Requesting a Colleague’s Independent Opinion at Work

Abstract

This paper proposes a multimodal conversation analytic approach to an epistemic action, requesting an opinion. It shows how it is performed in a professional context in which the production, distribution and verification of knowledge are fundamental and involve the workplace’s ecology and materiality. Contrary to other settings in which opinions have been described, requesting the opinion of a colleague does not mobilize personal subjective thoughts but rather an expert analysis. The study contributes to an approach of epistemic actions that considers not only the formatting of turns but also the multimodal organization of the performed actions and their embeddedness in a context in which knowledge is at stake. The paper is based on video recordings made in a forensic laboratory in Brazil, a work site in which requesting opinions is crucial within the organization of the ongoing activities. Describing the methodical organization of requesting an independent opinion of a peer in this professional setting, the paper also offers a first characterization of teamwork in the forensic laboratory. Data come from 50 h of video recordings, with participants speaking Brazilian Portuguese.