Social
Interaction. Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality.
2018 VOL. 1, Issue 2
ISBN: 2446-3620
DOI: 10.7146/si.v1i2.110020
Social Interaction
Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality
Passing Glasses:
Accomplishing Deontic Stance at the Optician
Brian Due, University of Copenhagen
Johan Trærup, Nextwork
…
Abstract
Passing an object is an everyday action with which most people are familiar. It involves detailed organizations of the body within a spatial and material setting. One place where objects are continuously passed is at the optician. Based on more than 700 hours of video recordings at 11 Danish opticians, this article shows how passing glasses is accomplished in an institutional context where the optician is interactionally constructed as responsible for securing the safe passing and avoiding the (problematic) drop. The paper contributes to EMCA studies on passings by showing how these actions may display deontic responsibilities, and how the passings are accomplished mainly by the optician using a specific grip, relying on tactile experiences, constantly monitoring the customer behaviour, and embodily anticipating next actions.
Keywords: EMCA, multimodality, passing, embodiment, economic interaction, professional practice, video ethnography, opticians, glasses, expertise,
1. How to pass glasses
Passing an object has been shown to be a finely coordinated everyday practice, produced in recognizable ways (Heath, 2015; Heath, Luff, Sanchez‐Svensson, Nicholls, 2018). Passings are ubiquitous but are in many contexts unremarkable. One place to look at passings are at the optician. In these settings, glasses are passed back and forth between opticians and customers. The passings are part of wider activities, such as trying out new glasses, making adjustments or examining the glasses. In some cases the customer interacts with the optician near the glass rack trying to find a new pair of glasses. In other cases, the customer wants adjustments done to her glasses, and they are passed back and forth at the counter or in open shop space. Thus, there are different emerging activities that involves passings (e.g. finding new glasses or having old glasses adjusted). Both types of situations are constituted by the customer and the optician in an intimate proxemic spatial organization.
This paper shows that these passings are accomplished in finely coordinated and cooperative ways through the precise use of bodily positioning, gestures, gaze, and tactile experiences, and that the different rights and responsibilities of the participants (optician and customer) are made evident in and employed as resources for the passing of the glasses.
2. Passing actions and deontic responsibilities
Passing an object is a key professional competency in many contexts where objects are used or oriented towards. In medical settings, the ability to pass an object has been described as a facet of situation awareness, meaning the nurse’s or assistant’s ability to know what to do and when to do it, for example by passing the right instrument in the right way at the right time (Salmon et al., 2007; Korkiakangas et al., 2014). However, these kinds of studies have simply taken for granted the ways in which passings are accomplished and in more normative ways described their importance for the work activity. The orderly, accountable and finely organized ways in which passings are accomplished are left out of these kinds of formal analytic studies.
Within an EMCA framework, Hindmarsh and Pilnick (2007) have focused on intercorporeal knowing, that is, practical knowledge about the dynamic bodies of others in the local ecology, and they show how object understanding and action design are key areas of expertise in medical settings (cf. Heath, 2015). Hindmarsh and Pilnick contribute significant new knowledge about passings, especially regarding embodied positioning in space. However, their study is also specifically related to a medical context in which the passing occurs between skilled and familiar practitioners in a surgical team. Passing glasses between opticians and customers exhibit and involve other features mainly because they are accomplished in a shop environment and between customers and opticians.
This article contributes to the growing body of studies looking at passings in different contexts (Llewellyn and Burrow, 2008; Darr and Pinch, 2013; Llewellyn, 2015; Yamauchi and Hiramoto, 2016; Mondada and Sorjonen, 2016) by specifically showing how participants orient bodily to their own and each other’s authoritative deontic stances, i.e. how the different rights and responsibilities of the participants are evident in how the passing of the glasses is achieved. Specifically, the analysis will show how the optician engages in the passing in quite different ways than the customer, monitoring the projection of the pass moment by moment and making sure that it is successfully accomplished (cf. Streeck, 1995). Thus, this research contributes new knowledge about the embodiment of deontics (Macbeth, 1991; Stevanovic, 2015; Svennevig and Djordjilovic, 2015) by focusing on how the asymmetry between the optician and the customer is achieved locally through embodied passing actions.
3. The empirical setting and transcription practice
Eleven opticians in Denmark were investigated over a one-year period. Each shop was video recorded with several fixed and handheld cameras to cover the whole shop. More than 700 hours of video recordings were collected in total. Big data software was initially employed in order to categorize and make the video data searchable (Bornakke and Due, 2018). The employees signed written confidentiality agreements and customers were informed about the video recording via visible signs. Transcriptions follow the systems of Jefferson (2004) and Mondada (2014).
4. Analysis of passing actions
Passing glasses is a routine action in the opticians whenever customers are trying out glasses. Consequently, the actual pass, the core phenomenon – the pull/release of the object – occurs very frequently. A pass may be seen as a sequential unfolding of actions leading from the home position of hands and arms, preparation (e.g. getting arms/hands ready) to the actual stroke (Kendon, 2005); the moment where the glasses are passed from one person to the other, and where one person is pulling and the other person is releasing. During the 700 hours of video recordings from the opticians’ sales floors, not once did anyone drop a pair of glasses on the floor. This is quite astonishing considering that the passing is – for “another first time” (Garfinkel, 1967) – achieved in each case through finely coordinated actions.
Initially a corpus was put together of 25 instances to identify the features of passings. It was observable from the data corpus that it is consistently the optician who is the active participant in the process of successfully securing the pass. We specifically recognized three typical cases in the corpus: when the optician 1) takes the glasses through pulling movements; 2) gives the glasses to the customer through pushing movements; and 3) when passings almost go wrong and thus involve embodied repairing work (performed by the optician). An initial hypothesis was, that these systematically different situations involves different actions, but rather the finding is the opposite; in each case the passings have the same sequential structure: the optician a) initiating the pass, b) preparing the pass and c) accomplishing the pass. And the optician consistently has the deontic responsibility in all moves.
Obviously, the passings do not just involve passing, but also offering, suggesting, comparing, assisting. However, we do not intend to show all aspects of the activity – or go into all details of the design of talk – but mainly to focus on the detailed embodied accomplishment of passings and the way they exhibit deontic responsibility
In the first example, the customer wants to find and buy a new pair of glasses. This encounter is constituted by many passes of different glasses, evaluation and assessments of the glasses, eventually moving towards deciding on one pair. This kind of activity is done while standing close to the glass rack. In the second and third examples, the customers want some adjustments done to their glasses and passe the glasses to the optician requesting her expert opinion and help. After the adjustment the optician passes them back to the customer. This kind of activity is usually done at the counter or in the open shop environment.
4.1. Passing glasses by taking glasses
The first case shows how a passing is accomplished in a context where the customer wants to buy a new pair of glasses. In the example she holds two different pair of new glasses in order to compare them to each other. The example shows how coordinated passing is accomplished by a) initiating the pass, b) preparing the pass and c) doing the pass by taking the glasses. Observe especially how the optician finely coordinates and uses her arm, hand and fingers to take the glasses, and her gaze to monitor the passing. In the images shown in the example, the customer is standing on the left and the optician on the right.
Excerpt 1. Initiating the pass
1. OP men# du kan bedst li# den# facon↑#
but you like that shape the most↑
op *...moves hand towards glasses
with stretched-out index finger--*
cu +.... lowering hand------------+
fig. #1 #2 #3 #4
The optician and customer are evaluating different glasses. The optician highlights the fact that the customer likes a specific shape the most (l. 1) and moves her right hand towards the glasses with her index finger and thumb stretched out (figs. 1-2). They gaze at each other (fig. 1), but as the utterance approaches completion, the optician starts to gaze at and point at the glasses, thereby making them specifically relevant for the emerging activity (cf. Goodwin, 2003; Glenn and LeBaron, 2011). The indexical verbal reference to the glasses is sequentially accomplished in conjunction with the pointing practice (figs. 2-4) and reaches completion as the optician says “facon” (shape) (l. 1, fig. 4). Thus, through talk and embodied work the optician formulates a stance towards the glasses that reflects the customers opinion, and while the customer holds her hands still, the optician is orienting towards a pass as the next relevant action, displayed by moving her arm and hand towards the glasses. In this context, the optician is already established as the expert through the trajectory of actions leading up to this situation, but we also notice how the projection of next actions is accomplished bodily by the optician through hand movement and talk designed as a question. In the next position, the customer responds to the question (l. 2).
Excerpt 2. Preparing the pass
2. CU =ja det tror jeg# faktisk
=yes I think so actually
op *moving hand closer to glasses----->
Fig. #5
3. Op ahr’#men så #holder vi# på den=
well let’s hold on to those ones then=
op *reaching for glasses*
op *touch glasses--->
cu +gazing away from OP and glasses--->
Fig. #6 #7 #8
The turn (l. 1) is designed as a question using prosodic resources with a preference for agreement. It is responded to by the customer as a second-pair part in the next position (l. 2), aligning with and confirming the proposed assessment. Multimodal work is employed for the initial assessment, which then projects that the next relevant action is to keep the positively assessed glasses (instead of the other pair). As the optician confirms the chosen product verbally (“Well let’s hold on to those ones one then” (l. 3)) the optician then gazes at and reaches out for the glasses with her thumb and index finger (fig. 5).
The passing is initiated by the optician as a smooth movement of her arm up and around the customer’s arm, and finely coordinated by her body position, arm movement, hand movement and gaze, all without touching the customer. Note that the work is primarily done by the optician, who gazes at the glasses and uses her arm and fingers for the grip (figs. 5-8). The passing is accomplished by the optician gripping one of the temples of the glasses (fig. 8). The customer starts to turn her body and head away from the optician and back towards the rack of glasses, and simultaneously moves her gaze away from the optician and their shared space (figs. 6-8). The customer’s gazing-away action is quite interesting as it clearly constructs the optician as the one with deontic responsibilities for securing the pass. Although a pass can of course be accomplished only through tactile experiences, vision is presumably a very important resource, and by gazing away the customer reciprocally constructs the optician as the responsible one. However, the final accomplishment of the pass is also co-constructed by the customer, as the last sequence shows.
Excerpt 3. Accomplishing the pass
4. #=frem# for# den #anden
=instead of the other ones
op *.... nodding-----*
op *grabs glasses---->
cu +.....lets go of glasses+
cu +---- gazing away ----+
Fig. #9 #10 #11 #12
As the optician takes the glasses, the customer stays disengaged by turning her head and gazing away, thereby visibly withdrawing from the passing of the glasses (figs. 9-12). However, the engagement is accomplished by using other sensory resources (Bargiela-Chiappini, 2013; Nishizaka, 2017; Streeck, 2017). Although the customer gazes away, the glasses are still within her peripheral vision (Nishizaka, 2014; Due and Lange, 2018) and she inevitably also experiences tactile sensations, feeling the material structure of the glasses and the pull made by the optician. It is observable in the data that the customer only starts to loosen her grip after the optician has a firm grip on the glasses (figs. 8-10). Moreover, she does not completely let go until the employee makes the pull (figs. 11-12). Thus, the letting-go of the glasses is also accomplished through haptics.
Note that the core phenomenon of letting go of and taking the glasses is not a clear-cut transition but a sort of overlapping action, as both participants are touching and holding onto the glasses as the passing is achieved (figs. 9-12) – and moreover that this is sequentially linked to the completion of the utterance. The passing-overlap is observable in all cases and will be further elaborated on in the next examples. Note also how the optician’s grip is delicately performed by holding onto one of the temples of the glasses with the index finger and thumb, while the customer performs a five-finger grip on the frames. These grip types may also display differences in expertise. While the customer orients away towards the rack looking for other glasses, the optician formulates the assessment and uses it sequentially to initiate and accomplish the pass by the delicate grip.
The sequential accomplishment of the passing is not just “one action” but a complex series of actions embedded in the activity of trying out glasses, using gaze, body position, arms, hands and tactile sensations. In this case, the customer is taking a rather passive stance while the optician is active in taking the glasses and thus securing the passing. Thus, both the optician and the customer collaborate to co-construct the optician as the member with the higher deontic stance regarding responsibility for securing the pass. This is accomplished by gripping one of the temples of the glasses with the thumb and index finger and slowly pulling the glasses out of the customer’s hand – who consequently releases it.
5.2 Passing glasses by handing them over
The previous example showed the multimodal accomplishment of a passing through taking and pulling the glasses. The following example shows how a passing is accomplished by handing and pushing the glasses. In this context, the customer has just entered the shop and approached the optician standing behind the counter. She has asked for help with adjusting one of her two pairs of glasses so they are like her other pair. The optician has made some modifications to them and asks the customer to try them again. In the example, the optician passes the glasses back to the customer. As before, the example is cut into three segments to show a) the initiation, b) the preparation and c) the accomplishment of the passing. The optician is standing on the right in the images.
Excerpt 4. Initiating the pass
1. OP prøv at# tage dem på# en#gang#
try putting them on
op *moves glasses away from
customer, turning them around*
cu +.... turns torso--+
cu +gazes at own glasses--->
At the beginning of the sequence the optician and customer are comparing the sizes of two different pairs of glasses, fitting one of the frames into the other (fig. 1). At this point both pairs of glasses are held upside down with the temples pointing away from the customer. The optician then withdraws one of the glasses slightly and rotates them horizontally (figs. 2-3), thereby making them ready for the customer to take at some point. Thereby the optician not only initiates a pass by moving the glasses in position, but designs the initiation of the pass by carefully orientating to the material affordances of the glasses. Thus, the optician displays expertise and deontic responsibility for the secure pass already in the initiating phase by turning the glasses so they are easier for the customer to take. The optician holds the glasses in a firm two-handed grip between her thumbs and index fingers in a displayed ready-for-passing position with the temples pointing towards the customer (figs. 3-4). This is done while she simultaneously produces a verbal request: “try to put them on” (l. 1). The talk about “them” contains an indexical reference to the glasses. Thus, the talk is sequentially fitted to accompany and orchestrate the initiation of the passing. Both the verbal action and the embodied actions are first actions that projects the pass as a next action, which the customer responds to in the next position as she collaborates in the preparation of the pass.
Excerpt 5. Preparing the pass
(1.3) #5 #6 #7
cu +puts glasses on table
cu +gazes at own glasses+
cu +....gazes at OP glasses+
op *.... gazes at customer------>*
As the optician has projected the pass as the next action, the customer needs to get ready to receive the glasses. However, the customer is not ready to participate in the passing as she still has a pair of glasses in her hands. While the optician initiates the next action as a try-out (“try to put them on”), the customer turns her body and head and puts down the glasses she has in her hands (figs. 4-6). In order for the passing to take place, and as way of preparing herself for the action, the customer twists her upper body towards the desk and places the other pair of glasses on the desk with her right hand. Thus, body position, gaze, gestures, material structures in the environment (the table) and embodied rearrangements are all used by the customer as displayed preparations for the emerging passing. While the customer orients to the pass by putting down the glasses and then gazing at the other pair of glasses that the optician holds, the optician moves her gaze away from the glasses and towards the customer’s head/gaze. As the customer displays readiness through her turned body and gaze, the optician orients to the direction of her gaze by looking at her face (figs. 6-8). The optician thereby again displays an orientation towards the next action, which is the accomplishment of the pass. Thus, the deontic responsibility of securing the pass is consistently anticipated by the optician in a couple of moves before the customer.
Excerpt 6. Accomplishing the pass.
2. så# vi #kan se #hvordan #den ligger#
so we can see how they sit
op *one hand delivering glasses*
cu +hands approaching and taking glasses+
Fig.#8 #9 #10 #11 #12
While passing the glasses, the optician says, “so we can see how they sit” (l. 2), thereby accounting for the relevance of trying out the glasses for fitting purposes and making the passing contextually relevant. The optician has been displaying the passing as a next relevant action for a while, and as the customer shows readiness by shifting her gaze towards the glasses the optician is holding (fig. 7), she starts to push them further towards her (figs. 8-9). The customer takes hold of the glasses and a smooth delivery is accomplished not only by both parties taking and letting go at the same moment, but by both parties simultaneously holding onto the glasses for 0.3 seconds while together moving the glasses just slightly towards the customer (figs. 9-12).
The
“pull” and “letting go” actions are shown in a grid layered over the images (extractions
from figs. 10, 11 and 12). Each dotted line of the grid has been given a number
(0-6). This shows in detail how the pass is accomplished as a smoothly
coordinated delivery across a few centimetres.
In the extraction of figure 10, the end of the right temple of the glasses is between the dotted lines 1 and 2. In the extraction of figure 11, the same spot is touching line 1, and in the extraction of figure 12 it is between lines 0 and 1. Thus, the glasses are slightly moved towards the customer while both the customer and the optician hold onto them. The passing is accomplished as a collaborative action, as both the optician and the customer are holding onto the glasses (for 0.3 s). They are both demonstratively gazing directly at the passing in the actual (stretched out) moment of letting go and holding on (fig. 10).
This example shows how the coordinated passing is an orderly, co-constructed activity during which the optician’s initiation of the passing projects that the customer should get her hands free so that she can take the glasses. While in the former example we showed how the optician managed to take the glasses, this example has shown how the optician manages to give the glasses during a passing sequence by carefully monitoring when the customer displays readiness, thereby exhibiting professional expertise and deontic responsibility.
As in the former example, the passing is achieved through a variety of resources: the customer gazes and arranges herself in a proper body position, thereby displaying readiness, and positions her arms and hands in a way that enables the pass. The optician arranges the glasses so they are easy for the customer to take and holds onto the temples using her right index finger and thumb, leaving maximum space on the glasses for the customer’s grip. As in the former example, the passing is accomplished without any bodily touching, but through a collaborative shared movement in which the customer and optician presumably have tactile experiences of “feeling a pull” and “feeling a letting go” respectively. This will become even more evident when we turn to the last case, where there is trouble with the passing precisely because the collaborative coordination and orchestration of simultaneously employed resources is lacking.
Whereas the customer in this example (example 2) is active in the process of getting ready for the projected passing and taking the glasses at the moment of the passing, it is nevertheless the optician who initiates the passing and secures it through close monitoring. Overall, it is a collaborative achievement, but the passing actions co-construct the optician as the participant with the higher deontic stance regarding responsibility for securing the pass.
5.3 When the passing (almost) goes wrong
Considering the large amount of successful passings that take place during a day, the ones that are complicated are exceptional cases that can shed light on the norms and routines of everyday practices (Garfinkel, 1967; Schegloff, 1968; Garfinkel and Sacks, 1970; Schegloff and Sacks, 1973) as people demonstratively orient to the reestablishment of the passing through bodily repairing work (cf. Wootton, 1994; Egbert, 1996; Seo and Koshik, 2010; Rasmussen, 2014; Mikesell, 2016). In the following example, we will show how such a typical repairable pass is accomplished. In this case, as in the previous one, the customer has just entered the shop, where the optician approaches him. They form a local F-formation (Kendon, 1976) in the open shop space and the customer explains his reason for coming: that his glasses need adjustment. In the example, the optician has been adjusting the customer’s glasses and now passes them back to him. This example shows how a skilled optician is not completely sufficient for the successful accomplishment of a pas when the customer is not a fully capable partner – or paying attention – to the emerging passing action. Note how the customer first initiates the passing as a next relevant action, and then suddenly withdraws from the action, thereby constructing the optician as the participant with the deontic responsibility for the successful passing.
Excerpt 7. Initiating the pass
1. OP uhm#>ja<# (.) prø- #prøv denne her#
um >yes< (.) tr- try this one
op *gazes at cu-----------*
cu +gazes at op--------+
op *holds glasses with two hands-------*
op *arm backwards->
cu +right arm t. glasses+
cu +left arm t. glasses-->
fig. #1 #2 #3 #4
The optician moves the glasses towards the customer in a ready-for-passing position, holding onto the temples with both her thumbs and index fingers in a steady position with the temples pointing towards the customer (fig. 1). Their bodies are organized in space within close proximity and they are gazing at each other. Note how the passing is projected by the embodied position but also accompanied by a verbal account as the employee says: “um >yes< (.) tr- try this one” (l. 1). As in the former examples, the verbal account is indexically linked to the specific contextual configuration in which the glasses are the focal point of attention in a shared space, and subsequently produced as an initiating action that projects the passing.
The utterance is designed with a preliminary word search as the optician moves the glasses towards the customer and they gaze at each other. The customer already anticipated the pass as a next relevant action, and in the verbal micro-pause after the word search, he redirects his gaze from the optician to the glasses and starts to reach out for the glasses (figs. 3-6). The customer touches the frames with his right hand (fig. 3), and then moves his left hand up to the glasses (fig. 4). As he is about to take them with both hands, the optician moves her grip from the temples to the frame, holding just the top and bottom with her thumbs and index fingers without touching the lenses (fig. 4).
In the other two examples, we described how there is presumably a tactile experience of sensing a pull/push. This may also be the case in this example (figs. 3-5), in which the customer clearly touches and grasps the glasses, which may inform the optician that he is going to take them. Therefore, as we shall see in the next segment, the optician starts to let go of the glasses, which then causes trouble.
Excerpt 8. Preparing the pass
(0.9) # # # #
op *gazes at glasses-------------------------->
cu +gazes at glasses---+
cu +...gazes at phone-->
cu +touches glasses+
cu +withdraws from glasses--->
op *looses grip on glasses--->
fig. #5 #6 #7 #8
2. OP #w↑uh# (3.4) # #
Op *moves temples up*
Op *holds glasses steady-->
Cu +gazes at and touch phone-------+
Cu +phone to pocket+
Cu +gazes at glasses->
Fig. #9 #10 #11 #12
The customer displays an inability to take the glasses with both hands, as he is holding a mobile phone in his left hand (fig. 5). Instead of the projected trajectory of the left hand moving towards grasping the glasses, he removes both his hands and moves them downwards, while simultaneously shifting his gaze to the mobile phone in his hand (figs. 6-8). As the customer withdraws his hands and orients his gaze from the glasses to his phone, the optician loses her grip and almost drops the glasses (figs. 6-8).
It is noticeable that the optician orients to the passing as already in motion, and therefore responds by initiating a letting-go of the glasses. When the customer does not proceed with the projected trajectory and instead orients his hands and gaze from the glasses to the phone, the optician is unprepared and almost drops the glasses. The optician restores her grip by grasping the lenses while producing a verbal minimal account: “w↑uh” (l. 2, fig. 9). The verbal account is sequentially positioned as a part of the repairing action, i.e. repairing the unsuccessful passing by still holding onto the glasses (fingers on the lenses) as they are almost dropped, thereby displaying the near-drop as a dispreferred action.
Compared to the professional glasses-grip, i.e. delicately holding the glasses by the frames with index finger and thumb – as shown in the other examples and also displayed in this example – the placement of thumbs on the lenses is unusual. It is observable that the optician very quickly readjusts her grip and realigns the glasses in a ready-for-passing position, thereby displaying expertise as the professional optician with deontic responsibilities for restoring the passing.
However, it is not just the optician who exhibits expertise and responsibility; it is also constructed by the customer’s actions. As he suddenly withdraws his hands from the emerging pass without any embodied or verbal framing or projection of the withdraw, he displays trust in the optician’s ability and responsibility to do whatever it takes to maintain order in the passing. In the last segment we see how the optician recognizes the constructed membership category of being the responsible one for accomplishing the pass.
Excerpt 9. Accomplishing the pass
3. (3.4) # # # #
Op *temples up*
Op *gazes at glasses---------------------*
Op *gazes at cu*
Cu +gazes at glasses---->
Cu +left hand to glasses+
Cu +right hand to glasses+
Cu +pull+
Op *push*
Fig. #13 #14 #15 #16
The customer moves the mobile phone towards his pocket with his right hand, raises his left hand, and lifts his head (fig. 11). He puts the phone in his pocket (figs. 12-13) and reaches out for the glasses with both hands (figs. 14-16). This time the optician holds onto the temples until the customer has finally taken the glasses with both hands (fig. 15), at which point she releases her grip (fig. 16) and the passing is completed. We notice two differences in this successful passing compared to the first unsuccessful one: the optician gazes longer and more directly at the glasses and the pass and she holds her hands in a “bowl” shape (fig. 16) just after releasing her grip, displaying readiness to catch them if the customer drops them. Thereby she makes the pass less routinely accomplished and with more attention.
6. The orderly accomplishment of passing glasses
The professional practice that constitutes everyday work in a shop is made up of many different actions, and passing glasses is not a trivial or unimportant detail, but an activity that partly constitutes the recognizable and expectable features of receiving service in an optician’s shop. Passing glasses is a recurring phenomenon at the optician’s, and this paper has focused on how the optician often initiates and takes responsibility for the successful passing of glasses by 1) taking the glasses, 2) handing the glasses over and 3) carrying out embodied repairing (Evans and Reynolds, 2016) when the passing (almost) goes wrong. Although there are different emerging activities in the examples, we found that there was a sequential structure of a) the optician initiating the pass, b) preparing the pass and c) accomplishing the pass (the “stroke”; cf. Kendon, 2005).
The analysis showed that the passings are accomplished as collaborative, cooperative, mutually coordinated actions through gaze, body posture and hand and arm movements in a shared space, but also that the successful accomplishment of the passing is secured in particular by initiation and guiding actions from the optician. Thus, overall, a passing may be seen not as a single and one-sided action or solely as an individual competency related to a subjective “situation awareness” (Salmon et al., 2007; Korkiakangas et al., 2014), but as an interactional achievement.
Although opticians do not learn to pass glasses at optician training institutions or during internships in the shop[1], passings seem to be part of a recognizable professional identity: a specific way of being situated in this specific context doing this specific kind of work. This paper has shown how bodily actions are a vital part of enacting different membership categories, and also how the optician constructs him- or herself (examples 1 and 2) and is constructed by the customer (example 3) as the participant with deontic responsibilities for the completion of the collaborative successful passing. Thus, attached to the category of “optician” are category-bound activities (Sacks, 1989), which among other things relate to securing the safe passing. This is evident in how opticians display expertise about the passing and take responsibility for it through initiating and preparing the passing and making the pass happen. In the passing sequences, the opticians orient bodily, verbally and visibly to the pass while the customers have a more careless orientation, e.g. by turning their head (example 1) or removing their grip before the pass is completed (example 3), which may be seen as proof of the optician’s deontic stance and the asymmetry between the participants.
For the accomplishment of the passing, a number of orderly features occur. It was observable in the examples how the opticians orient to and initiate the passing as an embodied sequence (cf. Mondada, 2016) through:
· gazing towards the glasses.
· waiting for the customer to rearrange his/her body position.
· closely monitoring the customer’s gaze and gestures.
· projecting and preparing the passing through a professional precision grip (index finger and thumb on the edge of the frame/temples). The grip and positioning of the glasses is critical to the smooth organization of the optician’s work.
· holding the glasses in a ready-for-passing position with the temples pointing towards the customer.
· pulling or pushing the glasses while very briefly maintaining an embodied and touching passing-overlap: the giver loosens his/her grip and slightly pushes the object and the receiver simultaneously takes and pulls the object. When this does not happen, the glasses almost drop (example 3).
· verbally confirming the relevancy of the emerging passing through an indexical reference. The talk does not initiate the passing sequence, as it is already visibly projected through the embodied positioning and management of the object (the glasses), which turns the verbal actions into a subsequent framing device that orchestrates the bodily actions (Streeck, 1995).
Both participants monitor and rearrange their bodies, torsos, arms and heads in the local space in the process of getting ready for the pass, thereby displaying readiness – or the opposite, when suddenly retreating from the contextual configuration (example 3). The passing is accomplished through a spatial organization in which participants orient themselves in close proximity in an F-formation system (Kendon, 1976).
We have also shown how participants employ more subtle sensory input like peripheral vision and tactile experiences as resources for the accomplishment of the successful passing. Taking hold of and releasing the glasses is accomplished because the employee and the customer do not let go and take hold at exactly the same time, but both hold onto the glasses while simultaneously co-constructing the pass as a smooth movement in a passing-overlap. Even when the customer looks away, thereby not paying any visual attention to the passing, the passing is nevertheless accomplished (example 1), and even when the customer suddenly changes his mind and withdraws from the emerging passing (example 3), the passing is still accomplished thanks to the detailed monitoring and embodied orientation. In all cases, the body, peripheral vision, and tactile experience may be vital resources for accomplishing the passing.
While many of the features of the passing (e.g. body posture, gaze monitoring, touching overlap) are presumably general and accomplished in orderly and familiar ways in all types of ordinary lives, the findings from the analysis in this paper are primarily related to professional and institutional settings, which typically involve specific procedures, turn-taking systems (Drew and Heritage, 1992) and differences in epistemic and deontic rights and practices (Landmark et al., 2015; Lindström and Weatherall, 2015; Stevanovic and Svennevig, 2015). Detailed descriptions of the routine accomplishments, the displayed competencies and the orderly and interactional machinery involved in passing glasses are relevant for the broadening of our understanding of human conduct and intersubjectivity, and may be of special interest to optician training institutions and shops.
This research also relates and contributes to EMCA studies of embodiment and deontics in encounters by focusing on the phenomenon of passing actions, which is presumably – though this has not been addressed so far – a routine part of service encounters (Hazel and Mortensen, 2014; Yamauchi and Hiramoto, 2016), shop encounters (Mondada and Sorjonen, 2016; Stefani, 2013) and other types of encounters such as buying tickets at museums (Llewellyn, 2015).
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Rikke Nielsen and Sandra Bothman for helping with the substantial data collection. We also thank the Synoptik Foundation for supporting this work. Earlier versions of this paper have been discussed in seminars with Chuck Goodwin in Odense and Christian Heath in London. Thanks to anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments.
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