Planning-in-Action: The communicative construction of future in projective genres

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ruth Ayaß
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 439555703

This research project examines projective genres of everyday communication. By projective genres, we refer to consolidated forms of communication that participants use in interaction to talk about their futures. With projective genres, participants construct their futures through communicative means. This project aims at analyzing these forms of talk about future actions in everyday settings, i.e. it analyses the ways in which participants prepare, plan and co-ordinate their common future activities in terms of communication. The family of projective genres encompasses all the communicative forms that are available, enabling participants to talk about their future and to formulate their future lives. The research project aims at analyzing these communicative genres empirically, thus tying itself to the work of Thomas Luckmann and Jörg Bergmann. The data consists mainly of audio and video recordings of everyday situations, where participants talk about their major and minor future enterprises. The analysis will show how communication changes over time when action projection develops. In contrast to previous research on communicative genres this project uses a longitudinal research design that allows accompanying participants for a longer period of time and beyond single situations. Through this prospective trans-situational design we will be able to show how a future enterprise develops stepwise, changes and takes its shape over time. The method commonly used for genre analysis, Conversation Analysis, is therefore complemented by ethnographic field research and participant observation. Furthermore the manufacture and use of artifacts such as drawings, notes, calendars, will be included insofar as they play a role as communicative resources. The project aims at forms of communication which are connected to planning-in action, thus pursuing a close tie to action theory. The research aims at the analysis of projective genres in selected research fields, showing how field members follow their common action projections in everyday communication. It will provide an overview on the communicative economy of projective genres. It will show how single genres assemble in social situations in situ and how they build a chain in trans-situational action projection. Detailed Conversation Analysis will show the inner and outer structure of the genres and demonstrate the communicative means participants use to prepare and pre-construct their common futures. Thus, the research contributes to a better understanding of everyday communication, especially on how members work on their futures in their daily life.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants