The staging of official knowledge

Abstract

Within a line of research on the discursive construction of knowledge in an institutional context, the aim of this paper is to trace the links between the elements of cooperation and conflict manifest at the concrete level of the interaction and macro-level social conditions. The data come from criminal trials and consist in interactions between witnesses and trial lawyers. Two recurrent international routines are identified as mechanisms of inscription of what becomes officially known. Besides, the analysis of censored deviations reveals the institutional conception of knowing. In one routine, a scene is staged for introducing content as if it was new in the here and now. In the other, the privileged information that is made to prevail comes from a speech event which took place earlier and in a different place. The research reported here manages to determine the function of the staging which is achieved by these routines, its relation with institutional ideals, and its effect on the individual-collectivity bond. Furthermore, stratified social relations among various categories of interactants are revealed which go beyond situational roles and involve the social positions of participants.