociable selves grounded in a similar symbolic universe
to which they are solidarically aligned.
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