A Gradient of More and Less Demanding Impositions: Reflections on the Special Issue on Resistance

Abstract

People resist various kinds of imposition, which can be ranged along a gradient—impositions from those heavily entitled to make them, along to those where the matter is more balanced, to where the imposed-upon person is the one who has the greater rights. The articles in this Special Issue cover the whole range, from the police officer issuing bald imperatives, through to a tutor trying to help a student with their essay. In one case the resistor is may have little room for maneuver without incurring cost; in the other, the resistor will be given more latitude. The signal characteristic of the analysis throughout is a very close attention to the actual exchange of talks between the two parties: it is there that conversation analysis reveals the intricacy with which imposition is attempted and resistance succeeds or fails.