Face(t)s of self in interaction

Bousfield, DE (2018) Face(t)s of self in interaction. Journal of Politeness Research, 14 (2). pp. 225-243. ISSN 1612-5681

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Abstract

Combining (meta-) theoretical extension and practical application of models of politeness, the collected works of this special edition promise to make a significant and lasting contribution to the field as well as signalling an important milestone in interactional and pragmatics research more generally. Focussed to a greater or lesser extent on the ‘impact’ of the research on the social, occupational or legal world around us, the collected papers here are all in effect ‘interventionist’ (cf. Antaki 2011: 8). That is, the collected works of this special edition, whether dealing with remote interactions via a call centre (Jagodzinski and Archer, (this volume); Harrington, (this volume)) or face-to face interaction via an appraisal or a business meeting (Archer and Willcox, (this volume); Chan, (this volume)) and irrespective of the varying approaches to im/politeness they take, all contribute precisely to the need for further refinement, development and empirical study which Haugh (2018) wisely advocates in his recent appeal for metatheorisation in politeness work. To this end, this paper argues for the evident directions and potential applicability of future metatheorising for im/politeness research exploring and suggesting collocated consideration of notions of face, identity and politeness in a wider notion – in interactional studies – of ‘self’.